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Post by tara on Apr 28, 2016 12:44:52 GMT
We've had the five hens for three months now. Tuesday we found an egg. Yesterday we found five more! Woohoo! We are so excited, you'd think we won the lottery. We had steak and eggs for dinner last night. Those were the best eggs we've ever had. And I don't even like eggs that much!
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Post by AN on Apr 28, 2016 12:50:36 GMT
That is awesome!! You're going to be overflowing in eggs soon! Around me, they go for $5 a dozen if you want to sell some. And I totally agree, the fresh eggs from yard hens are the best - I was skeptical, but they are so much richer.
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Post by countrychick on Apr 28, 2016 12:57:14 GMT
Lucky you!!! I grew up on a farm and we had a couple dozen chickens and my goodness those eggs were the best! Scrambled, fried or poached.....Yum!
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Post by mellowyellow on Apr 28, 2016 13:00:03 GMT
Oh man.....get ready! We have a total of 46 chickens. At present, we have 10 hens that are currently laying eggs. We have 1 rooster and the rest are younger and won't start laying until mid July. We also have 2 new chicks that hatched last week. I just love our chickens. They are so fun and full of personality! And the eggs are so delicious. I'm known as the egg lady at work and sell my eggs all the time. We get about 7 eggs a day. I cannot even imagine how much we will get once the younger ones start laying eggs. Enjoy!
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Eggs!
Apr 28, 2016 13:13:35 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2016 13:13:35 GMT
Our spoiled princess decided to stop laying. I think my husband is missing his weekend treat.
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Post by compwalla on Apr 28, 2016 13:28:41 GMT
Those first eggs are thrilling. We have seven hens and a rooster. Our flock free-ranges in our fenced acre so our eggs are especially delicious. The people on my trivia team clamored for more after we gave away some excess one week. I don't think we ever have less than four dozen in the fridge at any given time. We have too many hens so that we can eat all their eggs ourselves and not quite enough hens so that we can sell the eggs. We give a lot away to our family, to the nurses at the cancer center, and to my trivia team.
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Post by tara on Apr 28, 2016 13:49:43 GMT
Oh man.....get ready! We have a total of 46 chickens. At present, we have 10 hens that are currently laying eggs. We have 1 rooster and the rest are younger and won't start laying until mid July. We also have 2 new chicks that hatched last week. I just love our chickens. They are so fun and full of personality! And the eggs are so delicious. I'm known as the egg lady at work and sell my eggs all the time. We get about 7 eggs a day. I cannot even imagine how much we will get once the younger ones start laying eggs. Enjoy! We love our girls. When they see my husband come home they always go out to meet him. He said it was because they love him. I say they just want to be fed again. The farmer next door had 4000. Now he's down to 1500. Whenever he sees one being pecked by the others, he calls my husband. He keeps her away from the others (I call it the chicken infirmary) till it heals. So ours is pretty messed up. They all have missing feathers and one limps, but we love them. My husband calls himself the chicken whisperer.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Apr 28, 2016 14:13:55 GMT
We have 11 hens and we're currently overrun with eggs! There must be 10 dozen in the fridge. DH keeps saying he wants to build a little stand out in front of our house with an on your honor pay box, LOL.
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Post by gorgeouskid on Apr 28, 2016 14:33:16 GMT
We have 11 hens and we're currently overrun with eggs! There must be 10 dozen in the fridge. DH keeps saying he wants to build a little stand out in front of our house with an on your honor pay box, LOL. Someone in my mom's neighborhood does this. Thursday is Egg Day, and they put a cooler out in their yard on Thursday morning, and people drive by, pick up eggs (first come), and put money in the box.
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Post by gmcwife1 on Apr 28, 2016 16:35:26 GMT
I'm very lucky to have a co-worker that sells her chicken eggs for just $3.00 dozen. I'm always getting eggs for our house, my parents and my adult kids. It's such a nice treat and I can't beat the price!!
