The New Layers November 24, 2018 @goldenoakfarm
This morning I was working on the stats for the layers. I was dismayed to see the ROL (Rate of Lay) was a dismal 45%, the lowest for a flock almost ever in November.
The new layer flock consists of 10 Buckeyes and 8 Barred Rocks. They were all hatched around May 1st, 2018. We got our first pullet egg on September 7th. Up until the 16th of November, there were only 9 or so birds laying, as we were getting 9 eggs pretty steadily.
As Buckeyes are known to mature much later, I assumed most of the laying was being done by the Barreds. They had started laying at 4 months, pretty early. But now it was over 6 months later and we still weren’t getting much from the Buckeyes.
September’s Egg Sheet
When young birds start laying you usually get the tiny pullet eggs. As you can see this flock started out in the far left column, Pullet and later added in a few Small weight ones.
October’s Egg Sheet
In October you can see the Pullet size ended abruptly mid month, Small’s grew in number, and Mediums appeared halfway through the month. This is what I have typically seen over the last decade.
November’s Egg Sheet
In early November we got 3 pullet eggs and no more. The Buckeyes still were not laying much. On the 13th there was an uptick in eggs, 9 – 11 a day, so some Buckeyes had started to lay, but where were the Pullet eggs?
In fact if you look at the sheet, you will see the Small size tapers out right after that. And on the 20th we get 14 eggs, the Buckeyes had finally started. But on the 20th, the Small eggs have all but stopped and we are getting lots of Medium size.
Those Buckeyes had effectively started off laying with medium sized eggs. Still too small to sell at the full size price, but what a surprise!
Buckeyes with their reward
So I guess I can stop calling the Buckeyes “those Brown jobs” derisively because they did finally get the memo, and made up for lost time!
Now if they will read the new memo, the one that says all eggs are laid in nestboxes and not on the floor…..
Woah, that's cool that they skipped the smaller stages! Have any other breeds done that for you before?
Of all the breeds we have had over the years, we've never seen this happen....
Hoping it's a good sign!!!
I updated the post and added a photo of them. I realized yesterday morning I'd never gotten photos of the flock.