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Post by lucyg on Apr 28, 2016 19:50:27 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 Thats a very cute story. Your dad's a good guy.
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Post by gale w on Apr 28, 2016 19:53:51 GMT
We don't add heat at all. We use a heated dog bowl for water but that's it. The problem is if they get used to a heated coop, and the power goes out or a heatlamp burns out, they will not be able to tolerate the cold. They need to acclimate to cold weather over time and build up the body fat and feathers they need to tolerate cold weather. That's less likely to happen if they're in a heated coop. Ours slowed way down in the winter but are making up for lost time now. We have 14 hens and get about a dozen eggs a day. As far as I know a hen can only lay 1 egg per day.
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Post by compwalla on Apr 28, 2016 19:55:32 GMT
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 Thats a very cute story. Your dad's a good guy. We have one hen who has gotten broody every spring. We are mean and kick her off the nest every day, make her go eat, and take the eggs she's sitting on. She eventually gives up or stops with the hormones or whatever. We're not ready for baby chicks just yet. She fusses at us something fierce but too bad, so sad, little chickie. We are your birth control.
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Post by gale w on Apr 28, 2016 19:59:25 GMT
When dh was a kid they had ducks and hens. One hen became broody and decided to sit on a couple of duck eggs. When the ducks hatched they eventually went into the water (a little pond they had) and that poor mama hen was beside herself. lol
Years ago I borrowed a broody white silk hen (which is a small breed) to sit on some rhode island red eggs I had. Within a week those babies were so big that hen could barely tuck them all underneath her wings.
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tuesdaysgone
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,832
Jun 26, 2014 18:26:03 GMT
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Eggs!
Apr 28, 2016 20:27:06 GMT
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Post by tuesdaysgone on Apr 28, 2016 20:27:06 GMT
We are thinking about getting chickens. I grew up raising chickens and selling the eggs around the neighborhood. Currently I buy fresh eggs from our neighbor. All the delicious goodness without the care and trouble of chickens.
Even so, I do love seeing the silly creatures pecking around the yard.
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Post by compwalla on Apr 28, 2016 20:32:19 GMT
We are thinking about getting chickens. I grew up raising chickens and selling the eggs around the neighborhood. Currently I buy fresh eggs from our neighbor. All the delicious goodness without the care and trouble of chickens. Even so, I do love seeing the silly creatures pecking around the yard. I love watching them run full-tilt across the yard like tiny little velociraptors. And I love watching them chase after blueberries I throw in the grass. Hilarious.
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azredhead
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,755
Jun 25, 2014 22:49:18 GMT
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Eggs!
Apr 28, 2016 21:19:59 GMT
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Post by azredhead on Apr 28, 2016 21:19:59 GMT
My folks have chickens, they love the fresh eggs! Dh really wants to get some but I am hesistant with the dogs. We do have a side area where we could put the chickens but I also worry about neighborhood cats.
I did learn that to check if the egg is still good you put it in water to see if floats. If it floats toss it.. My mom brought us three dozen a when she was here for MIL funeral. I wasn't sure we were going to be able to through all of them so I gave one dozen to our cousins. It's just the two of us. But we did enjoy them.
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StephDRebel
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,691
Location: Ohio
Jul 5, 2014 1:53:49 GMT
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Post by StephDRebel on Apr 28, 2016 21:26:19 GMT
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. We had two rounds, the first was a dog. She went out to play and we're pretty sure she gave them a heart attack. We lost 3 that day, the other two we're pretty sure were killed by a raccoon. We have owls, raccoons, dogs and coyotes that seem to be the biggest threat around here.
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StephDRebel
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,691
Location: Ohio
Jul 5, 2014 1:53:49 GMT
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Post by StephDRebel on Apr 28, 2016 21:32:49 GMT
and...there is really no good way to tell how many eggs you'll get in a day. No hen lays everyday and then there are the odd days that they will lay twice. With 5 hens you'll likely get 3-5 eggs most days. With 6 we would get between 3-8 a day, we had one that laid twice each day that she laid (usually 4-5 days a week) and every egg was a double yolk, the twins claimed her ha
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Sept 29, 2024 10:31:29 GMT
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Eggs!
Apr 28, 2016 23:35:37 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2016 23:35:37 GMT
Fresh eggs...YUM! Envious of all of you that get them regularly. We have friends that have them and I'm always so happy when they gift me with some. My maternal grandparents had them and I remember chasing them around the yard when I was a little girl...back in the day when you could have them within the city limits....I think that's changed around here now.
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Eggs!
