17 replies to this topic

[TAHOE]

or should I say, for a lot of eggs. We went from 10 older hens last fall to now 9 old hens( lost one over winter) and 18 young ones. Got a collection, Barred rock, Buff Brahmas, Rhode Islands, Black Giants, Americanas, Buff orpington, few others. Now that weather is getting warmer and days are getting longer, the eggs are starting to come. I was getting 4-5 eggs a week in Dec/Jan, now I'm already getting 6-8 per day.

I can tell the young hens are laying as the eggs are small, I know they will get bigger as hens age. I'me waiting for the Americanas to start, looking forward to some greenies! one of my old girls gave me a double yolk last week, made for a great samich! Should be able to get rid of most of them, my 4 sisters do a lot of baking and they also can sell to girls at work.

 

Who else has some chickens?

[Amigatec]

I'm down to 3. I had a hard time selling mine, nobody wanted to give you anything for them.

[Cvans]

I love eggs for breakfast. Unfortunately my doctor doesn't like me eating them. I think if someone put green eggs in my refrigerator my doctor and I could be friends again. They are probably good tasting but the green part sounds a little scary.

[Amigatec]

Only the shell is green. The inside is delicious. 

[daytime dave]

My dad, member nyabc  has chickens too.  He has nine older hens a few years old and his new hens, appox 25, just started laying at the beginning of the month.  The new ones are a good mix.  He is getting a couple dozen eggs a day I think.  

 

He gives them to the neighbors.  I take quite a few.  I think in the spring, the older hens are destined for the stew pot.

[Nato77]

Last spring we got 9 layers and a rooster, but through the summer we lost three hens. Dang cats, its nice to have good mousers,but when they start killing my chickens... lets just say I got rid of the problem.

 

Last fall they were laying about 6-8 eggs a day. Now through the winter we were getting 4-6 a day. In about a month or so I'll go get a few more to replace the ones we lost (one of the Barred Rocks was my daughters pet so will be getting a couple of those).

 

We sell a couple of dozen a week, though I didn't ask for the money, get enough to buy pellets for them. Also feed them alot of corn. I got around 60 bushels of ear corn from my buddy that was on the ground (one of the doors on the feeder house was open for a couple of rounds).

 

The kids really enjoy shelling corn with the old sheller and then running it through the burr mill. Its a bit of work doing it that way, but a little work never hurt anyone.

[Titus]

I would love to get some, but currently can not. We buy our eggs from a local farm down the road $3 a dozen delivered to our door. Night and day difference from the store. And the egg shells go to our labs, they LOVE egg shells Vet said it's ok too and their coats have never looked better.

[TAHOE]

I would love to get some, but currently can not. We buy our eggs from a local farm down the road $3 a dozen delivered to our door. Night and day difference from the store. And the egg shells go to our labs, they LOVE egg shells Vet said it's ok too and their coats have never looked better.

 

Do you chopped them up real fine and just add to food?

 

We were only supposed to have 12 new ones, the dogs got into the cage when little so the wife went and got another 9 so we ended up with 18 young ones. We were going to take the old ones to the butcher, found out how far, costs, etc and decided to just keep them, they are slowing dying off. I don't charge my family anything although my sisters feel obliged to pay me, really doesn't cover the feed. My one sister does take them to her work, she charges 2.50-3.00 a dozen so that helps a little. We got them just for ourselves, nothing like fresh brown eggs over the store ones, especially when I let them out to pick in the field for a few days.

Other than having to keep constant eye on "Chuck" our rooster, they are not bad to have, except in middle of August when temps are 95*, Wheehoo.

[boyscout862]

I would love to get some, but currently can not. We buy our eggs from a local farm down the road $3 a dozen delivered to our door. Night and day difference from the store. And the egg shells go to our labs, they LOVE egg shells Vet said it's ok too and their coats have never looked better.

 

We used to have Newfies. They loved hard boiled eggs in the shell. It was funny to watch puppies with them the first time. They'd play with the eggs until one broke its shell. Then the'd get the idea and eat them.

 

I'm considering chickens for our yard but we have fisher cats, coyotes, and foxes. There are mountain lions too but they don't exist according to the state of connecticut. What other preditor will leave a deer carcass 20' up a tree?

 

We also have lots of ticks with Lymes Disease, which is why we don't have Newfies any more. I'm told that the chickens are really good at cleaning out the ticks around the house. Some neighbors have chickens and some have ginea fowl. They have less ticks so, it is tempting to try. Good Luck, Rick

[Titus]

Our labs know the sound of the egg carton opening now. The three of the come barreling into the kitchen, and sit behind Amber with all tails wagging.

 

We don't chop them up, just toss it to them and they chew away. Never had an issue with digestion.

[TAHOE]

I'll have to see if they will eat them, my Boxer is dumb as a door knob, he would eat it, the Schnauzer is more picky.

I would love to have free range, but we have two huge owls and a pair of large hawks and sometime see fox....chickens are easy pickins. They are great though around the manure pile, when they are lose, we have virtually no flies.

[Amigatec]

You can always build a chicken tractor to put them in, and it will give you a bit more seat time when you have to use your GT to move it.

[Amigatec]

I tried selling my eggs at $2.50 and I still didn't have any takers.

I'm considering buying a few more this year.

[UncleWillie]

We have about 10 hens right now. Wife has 30 eggs in the incubator so we will either have meat or eggs depending on the sex of them.

[NJKen]

<p>I'll have to see if they will eat them, my Boxer is dumb as a door knob, he would eat it, the Schnauzer is more picky.</p>
<p>I would love to have free range, but we have two huge owls and a pair of large hawks and sometime see fox....chickens are easy pickins. They are great though around the manure pile, when they are lose, we have virtually no flies.</p>

Boxers dumb ? Lol I could not agree more.
A few years ago I was over a friends who owns 2 boxers. I took a few dozen fresh clams for him and I to eat. Well guess who ate many of the shells ? Yep, his two boxers. We opened them in the garage and tossed the shells in a 5 gallon bucket. Stupid was leaving the doors open. Good thing they were cherry stones. He called his Vet and he suggested to keep a close eye on them to make sure they "pass" they did.