Eggs for Jeannie

We’ve been waiting for Poppy to go broody again, ever since she hatched out her Poppettes last year. But it’s starting to look as if she might have (finally, and justifiably) decided that this whole laying and brooding malarkey is something she doesn’t need to do any more. You can’t blame her – over the course of her seven years, she has hatched and raised 45 chicks in six clutches. Pretty impressive! So while we really hope she does come back into lay for at least a few more precious eggs, she has well and truly earned her retirement. But … that leaves us without our super-reliable broody.

Enter Jeannie, a.k.a. The-Apple-Who-Falleth-Not-Far-From-The-Tree.

We did umm and ahh a bit about letting Jeannie brood. Being the only daughter from Poppy, she is very precious. And brooding does take it out of a hen. (Plus we’re still a bit gun-shy after Mirri’s death.) But then again, Poppy herself started brooding at almost exactly the same as Jeannie is now. And the weather should be a lot kinder than it was for Poppy’s first go.

Anyhow, we installed Jeannie in the broody coop a week ago, to be absolutely certain she was going to stay fixed. The signs are very good so far. We got eggs from Fionna Appleton again – half a dozen Rhode Island Red and half a dozen Barred Rock, of which we picked the best looking four from each – and four Charlotte x Patrick eggs (picking the best 4 from a possible 8) for a total of a dozen to incubate. We put them under her on Thursday afternoon (19/11/14), and will do a first candling next week.

Fingers crossed!

Laying summary – April 2014

Quick and dirty summary this month:

Holly was the only one to make double figures, managing 15 eggs for the month. Saffy and Charlotte tied for second with 7 each, and Poppy was the sole remaining visitant to the nestbox, with 3 eggs.

Thank you, girls. Much appreciated.

The Rhodie Poppettes and their Parents

I thought it might be interesting to compare photos of the Poppettes with photos of their parents at a similar age. (Yes, I know the bubs turn four weeks old today; I took these photos last week but haven’t gotten around to posting until just now.) Let’s start with Poppy and her brother, Buster, alongside photos of Poppy’s own children, and Lola (their dad):

  

 
L to R: Buster, Stanley, Julian, Indigo, Lola; next row Poppy, Jeannie. (NB: photo of Lola is from 15 days old – for various reasons, we didn’t end up getting many photos of him as a youngster. But that one is pretty darn cute, you must admit!)

First thing that strikes me is how non-female Poppy looks as a bub. It’s really only is you get close and compare Buster’s comb (R) with hers (L):

 

So if we have a quick look at the combs of Stanley, Julian, Indigo, and Jeannie:

  

we can see that Jeannie looks about the same as Poppy at that age, but all three of the others look bigger than Buster! (Variability of camera angle makes it a bit hard, sorry.) But size isn’t everything – it’s about how fine or coarse the serrations are. And you can see that Buster’s are fairly coarse, as are Stanley’s. Jeannie and Poppy are quite fine by comparison. And although it’s a bit hard to see in this photo, Julian’s are also a bit on the coarse side, whereas Indigo’s are a bit finer. But we’re talking some pretty minor differences with this pair, so I’m still not sure at all.

If we throw the Red Nutter chicks from the Horde into the mix, we get this:

 

L to R: Kim ♂, Olly ♂, Sasha ♀, Erica ♀.

Apart from noting the differences in colour, the things that leaps out most strongly to me is that Erica and Sasha have such fine, fine combs, that I’m thoroughly ashamed of how long I called poor Miss Noodle “Eric”! (And also that Olly didn’t actually look that male … why did I not think I had three girls?)

Of course, none of this helps with determining the gender of Poppy’s four children. I think I’m pretty safe saying the Stanley is a boy and Jeannie a girl, but Indigo and Julian could still go either way. Probably three boys, but then again …

The Poppettes at three weeks – a photo post

Freya

Jeannie

Remy

Indigo

Julian

Stanley

Layer of the Year 2013

2013 is a year that we will not miss. But we will not dwell on the bad things: instead, lets look at the daily miracle that is The Laying of Eggs, and the announcement of Layer of the Year (a.k.a. The Golden Cloaca) for 2013.

Lets start with a recap of the various Layers of the Month for this year.

January was taken out by Erica and Olivia, with 22 eggs each, but
February went to Adelaide with 20 eggs. Then we moved into the leaner months:
March to Poppy with 15,
April to Adelaide with 18, as was
May (Adelaide, 18 again).
June saw the pullets starting to lay properly, and was taken out by Saffy with 14 eggs.
July was a tie between Holly and Charlotte, with 22 eggs each, then
August saw Saffy leap back into the lead with 25.
September was Mirri’s month, winning with 25 eggs (a popular winning total, it seems), being repeated in
October by both Mirri and Olivia, who tied for first place.
November was another tie, this time between Adelaide and Charlotte, with 22 eggs each. But
December belonged to Charlotte alone, with 23 eggs.

So that makes one win to Erica, two to Olivia, four to Adelaide, one to Poppy, two to Saffy, one to Holly, three to Charlotte, and two to Mirri. (You can find out who took out second and third places each month – often only one egg behind the winner – by clicking on the monthly links.) Eight hens in total. In age terms, that works out at our sixteen monthly wins (four months were tied) being claimed once by a six-year old, twice by four-year-olds, six times by two-year-olds, and seven times by pullets. (The pullet score is more impressive if you remind yourself that they only started laying in June/July) …

Ok, without further ado, the totals for each hen for the Ghastly Year, 2013:

Hen	Number of eggs	Average weight	Total egg weight
Ella	14	77 g	1079 g
Lily	77	61 g	4672 g
Poppy	76	62 g	4699 g
Claire	1	59 g	59 g
Neroli	16	61 g	985 g
Gabrielle	123	62 g	7674 g
Erica	45	56 g	2542 g
Holly	141	64 g	9061 g
Imogen	125	64 g	7973 g
Olivia	166	69 g	11444 g
Adelaide	171	61 g	10448 g
Dorothy	80	71 g	5671 g
Charlotte	147	58 g	8584 g
Saffy	144	56 g	8002 g
Mirri	91	56 g	5096 g

And the winner is … the Ghost who Squawks, Adelaide! All the more impressive if you remember that she was so very sick through winter. So there was plenty of drama, just not with the laying aspect of her life. Well done that mad hen!

Second place went to the Ginger Pudding, Miss Olivia. A mere six eggs behind in total, but almost a kilogram greater in terms of weight laid. (And indeed, an Olivia egg is a magnificently round and voluptuous thing. Much like Herself.) Third place was claimed by Charlotte, who gave the others a six month head start, and only finished two dozen eggs behind Adelaide. Saffy would have been ahead of her sister, except for her recent habit of laying thin-shelled eggs, which get broken by Ella on a regular basis. But them’s the breaks. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)

Well done to all our girls. Despite everything, this is the first year for quite a while that we’ve had an egg from every hen, even if only just. But the biggest applause – and a special mealworm-and-scrambled-egg-mash-cake – to our winner, Miss Adelaide. Hooray!