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Post by lucyg on Apr 28, 2016 16:43:24 GMT
That is exciting! I have a friend here in town who gives me eggs from her chickens occasionally. I love it. Right now I have two duck eggs in my fridge that someone gave me. I'm kind of freaked out. Duck eggs?? Can anyone reassure me they aren't weird or icky?
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Post by compwalla on Apr 28, 2016 16:48:42 GMT
That is exciting! I have a friend here in town who gives me eggs from her chickens occasionally. I love it. Right now I have two duck eggs in my fridge that someone gave me. I'm kind of freaked out. Duck eggs?? Can anyone reassure me they aren't weird or icky? Duck eggs tend to be richer than chicken eggs. Not weird or icky but way eggier than chicken eggs. They are fantastic for baking.
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Post by Karen-in-Indiana on Apr 28, 2016 16:54:32 GMT
How does one get started in keeping hens for eggs? I'm out in the country with plenty of room. Hubby and I have talked a lot about getting some because we eat a lot of eggs. The farmer across the street has several hens and a rooster that come over to our yard quite often and they are so fun and beautiful. Do I need a coop? How big if so? Do they need a nesting box? What do they eat and how much does it cost? Anything else?
thanks from a city girl living in the country! LOL Karen
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The Birdhouse Lady
Drama Llama
Moose. It's what's for dinner.
Posts: 7,340
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Eggs!
Apr 28, 2016 16:56:42 GMT
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Post by The Birdhouse Lady on Apr 28, 2016 16:56:42 GMT
That is awesome! I have always wanted to get a few chickens myself. I am lucky enough o be able to buy eggs from a local gal. They do taste so much better.
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Post by gale w on Apr 28, 2016 16:59:43 GMT
That is exciting! I have a friend here in town who gives me eggs from her chickens occasionally. I love it. Right now I have two duck eggs in my fridge that someone gave me. I'm kind of freaked out. Duck eggs?? Can anyone reassure me they aren't weird or icky? Duck eggs tend to be richer than chicken eggs. Not weird or icky but way eggier than chicken eggs. They are fantastic for baking. When I had ducks I used their eggs to make homemade noodles. Around here we're swimming in eggs. We have a small fridge in the garage to store them and until this morning it was full and I have 2 dozen in the house. They aren't very easy to sell here because it's farm country so everyone else also raises chickens. There was a small shop that offered to sell them until they found out we have a lot of green eggs. Apparently they don't like selling green ones.
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Post by gale w on Apr 28, 2016 17:03:26 GMT
How does one get started in keeping hens for eggs? I'm out in the country with plenty of room. Hubby and I have talked a lot about getting some because we eat a lot of eggs. The farmer across the street has several hens and a rooster that come over to our yard quite often and they are so fun and beautiful. Do I need a coop? How big if so? Do they need a nesting box? What do they eat and how much does it cost? Anything else? thanks from a city girl living in the country! LOL Karen You need a coop for sure, with some nesting boxes in it. Otherwise you'll be going on egg hunts every day. They each chicken feed but they will also eat almost any scraps from your kitchen. Our hens are in a run because we have coyotes and other predators around, but we give them grass and greens. Whenever I buy veggies for our rabbits I pick up a head of cabbage or lettuce or some winter squash for the chickens. I don't know how much the layer feed costs-my husband buys it. You can see the chicken coop we built here: lookslikechickenscratch.blogspot.com/2011/10/my-new-coop-finished.html Go to backyardchickens.com and fresheggsdaily.com for lots of info.
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Post by compwalla on Apr 28, 2016 17:07:47 GMT
How does one get started in keeping hens for eggs? I'm out in the country with plenty of room. Hubby and I have talked a lot about getting some because we eat a lot of eggs. The farmer across the street has several hens and a rooster that come over to our yard quite often and they are so fun and beautiful. Do I need a coop? How big if so? Do they need a nesting box? What do they eat and how much does it cost? Anything else? thanks from a city girl living in the country! LOL Karen What Gale said plus I'd advise checking out backyard chickens on reddit. We never had chickens before and we've had our flock over two years now. It's not nearly as hard as some people make it out to be. Keep the coop clean, keep them fed and watered. Those are the biggest things.