Apr 29, 2016 0:55:28 GMT
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Post by tara on Apr 29, 2016 0:55:28 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. I showed my husband the chicken coop you built. He is so jealous! I tried to get him to build ours himself, but he bought one at Rural King. It's a small one, but at the time we only had 3 chickens. Now our flock is growing and now we're running out of room.
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Eggs!
Apr 29, 2016 1:03:47 GMT
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Post by tara on Apr 29, 2016 1:03:47 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 You've gotten a lot of good advice but I wanted to say, you sound just like me. I'm also a city girl living in the country. When we first moved out here, the pigs next door got out and was running around in our yard. Our neighbor was so apologetic, but we loved it. I was outside taking pictures.
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Eggs!
Apr 29, 2016 1:09:15 GMT
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Post by tara on Apr 29, 2016 1:09:15 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. 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. Our neighbor gets about 25-35 dozen eggs a day. He told us tonight he's having trouble selling them all. He's going to see if the food banks will take some.
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Eggs!
Apr 29, 2016 3:03:20 GMT
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Post by JustKim on Apr 29, 2016 3:03:20 GMT
yum! We started getting organic eggs a few months ago. What a difference in taste
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Eggs!
Apr 29, 2016 3:10:04 GMT
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Post by tara on Apr 29, 2016 3:10:04 GMT
Thanks for the information guys. A lot I didn't know. We always wanted chickens, but thought it was too much work. When our neighbor got 4000 chicks, we would take the kids to see them. Now that was a cute sight, 4000 chicks running around. When my husband brought the first one home I didn't think it would make it, but it did. Then he brought another one home, then another. Then we got the coop.
It's surprising how low maintenance they are. We just let them out in the mornings. Make sure they have food and water. Then close and latch the door at night. We have racoons and foxes around. These are just pets. I didn't think they would lay because of their trauma, but I was wrong.
Some of the neighbors chickens will come on our land and hang out with ours. I think it's cool they know to go home at dusk and ours go into our coop. Our neighbor has a rooster but he stays home. We hear him but I like the sound. It's soothing. I think it reminds me that of my grandmothers.
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Post by lucyg on Apr 29, 2016 4:13:55 GMT
Well, I made pound cake with my duck eggs as recommended by compwalla. Yum! Family loved it, including my mom and aunt who eat almost nothing ... they took part of it home. This is the recipe I used: cream cheese pound cakeIt calls for six eggs ... I used the two big duck eggs and three chicken eggs. It was very sweet, so I would cut down on the sugar a little next time. Beyond that, it was soooo delicious. Thanks for the excellent advice.
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Eggs!
Apr 29, 2016 5:01:38 GMT
Post by crazy4scraps on Apr 29, 2016 5:01:38 GMT
We don't add heat at all. We use a heated dog bowl for water but that's it. The problem is if they get used to a heated coop, and the power goes out or a heatlamp burns out, they will not be able to tolerate the cold. They need to acclimate to cold weather over time and build up the body fat and feathers they need to tolerate cold weather. That's less likely to happen if they're in a heated coop. Ours slowed way down in the winter but are making up for lost time now. We have 14 hens and get about a dozen eggs a day. As far as I know a hen can only lay 1 egg per day. Yeah, but it gets COLD cold here, like -30 air temperature at times in the winter and colder than that with windchill. There is no way we could keep them out there without a heater. DH lets them go well into the fall without it, and then starts ramping it up as it gets colder and colder. He checks on them every day when it's really cold outside to make sure that everything is working as it should and to make sure their water doesn't freeze. From what I've read, chickens can lay roughly one egg every 25 hours if they're getting enough light during the day.
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Eggs!
Apr 29, 2016 5:49:51 GMT
Post by Delta Dawn on Apr 29, 2016 5:49:51 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. Make sure if you get a rooster that your municipality allows them. Mine does not as it is very residential and the noise would bother too many people. A friend who has chickens lives out of town and her flock has a rooster. Different bylaws.
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Post by AussieMeg on Apr 29, 2016 6:26:43 GMT
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? OMG, duck eggs are THE BEST!!! When I was a teenager we had a pet duck so we used to get an egg each day.They truly are the best. So big, and the yolk is such a rich golden orange colour. Whenever we ran out of duck eggs and I had to have a chicken egg it would be so small and pale in comparison. Friends of ours got some ducks a few years ago, and I was very excited to be able to get duck eggs again. Until a fox got into their yard and killed the ducks. Then DSO found out that a friend of a colleague has ducks, so they have been giving us duck eggs. Apparently nobody else wants them, they are a bit freaked out over eating them (crazy people!!!), so they are happy to let us have them.
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Eggs!
