Eggs

[husqvarna257]

But still a weasel.....
The only good weasel is a dead weasel.

I lost a bunch of chicks just in a week after they got here. a weasel pulled them out and had a kill display. I set traps but got nothing. A few weeks later my old Mine coon got him. Big snarl on the weasel's face. Good cat, still miss him.

I can't say much. We had 6 barred rock chicks and 6 Americana. I was dumb enough at tractor supply to look at the chicks. Well 6 Barred rock leftovers at$1.00 per bird. My wife said we don't need em but They were a week of from ours and they blended right in. WE still had 8 Golden comet layers so we had lots of eggs next year.

 

[muddstopper]

BIL is hatching me a few, due this weekend. I gave him 1 1/2 dozen black copper maran eggs and 1/2dozen of my free hen eggs. I only have one bc maran rooster so I am interested how the free hen chicks turn out. I lost my white leghorn hen to a injury. Went to gather eggs and she was huddled in the corner of the coop with a bad leg. Leg didnt feel broken. She managed to drag herself to the water and feed bucket so I figured she would be ok. Next morning she was dead. Down to 4 hens currently, but I did manage to get 5 eggs one day last week. Not sure how that happened, but the free hen had two eggs that day.

 

[Stonesforbrains]

A weeks worth. Turkey eggs on the left and Maren chicken eggs on the left. Would have had 5 more turkey eggs but they get stepped on by the Tom sometimes. I thought there was more chicken eggs, my wife said she gave a dozen away.

 

[sean donato]

We have 17 laying age right now. Most have finished molting and started laying again. Averaging 12-15 eggs a day. Can't even give them away fast enough. Can't wat till the new 8 start laying.

 

[muddstopper]

Has anybody noticed the price of eggs in the stores lately. . Cheapest price I have seen are $3.74 doz. and going up. My copper marans have just started laying, small eggs, but still better than store bought. Chicken layer pellets are $17 per 50lbs. I get about 3 weeks per bag of feed. Getting about 2doz eggs a week. $3.74 x 2doz is $7.48 worth of eggs. 2doz a week is 6doz per bag of feed. $3.74x6 equals $22.44. feed cost $17 bag, so my chickens are saving me about $5 just in egg production. I do mix whole corn in a seperate feeder, but they eat so little of it I dont even try to keep up with the cost. Also, Marans are not the best layers available. I could swap breeds to leghorns, golden comets, etc. and probably double my production as well as lower my feed cost even more. Are you better off now than you where 4 years ago?

 

[pdqdl]

Our duck eggs are actually paying a very nice price. Some people just gave us $40 for a couple dozen eggs.

I like the eggs a whole lot more than chicken eggs, but I'd never pay that much.

 

[sean donato]

Has anybody noticed the price of eggs in the stores lately. . Cheapest price I have seen are $3.74 doz. and going up. My copper marans have just started laying, small eggs, but still better than store bought. Chicken layer pellets are $17 per 50lbs. I get about 3 weeks per bag of feed. Getting about 2doz eggs a week. $3.74 x 2doz is $7.48 worth of eggs. 2doz a week is 6doz per bag of feed. $3.74x6 equals $22.44. feed cost $17 bag, so my chickens are saving me about $5 just in egg production. I do mix whole corn in a seperate feeder, but they eat so little of it I dont even try to keep up with the cost. Also, Marans are not the best layers available. I could swap breeds to leghorns, golden comets, etc. and probably double my production as well as lower my feed cost even more. Are you better off now than you where 4 years ago?

Feed from the mill is just over $10.00 50 lb sack. Haven't put food out nearly all summer, the chickens free range. Think we're on bag 6 since March. Just keep the feeder full. Once the weather turns well start going through more. Been getting 20-28 eggs a day. Don't know how the math works out really. They are just as much pets as they are there for eggs. We don't sell the eggs, just give them away. The neighbors have enjoyed them all summer. We did loose a few, once ti a stupid husky that got loose and then a few died out of the blue. (All from the original batch, so not sure if it was age or sickness.) Currently we don't have any plans of replacing them. 30 odd chickens are way too many for our needs. 15-20 is too much but more realistic.

 

[sean donato]

Guess, I should add to that. Whole corn doesn't do the birds any favors. It's harder for them to digest, and in general they don't seem to like it. We did find a "grain mix" we were getting as a treat. One scoop a day more or less. It's gotten pretty expensive, so switching back to rolled corn when we're out. (The whole corn was a screw up at the mill, I didn't notice it till I went to refill the bin.)
Also, another thought. Pine bedding cost has increased a good but recently. Was ~$5.00 for 3 cubic feet now it's $7.49. Straw is up close to $10.00 bake now too. Give or take, in a years time we go through 2 bags of bedding a month and about a bake of straw every 3 months. That adds some cost too. I don't count that, since it all goes on the compost pile, but it does add some extra cost. Supplements add up too. Wife was giving them an electrolyte and pro biotic when it got really hot out. I can't say I ever noticed a difference. She claims they seemed to be doing a lot better in the heat when she put it out. (One scoop per gallon, she'd mix a fresh gallon daily. Was a pain, as we had to keep the dogs out of it. Would make them sick or huve them the runs or something like that )
Last thought on over all cost, cost of housing/ making a run. Since I tore the old wood shed down. we're going to be moving the coop and putting up a proper/ larger semi covered run for them. Any cost savings we would have had from money saved vs buying eggs (and I can't stand store bought eggs anymore.) Would get burned up in materials for building/ moving the coop and run.
Really it just comes down to (for me) we like having the fresh eggs, less bugs and they are quite entertaining, ie just as much pets as "farm" animals.
Side note, the 2 roosters didn't make it the summer either. I could only take crowing at 3am so many days in a row and they got awful ballsy when they got bigger. They met an early demise.