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Eggs!
Apr 28, 2016 17:07:59 GMT
Post by lucyg on Apr 28, 2016 17:07:59 GMT
That is exciting! I have a friend here in town who gives me eggs from her chickens occasionally. I love it. Right now I have two duck eggs in my fridge that someone gave me. I'm kind of freaked out. Duck eggs?? Can anyone reassure me they aren't weird or icky? Duck eggs tend to be richer than chicken eggs. Not weird or icky but way eggier than chicken eggs. They are fantastic for baking. Thanks, I'll use them for baking and won't feel quite so squicked out. One is the size of an XL chicken egg but the other is gigantic, at least 50% bigger or more.
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Post by compwalla on Apr 28, 2016 17:08:39 GMT
Duck eggs tend to be richer than chicken eggs. Not weird or icky but way eggier than chicken eggs. They are fantastic for baking. Thanks, I'll use them for baking and won't feel quite so squicked out. One is the size of an XL chicken egg but the other is gigantic, at least 50% bigger or more. Pound cake with duck eggs? Holy shit. It's delicious.
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Post by mellowyellow on Apr 28, 2016 17:24:52 GMT
How does one get started in keeping hens for eggs? I'm out in the country with plenty of room. Hubby and I have talked a lot about getting some because we eat a lot of eggs. The farmer across the street has several hens and a rooster that come over to our yard quite often and they are so fun and beautiful. Do I need a coop? How big if so? Do they need a nesting box? What do they eat and how much does it cost? Anything else? thanks from a city girl living in the country! LOL Karen Former city girl here turned country chicken raiser! LOL! Yes, they do need a coop so they can be protected at night from predators. We let them free range during the day and then they put themselves up at night. We just go behind them and close their door. They need to be able to roost inside the coop too. My ds just took some boards and built one and it was super easy. Yes, they will also need nesting boxes. We've tried the wooden nesting boxes and the plastic ones. Our girls seem to like the plastic ones better. I just put hay or shavings in there. You need to research which hens are good egg layers. We have Rhose Island Reds, Buff Orpingtons, Plymouth Rock and Speckled Sussex...oh and 1 Cuckoo Maran. A few years ago we had Leghorns and while they were good egg layers, they never got broody meaning they wouldn't stay on the eggs to hatch baby chicks. Our RIR girls...we have 3 brooders right now and so far 2 chicks have hatched. When you first get the chicks, they need to be contained in a small area as they cannot be put in the coop just yet. Well, I guess you could if it's completely closed off and they can't get out. We turned our old horse stall into the coop which was made up of old tin and it had some holes that the little girls could get out. The babies also need to be on food called medicated chick starter. Chickens are very hearty animals but we feel it's important to use the medicated chick starter. Once they are able to eat big chicken feed, we switch them over to a feed that helps with egg production. I think the one we use is called Layena. We also add in some chicken scratch too. Oh and they love meal worms too! I think we can buy a 50 lb bag of feed for like $24 and the scratch is even less than that. Hopefully I've answered all your questions. It's so fun and rewarding!
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Eggs!
Apr 28, 2016 17:48:00 GMT
Post by Lexica on Apr 28, 2016 17:48:00 GMT
Lucky you! I am so envious.
As I am looking on line at places to move to when I sell my home, I ponder getting a bit of land this time. I would love a small house on an acre or two where I could have chickens and a garden. Sigh. That sounds heavenly to me.
How much work and effort goes into having five chickens? And this is a stupid question, but play along with me here because I have no chicken experience. If all goes well and the chickens are healthy, how often does a hen lay an egg? How many could you potentially have in a week from your 5 hens?
