Eggs

[muddstopper]

My egg production is finally starting to pick up. I am getting about 5 eggs a day from 11 hens. Yesterday I got 7. Looking forward to the day I get 11 eggs. My birds are just 9 months old and Black copper Marans are not the best of layers. I am going to hatch another dozen of something, depends on what breeds I can find local. Thinking about looking for some dominickers. We used to raise them when i was growing up. My BIL has white rocks, good egg layers, easy on the feed and early egg layers, and he owns the incubator, so a easy choice.

 

[sean donato]

We're down to 17 from 32 this summer. Husky dog that got loose took 8 out over summer. Few died from being old, one broke it's leg somehow put that ine down. Still getting 8-12 eggs a day on average fein the rest of them. Much more manageable then the 24+ eggs we were getting a day.
Wife decided she's staying under 20 hens from now on. I told her the 17 we currently have is plenty for our needs.
I have plans to move and slightly modify the coop and run this summer. It's kinda back burner project vs some of the other things I need to do but needs done none the less.

 

[wampum]

I have 15 brown egg layers, that will be 2 years old pretty soon. They will be getting culled in a month or two. Today I got 9 eggs out of them. Last June I bought 25 straight run Breeze chicks. I butchered 10 roosters in early Dec. so I have 12 hens and 3 roosters. I am averaging 11 eggs a day from them.I never raised Breeze before but from reviews they rank high in flavor. We ate one this week and they do have good flavor to them but only averaged 4 pounds each at 6 months. They are a small bird that lays a medium to large sizes crème colored egg.

 

[JRM]

I've been averaging 4-5 a day with 7 hens all winter. My coop has no electricity to run any kind of lights or heat. January has been cold and snowy, there has been snow on the ground since Christmas and lots of single digit and some below zero lows. My weather station shows 4 days this month where it broke above freezing. This will be their best year for laying it's all down hill from here.

Meanwhile I've got this guy who is a real feed burner. Should be right around 1 year old now. Buddy found him in the woods behind his house. I figured for sure he'd of taken off long ago as we do not keep our hens penned up. But he hangs around, must like the food and company. Roosts with the hens every night.

 

[ballisticdoughnut]

I’m getting five or so a day from 8 hens. Normally got at least a dozen but a few have passed here recently. Gotta increase protein in winter months to maintain egg production. That’s been my experience anyway. Also having lights on a timer to mimic summer time light cycle helps.

 

[wampum]

I heat the water, no other heat. During that `minus 0 run the production was very low. Every once in a while this time of year we get into the forty’s. The next day after being in the 40s they do a lot better laying egg. Spring is coming. That is a great thing to look forward too. In about 10 weeks the best part of the year to me is mushroom season. Getting the gardens ready and cleaning up the property for summer. I hope a couple of these Breeze hens get broody. If not we will use an incubator to hatch them out.

 

[muddstopper]

I had never heard of Bresse chickens until now. I did a little research and liked what I read. Hatching eggs are $45 dozen, so not exactly cheep. My thoughts have always been when buying hatching eggs of rare breeds is you pay once and then you have your breeding stock. With decent egg layers, you can recoup your cost in about 5 months. I used to raise rare breeds and shipped them all over the country. There is a large market for rare breeds and it was never a problem being able to sell every egg my birds lay. The Bresse sounds like something I need to be thinking about. Good egg layer and good meat birds. dont know that I want to get back into dealing with the whole NPIP certification again, and with this bird flue thing going on, I dont know how much the rules have changed, but I think I wil check back into it.

T3ll me, what is the temperment of the Bresse. Are they flighty and do the roosters like to pick fights. a fighting chicken dont live long around here. My wife will take a garden hoe to them.

 

[muddstopper]

I had never heard of Bresse chickens until now. I did a little research and liked what I read. Hatching eggs are $45 dozen, so not exactly cheep. My thoughts have always been when buying hatching eggs of rare breeds is you pay once and then you have your breeding stock. With decent egg layers, you can recoup your cost in about 5 months. I used to raise rare breeds and shipped them all over the country. There is a large market for rare breeds and it was never a problem being able to sell every egg my birds lay. The Bresse sounds like something I need to be thinking about. Good egg layer and good meat birds. dont know that I want to get back into dealing with the whole NPIP certification again, and with this bird flue thing going on, I dont know how much the rules have changed, but I think I wil check back into it.

T3ll me, what is the temperment of the Bresse. Are they flighty and do the roosters like to pick fights. a fighting chicken dont live long around here. My wife will take a garden hoe to him.

 

[muddstopper]

I've been averaging 4-5 a day with 7 hens all winter. My coop has no electricity to run any kind of lights or heat. January has been cold and snowy, there has been snow on the ground since Christmas and lots of single digit and some below zero lows. My weather station shows 4 days this month where it broke above freezing. This will be their best year for laying it's all down hill from here.

Meanwhile I've got this guy who is a real feed burner. Should be right around 1 year old now. Buddy found him in the woods behind his house. I figured for sure he'd of taken off long ago as we do not keep our hens penned up. But he hangs around, must like the food and company. Roosts with the hens every night.

