Allotments 4 All

hi guys i eggstimate that the girls are about 21 weeks this week and still no eggs? they have food and water and fresh straw to bed in. is lack of light a problem. i dont realy want t start faffing around with wires and that.me and electrics dont mix. would end up bbq!.

Its hard waiting for the first one, I have read some breeds ( bantums ) can go to 35 weeks what have you got?
A old way is if you can get two fingers between the pelvic bones ( think thats right) then laying is soon. I just go by the comb if it is on fire then laying is soon. I have also noticed a few weeks before laying the food consumption goes up they eat like there is no tomorrow.
have you got a good supply of grit down for them ( helps with shells) you can put a dummy egg in nest box to encourge them to lay in box.
Pullets will lay through there first winter then they will rest next winter months. Dont worry about light in hen house. fingers crossed they will lay soon. xxx

we have two buff laced wyandotte bantams and a rhode island red(full sise) for suposedly one a day. they have plenty of grit and also are now limited to a couple of hours garden trashing in the afternoon.there wattles and combes are still quite pale in colour so maybe they are younger than i thought. the rir still looks ragedy? liek it hasent got all its featheres yet.

Oh RIR's are super layers after they get through the pullet size eggs they lay lovely large eggs Mum always had them. I have a couple of RIRxWarren should be laying Nov so exciting should be good eggs. I have not had wyandotte but bantums should lay as good as large fowl.

Make sure their is no draughts. With the light fading i'm afraid it may be next spring now. Fingers crossed for you.

mmm, BBQ chicken.  It is very frustrating waiting but they should start any time now.  I have never used extra lighting, no electric like you, and they are fine once they started laying, didn't miss an egg a day for the first two years.  Grit is very important. And I was also given a tip of a garlic clove in their water, keeps them healthy and certainly worked for me.

The larger utility breeds like Rhode Island take longer to mature .It's normal for them to start laying anywhere between 24 to 26 weeks even more .. Hybrids and lighter breeds are about a month earlier...

Try putting a china egg in the nest box. 

Whats Cuckoo Marans like for laying? I've had 2 for the past 9 weeks, layed great for the 1st month but  i have'nt had an egg off them for above a month. Look healthy enough and they're less than 12 months old.

It's probably due to the daylight hours declining, and they may start to moult at any time if they're almost a year old. When mine have moulted at this time it can take them until January to start laying again, maybe even later.

Wattles are truly red when they are ready to lay. Be patient. They probably are younger than you thought. 19 weeks is the average in my experience. Good luck.

Cuckoo Marans like a lot of the pure bred dual purpose birds only lay up to 200 eggs a year, so you are going  to get longer periods with no eggs than if you had Hybrid birds which can lay well in excess of 250 eggs a year .
Like Welsummer, Cuckoo Marans were bred for their really dark brown eggs and because they made a good bird for the table when they had finished their first year laying...

Never knew they were table birds, i should have guessed really because they are massive. I could'nt kill them i'm afraid.

Quote from: northener on October 07, 2009, 16:01:22
Whats Cuckoo Marans like for laying? I've had 2 for the past 9 weeks, layed great for the 1st month but  i have'nt had an egg off them for above a month. Look healthy enough and they're less than 12 months old.

I've had about 5 or 6 eggs in total from my Cukoo Maran aka The Gannet, she's over a year old but doesn't lay... just eats and eats. Also the bird is amazingly dim even by chicken standards, don't know if that's a trait or not.

Yes i know what you mean they are not the smartest. When i first got them they layed every day but nothing for 5-6 weeks now and you right they love their snap. I might try to find someone to cull them for me if they're not earning their keep.

Will you eat them if you cull them? If I thought I could do the gutting part then I'd do away with mine.

Oh yes i could'nt cull them for no benefit. I'm going to ask broth in law hes into shooting and that. His reward would be one of them.

Cuckoo Marans? Thick as a brick, one of mine tried to escape from me the other day by running across the pond.......she got about 5ft before she sank. Lots of flapping and feathers flying before she got out the other side wondering what had just happened... ::)

I've lost count of the number of times they've tried to run straight through the mesh instead of using the door of the pen as well.

They do lay lovely eggs though, dark brown with large yolks. Just not as many as the Warrens, which don't miss too many days.

As an aside, my mate has a Wellsummer cockerel, anyone crossed them with a Maran?

They would make fine table birds Robin .I wouldn't trust em to be good broodies though .Far more reliable is a Sussex or a Rhodie broodie if you can borrow one
johnny 211. If your not up to drawing them. A quick way With oldish broilers is after you have culled them, Skin em cut breasts and legs off and discard the rest. Saves you plucking  and drawing them then.

Thanks Growmore that's certainly and idea, I've been looking at youtube vids of the gutting process working out if I can do it or not... one top tip I have learned from this is to only give water the day before, and also to smear vicks under your node before you start.

Er, that's two top tips isn't it.

Also thinking about plucking and then cutting down either side of the backbone to open the carcass to remove the guts. Don't know if there's any advantage doing this over just cutting the breasts and legs away?