And my final chicken question, how many must you have to keep them happy and laying? What about just a pair of chickens? Would that work? I'm thinking I don't want to be overrun by eggs, and I can't handle the idea of wasting them.
ETA:I posted before I read the whole thread. I so appreciate the advice of you experienced peas are providing to those of us who will be chicken farmer newbies. The more I think about it, the more I am making up my mind to go with a bit of property this time. I can always downsize again when I can no longer handle it all.
Oh, do I need to have a rooster if I only want eggs for eating and not hatching? Will they lay without one?
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StephDRebel
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Post by StephDRebel on Apr 28, 2016 18:12:16 GMT
Here are some of our babies. We have a coop that dh made along one side of a 15x15 dog kennel that dh made predator proof. They aren't that hard, we go let them out in the morning, feed and water and check General well being, go visit in the afternoon, just to chat and play and give kitchen scraps, and then again At night to tuck them in. We deep clean the coop 2x a year and do maintenance as they need it butt they're pretty low key. Attachments:
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StephDRebel
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Jul 5, 2014 1:53:49 GMT
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Post by StephDRebel on Apr 28, 2016 18:16:19 GMT
Lucky you! I am so envious. As I am looking on line at places to move to when I sell my home, I ponder getting a bit of land this time. I would love a small house on an acre or two where I could have chickens and a garden. Sigh. That sounds heavenly to me. How much work and effort goes into having five chickens? And this is a stupid question, but play along with me here because I have no chicken experience. If all goes well and the chickens are healthy, how often does a hen lay an egg? How many could you potentially have in a week from your 5 hens? And my final chicken question, how many must you have to keep them happy and laying? What about just a pair of chickens? Would that work? I'm thinking I don't want to be overrun by eggs, and I can't handle the idea of wasting them. ETA:I posted before I read the whole thread. I so appreciate the advice of you experienced peas are providing to those of us who will be chicken farmer newbies. The more I think about it, the more I am making up my mind to go with a bit of property this time. I can always downsize again when I can no longer handle it all. Oh, do I need to have a rooster if I only want eggs for eating and not hatching? Will they lay without one? You don't need a rooster for just eggs, rosters only fertilize the eggs to make more baby chicks. We only have hens. How much they lay friends on the type of hens you get, you can find expected production charts on any of the sites mentioned above. With 6 hens we were getting 5-7 eggs a day and then all but one were killed in a predator attack. She stopped laying for about 4 months while it was cold, but I don't know if that will be her normal. Now that is spring and she's got the babies with her she's laying 1-2 eggs a day. The babies should be laying in a couple of months.
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Eggs!
Apr 28, 2016 18:37:31 GMT
Post by Lexica on Apr 28, 2016 18:37:31 GMT
Lucky you! I am so envious. As I am looking on line at places to move to when I sell my home, I ponder getting a bit of land this time. I would love a small house on an acre or two where I could have chickens and a garden. Sigh. That sounds heavenly to me. How much work and effort goes into having five chickens? And this is a stupid question, but play along with me here because I have no chicken experience. If all goes well and the chickens are healthy, how often does a hen lay an egg? How many could you potentially have in a week from your 5 hens? And my final chicken question, how many must you have to keep them happy and laying? What about just a pair of chickens? Would that work? I'm thinking I don't want to be overrun by eggs, and I can't handle the idea of wasting them. ETA:I posted before I read the whole thread. I so appreciate the advice of you experienced peas are providing to those of us who will be chicken farmer newbies. The more I think about it, the more I am making up my mind to go with a bit of property this time. I can always downsize again when I can no longer handle it all. Oh, do I need to have a rooster if I only want eggs for eating and not hatching? Will they lay without one? You don't need a rooster for just eggs, rosters only fertilize the eggs to make more baby chicks. We only have hens. How much they lay friends on the type of hens you get, you can find expected production charts on any of the sites mentioned above. With 6 hens we were getting 5-7 eggs a day and then all but one were killed in a predator attack. She stopped laying for about 4 months while it was cold, but I don't know if that will be her normal. Now that is spring and she's got the babies with her she's laying 1-2 eggs a day. The babies should be laying in a couple of months. Thanks, Steph. What kind of predator attacked all your chickens? I'm picturing everything from a snake to a coyote. That is so sad. The one survivor must have been so traumatized at having watched her buddies being killed. And 2 eggs a day? I will definitely research the production expectation of whatever chicken type I buy. And good to know I don't need a rooster. That would be a deal killer for me. My sister and niece had a bloody confrontation with a rooster when my niece was a toddler. Hearing her tell the story over the years has made me a bit afraid of a rooster.