View attachment 1239894

Dont you just love those free birds that just wander in. Last year I had a lone hen just wander into my yard. dont know hat beed it is, it a blueish/gray hen with lacey feathers. Its a darn good layer. almost every day. I crossed her with my BC Maran rooster and kept 3 of her chicks that are now laying. The eggs are a medium brown and they seem to be laying as much as their mama. I still dont know where she came from as no one around me are raising any chickens. I just call her my Free Bird.

 

[pdqdl]

I've been averaging 4-5 a day with 7 hens all winter. My coop has no electricity to run any kind of lights or heat. January has been cold and snowy, there has been snow on the ground since Christmas and lots of single digit and some below zero lows. My weather station shows 4 days this month where it broke above freezing. This will be their best year for laying it's all down hill from here.

Meanwhile I've got this guy who is a real feed burner. Should be right around 1 year old now. Buddy found him in the woods behind his house. I figured for sure he'd of taken off long ago as we do not keep our hens penned up. But he hangs around, must like the food and company. Roosts with the hens every night.

View attachment 1239894

I'm guessing he is strutting for the girls, right? What does he look like when he's not all puffed up?

 

[Bill G]

It will be interesting to see in a month or so if chicks are available here. I just checked one hatchery and they list Buff Orpington pullets at about $6

 

[farmer steve]

Keep an eye on the hen house fellas.
https://www.abc27.com/local-news/pennsylvania-egg-theft-company-reponds-after-100000-eggs-stolen/

 

[TNTreeHugger]

It will be interesting to see in a month or so if chicks are available here. I just checked one hatchery and they list Buff Orpington pullets at about $6

$6 EACH chick??
Last time I looked at a Murry McMurry catalog, I think they were about $1.50.
But that was at least 15 years ago.

I just got home from Walmart. Eggs weren't on my list but I thought while I was there I'd get some...
NOPE. The egg case was nearly empty.
I said to the clerk on the other side, "Where's all the eggs?" And then I remembered, "Oh, that's right. They killed all the chickens."

Funny though. There was no shortage of chicken in the meat isle.

 

[farmer steve]

$6 EACH chick??
Last time I looked at a Murry McMurry catalog, I think they were about $1.50.
But that was at least 15 years ago.

I just got home from Walmart. Eggs weren't on my list but I thought while I was there I'd get some...
NOPE. The egg case was nearly empty.
I said to the clerk on the other side, "Where's all the eggs?" And then I remembered, "Oh, that's right. They killed all the chickens."

Funny though. There was no shortage of chicken in the meat isle.

After the initial incubation of bird flu (1-7days) birds will die in about 1 day. Commercial flock owners are only taking steps to lessen the spread by depopulating infected birds . I just read this morning that there was a local backyard flock that was infected. Also reports of Canadian geese dying at the Gettysburg battlefield.

 

[wampum]

I had never heard of Bresse chickens until now. I did a little research and liked what I read. Hatching eggs are $45 dozen, so not exactly cheep. My thoughts have always been when buying hatching eggs of rare breeds is you pay once and then you have your breeding stock. With decent egg layers, you can recoup your cost in about 5 months. I used to raise rare breeds and shipped them all over the country. There is a large market for rare breeds and it was never a problem being able to sell every egg my birds lay. The Bresse sounds like something I need to be thinking about. Good egg layer and good meat birds. dont know that I want to get back into dealing with the whole NPIP certification again, and with this bird flue thing going on, I dont know how much the rules have changed, but I think I wil check back into it.

T3ll me, what is the temperment of the Bresse. Are they flighty and do the roosters like to pick fights. a fighting chicken dont live long around here. My wife will take a garden hoe to them.

I have only had them for about 7 months so I am still learning about them. But what I have seen so far is they are a little flighty. I have not seen any fights so far. I had my first pecked egg yesterday so I put wooden eggs in to see if that frustrates them. I am also going to try and darken their nests. My wife never used a hoe but did use a feed shovel a few times.

 

[wampum]

$6 EACH chick??
Last time I looked at a Murry McMurry catalog, I think they were about $1.50.
But that was at least 15 years ago.

I just got home from Walmart. Eggs weren't on my list but I thought while I was there I'd get some...
NOPE. The egg case was nearly empty.
I said to the clerk on the other side, "Where's all the eggs?" And then I remembered, "Oh, that's right. They killed all the chickens."

Funny though. There was no shortage of chicken in the meat isle.

I could be wrong but most commercial meat birds are Cornish cross or freedom rangers. I raise about 50 every year. They are butchered at different ages. At 3 or 4 weeks old they are called game birds. At 6 to 8 weeks they are friers. At 10 weeks they are roasters. At 12 weeks it is cruel to not already have butchered them. After 10 weeks they start breaking bones. So meat birds are easy to replace. Most egg layers are around 6 months old before they start laying. Those meat birds never get old enough to lay eggs. Unless they are slow growers like delawares or Rhode Island reds.

 

[Del_]

We don't have them now but we had very good luck with Buff Orpingtons. No heat or electricity. The hatched their own eggs with a high success rate. I thought I might improve successful hatching ration with an incubator. Nope, I did worse the hens did outside.

The pen is a trampoline frame dug 18 inches deep wrapped in chain link fence with a gate installed. We have coyotes in the area that have destroyed neighbor's chickens.