Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Sylvester017]

Those are the Al Gerhart rat proof feeders like Chicory and I have.
I am very happy with my two.

I had two of them & not one chicken (standard or bantam) would use them ~ later only if we left the treadle open continually would any bird use them but that defeated the ratproof feature! No amount of suggested training would work.

Only one chicken ever used the following smaller treadle feeder but none of the others would eat out of it! They preferred starving Dodo birds!

 

[featherhead007]

Welbars say 200/year & Welsummers 220-230/year. I pay no attn to projected claims though... each bird is different. Each year hens lay 20% less than their pullet year, & 20% less each successive year.

As we are aware, hybrids are egg-exhausted usually by age 5. They use up all their egg cells fast/early in their laying career.

Broody heritage breeds lay less eggs per year but will lay well into age 8 to 9 years ~ even if it be only a handful by then. Our broody Silkies have layed into their 7th year. Our long-lived Silkies usually stop laying by 6th year. Bantams are not prolific layers. Even some duck breeds only lay 50 eggs/year. But that's a plus for less health issues.

Each pullet chick hatches w/a certain number of egg cells & a hybrid layer exhausts those eggs early in her career while a less prolific layer won't lay prolifically to exhaust all her eggs till much later in her lifespan. My friend's Australorp layed a stray egg at 8 years. No telling what cycle each individual hen has till she's in our possession.

We had to re-home our bully Marans & wanted to replace w/ Wellies or Welbars for dark eggs but timing was never opportune. Beautiful, mostly calm birds.
Welbar ~ such pretty hens
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Each bird is different. Of the Rockettes, BoPeeps is the only one who NEVER has laid an egg!