Apr 29, 2016 8:02:22 GMT
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Post by gale w on Apr 29, 2016 8:02:22 GMT
We don't add heat at all. We use a heated dog bowl for water but that's it. The problem is if they get used to a heated coop, and the power goes out or a heatlamp burns out, they will not be able to tolerate the cold. They need to acclimate to cold weather over time and build up the body fat and feathers they need to tolerate cold weather. That's less likely to happen if they're in a heated coop. Ours slowed way down in the winter but are making up for lost time now. We have 14 hens and get about a dozen eggs a day. As far as I know a hen can only lay 1 egg per day. Yeah, but it gets COLD cold here, like -30 air temperature at times in the winter and colder than that with windchill. There is no way we could keep them out there without a heater. DH lets them go well into the fall without it, and then starts ramping it up as it gets colder and colder. He checks on them every day when it's really cold outside to make sure that everything is working as it should and to make sure their water doesn't freeze. From what I've read, chickens can lay roughly one egg every 25 hours if they're getting enough light during the day. where do you live? It does get that cold here but not for very long at a time. On the byc forums there are folks from North Dakota, Minnesota, upper Alaska, etc who don't add heat to their coops.
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Post by gale w on Apr 29, 2016 8:05:10 GMT
If possible free ranging hens should have a rooster. The rooster will keep watch for predators and warn the others to take cover. Roosters will also provide food. We had one with our last flock. I would give them a pile of weeds and he would pass them out to the girls. It was so cute.
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Eggs!
Apr 29, 2016 11:31:03 GMT
Post by doxiesx3 on Apr 29, 2016 11:31:03 GMT
I have 33 "Big Girls" (assorted RIR, White Leghorns, Wyndottes, etc), 3 "Big Boys", 1 "Lil Roo" (Phoenix, 3 months old) 4 Silkies (1 Rooster, 3 Hens), 6 Silkie babies (4 days old, 2 barnyard mixes (4 days old, 5 Silkie eggs under a Silkie hen and 17 Silkie eggs in the incubator. We love all our chickens. All 5 Roosters are nice Roosters, especially the Silkie Roo. The 3 Big Boys work together to protect the Big Girls outside. The Silkies are kept separate as they are smaller chickens and I sell the babies.
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Eggs!
Apr 29, 2016 12:33:01 GMT
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Post by Karen-in-Indiana on Apr 29, 2016 12:33:01 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've gotten a lot of good advice but I wanted to say, you sound just like me. I'm also a city girl living in the country. When we first moved out here, the pigs next door got out and was running around in our yard. Our neighbor was so apologetic, but we loved it. I was outside taking pictures. LOL.....I know what you mean. Farmer across the street had big cows when we moved out there. They got out one day and I thought, "how cool, I'm going to go help him get them back in the fence". Then one ran at me. Ugh...didn't think about how big they would look up close and how much the ground would shake. Then I slipped in cow pie and had the brilliant idea to wash my shoe under warm water to get it off. Yeah, I've learned a lot since moving our there 14 years ago. Ha Ha!!
Karen
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Eggs!
Apr 29, 2016 12:33:35 GMT
Post by Karen-in-Indiana on Apr 29, 2016 12:33:35 GMT
Thank you so much for all of the info! I'm going to have to bookmark this thread for reference. Karen
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Eggs!
Apr 29, 2016 14:38:29 GMT
Post by crazy4scraps on Apr 29, 2016 14:38:29 GMT
Yeah, but it gets COLD cold here, like -30 air temperature at times in the winter and colder than that with windchill. There is no way we could keep them out there without a heater. DH lets them go well into the fall without it, and then starts ramping it up as it gets colder and colder. He checks on them every day when it's really cold outside to make sure that everything is working as it should and to make sure their water doesn't freeze. From what I've read, chickens can lay roughly one egg every 25 hours if they're getting enough light during the day. where do you live? It does get that cold here but not for very long at a time. On the byc forums there are folks from North Dakota, Minnesota, upper Alaska, etc who don't add heat to their coops. We live in MN. Even though the coop is insulated, it would get pretty cold out there without a heater in the dead of winter.
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Eggs!
Apr 29, 2016 14:58:59 GMT
Post by compwalla on Apr 29, 2016 14:58:59 GMT
If possible free ranging hens should have a rooster. The rooster will keep watch for predators and warn the others to take cover. Roosters will also provide food. We had one with our last flock. I would give them a pile of weeds and he would pass them out to the girls. It was so cute. Our roo does a great job protecting his ladies. He is kind of an asshole to us sometimes but he has warned them about hawks and owls and will always alert them when we throw treats outside.
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Eggs!
Apr 29, 2016 15:57:32 GMT
Post by bosoxbeth on Apr 29, 2016 15:57:32 GMT
This is such an intriguing thread. I wish I could have chickens where I live. I may do it someday. I really want to.
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