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Post by compwalla on Apr 28, 2016 18:37:59 GMT
Lucky you! I am so envious. As I am looking on line at places to move to when I sell my home, I ponder getting a bit of land this time. I would love a small house on an acre or two where I could have chickens and a garden. Sigh. That sounds heavenly to me. How much work and effort goes into having five chickens? And this is a stupid question, but play along with me here because I have no chicken experience. If all goes well and the chickens are healthy, how often does a hen lay an egg? How many could you potentially have in a week from your 5 hens? And my final chicken question, how many must you have to keep them happy and laying? What about just a pair of chickens? Would that work? I'm thinking I don't want to be overrun by eggs, and I can't handle the idea of wasting them. ETA:I posted before I read the whole thread. I so appreciate the advice of you experienced peas are providing to those of us who will be chicken farmer newbies. The more I think about it, the more I am making up my mind to go with a bit of property this time. I can always downsize again when I can no longer handle it all. Oh, do I need to have a rooster if I only want eggs for eating and not hatching? Will they lay without one? You don't need a rooster unless you want to hatch chicks. Think about it like this - you ovulate even when you don't do the mattress mambo. Chickens make and lay eggs even if they aren't getting down with a roo. And how many eggs a given hens lays depends on her breed and her personal schedule. Some chickens lay an egg almost every day, some lay two or three eggs a week. It's important to note that the ones which lay daily tend to lay for a shorter amount of time, like one or two years, while the less frequent layers will lay eggs longer, maybe three or four years. If they stay healthy, they live up to ten ears so you're going to have to decide what you're going to do with a hen who is healthy but no longer lays. Do you keep her as a freeloading pet or do you have the stomach to cull her? That's something to think about. Chickens raised outside a commercial environment lay seasonally as well. They need a certain number of hours of daylight each day to keep laying so it is very normal for egg production to drop off drastically in the fall and winter when the days get shorter and ramp up again when spring comes. Commercial egg production uses artificial UV light to fool the hens into laying year round. But this is going to shorten the number of months that they will lay eggs overall. Chickens raised naturally will molt feathers in the fall, stop laying, and use the winter to recover and regrow their new feathers. We have seven hens and we usually go from five to six eggs a day during spring/summer to one, maybe two eggs a day (if we're lucky) in fall and winter. This is normal and you should plan for that. Unwashed eggs have a natural bacterial bloom on them which protects the eggs from spoiling so you can keep your eggs in the fridge four months or so if they stay unwashed. We usually start hoarding eggs in the fridge in October and what we collect then plus the few they lay over winter keeps us supplied through spring. Different breeds also lay different colored eggs but the taste of the egg depends on what the chickens eat, not what color the shells are. Green, blue, white, brown, they are all the same taste if your hens eat the same diet. We have hens that lay light blue eggs, dark brown eggs, and tan eggs. Egg size also depends on breed.
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Eggs!
Apr 28, 2016 18:48:21 GMT
Post by Lexica on Apr 28, 2016 18:48:21 GMT
Thank you, compwalla! That is good information. I was unaware you could keep eggs that long. That should get me through the winter, I would imagine. As to what to do with a chicken that has stopped laying...I will need to think about that. Would the chicken be of any value cooked at that stage, if I were to be able to bring myself to attempt it? Is that what the majority of people do?
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Eggs!
Apr 28, 2016 18:50:46 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2016 18:50:46 GMT
they live up to ten ears so you're going to have to decide what you're going to do with a hen who is healthy but no longer lays. Do you keep her as a freeloading pet or do you have the stomach to cull her?
I LOVE Freeloading pet!
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Post by gmcwife1 on Apr 28, 2016 18:57:16 GMT
That is exciting! I have a friend here in town who gives me eggs from her chickens occasionally. I love it. Right now I have two duck eggs in my fridge that someone gave me. I'm kind of freaked out. Duck eggs?? Can anyone reassure me they aren't weird or icky? We had a duck growing up that laid a nest of unfertilized eggs. She sat on them and sat on them and sat on them. Of course they never hatched so our dad went to the feed store and bought her some fertilized eggs. She ended up having 3 little ducklings from that batch of eggs. I can't tell you how to cook with a duck egg, just share that fun story about our silly duck twaddles
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Post by compwalla on Apr 28, 2016 19:07:46 GMT
Thank you, compwalla ! That is good information. I was unaware you could keep eggs that long. That should get me through the winter, I would imagine. As to what to do with a chicken that has stopped laying...I will need to think about that. Would the chicken be of any value cooked at that stage, if I were to be able to bring myself to attempt it? Is that what the majority of people do? An older hen who has laid a few years isn't going to be good eating unless you stew her or make her into soup. You don't want to try and roast her -- not good eats. She'll be tough and stringy. But she makes good chicken stock. I've never culled a hen; we plan to keep them as freeloaders. We add one or two hens every other year so we never run out of younger layers. We might (since we have a roo and a hen who gets broody on the regular) decide to hatch some chicks but we haven't yet. We have three different breeds of hens and I can't even imagine what sort of mutant hybrid chicks we'd hatch from our motley crew of chickens.
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Eggs!
Apr 28, 2016 19:21:07 GMT
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Post by crazy4scraps on Apr 28, 2016 19:21:07 GMT
Lots of good info here already, and definitely check out the sites listed earlier too.
We live where it gets really cold in the winter, so DH bought an insulated ice fishing house on a trailer and converted it into a chicken coop! Works great, except the door really ought to swing out instead of in, but hey, it was only $600 and we didn't have to build it from scratch!
On the inside he added some rods for them to roost on and nesting boxes. We started out with four nesting boxes, but downsized because they were only using two of them. Our girls like to share! We enclosed the door side of the coop with a large dog kennel to keep our dogs and other natural predators out (I've seen foxes, possums and heard of other predators in our area from the neighbors), and put mesh over the top so they don't fly out and so flying predators don't come in. Ours can range in their little yard but we don't let them roam all over our property.
In the winter ours will gradually slow down and then stop laying all together once it's really cold outside. We keep them warm with a small barn heater and we use a heated waterer as well. Once we get through the worst of the winter, we have a light on a timer in there too and that helps make them start laying again. Ours pretty much will only lay an egg a day or so. Never more than that. Happy chickens are regular layers, when they get stressed out they slow down or stop.
As for the roosters, we had a couple by accident (our birds weren't sexed as well as they should have been by the place we bought them from). One was nice but the other one was mean. The nice one died of natural causes, and the mean one? Well, DH had to take him down when we needed to put our younger chickens in with our older girls. He was also really noisy all day, so there was that too. Some areas will only let you have hens, so you have to check what the ordinances are where you live to see if there are any restrictions.
Our chickens are kind of DH's project, but I will go out there and throw them crushed up stale crackers, cereal, bread crusts, etc. that we have around, or extra stuff from our garden or the scraps from cut up fruit or vegetables, etc. So when they see or hear me coming outside they all pile out of their coop and run to the front of their pen to see what goodies I have for them. They love it. It's pretty cute!
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