Eggs

[Willow S]

Just paid $5.95 for one and a half dozen large eggs at our local grocery store in New Hampshire. I had to double check the price on the self and then didn't believe it until I looked at the receipt after checkout. And the selves were well stocked. Paid over $7 a little over a week ago for 1 dozen.

 

[sean donato]

I hate ducks and geese. We had them on the farm and I never understood why. Just nasty messy slobs of birds. Perfectly content just having chickens. Whomevers feed went up, must have been a local thing. Just stopped off last evening and got 4 bags at the mill. $10.59 per 50lb bag, same as last month. Actually cheaper then it was over summer, fluctuated between $11-12 per 50 lb bag. All this cold weather we've been having they girls hardly leave the coop. Needs to warm up so they can eat out of the yard.

 

[wampum]

Every year it seems like eggs go up about this time. I have to collect eggs a couple of times a day to keep them from freezing. I sell my eggs to my customers for $3. A dozen year round. But I do not sell enough. So I take the excess to the auction about every 3 weeks. They are all good eggs large to xl.. I took 26 dozen in today and they sold for $6 a dozen I was surprised. I think the commission is 15% but that is still good. In the summer I am lucky to get $2 to $2.50 a dozen.

 

[wampum]

About the bird flu. When I planned to move from the farm house to my newer small doublewide house on another piece of my property I had to build a new coop. I decided to bite the bullet and build one with an extra large run. I covered the run with a roof and used 1/2 inch mess on the coop instead of chicken wire. I also used cattle panels along with the mesh 4 feet up and 2 inch spaced wire fence tacked under the bottom about 2 feet around the outside and buried it. Every place a wild bird could get in I sealed it. I have to be saving feed because there are no wild birds in the coop. I also for about 4 years now have not lost a bird to predators. That coop is probably worth several hundred dollars but I used materials I already had but did have to buy some 1/2 mesh wire I may have a couple of hundred in it. I like free range better. But my birds are safer this way.

 

[Mad Professor]

I can get as many local free range eggs as I want at $6-7/Dz. Quality eggs with the yolks an orange color.

 

[nedsim]

I can get as many local free range eggs as I want at $6-7/Dz. Quality eggs with the yolks an orange color.

Same here - $6.50/dozen, or $6/dozen if you join the "egg club" and pay for 10 dozen up front and pick them up as needed. Big multi-colored eggs, thick shells, bright yolks, and cohesive whites.

 

[SS396driver]

Local eggs are around $4 a dozen here. Seems every other house has chickens . I usually get a dozen a week for free from my neighbor. He has a way too many chickens but everyone has to have a hobby . I have them running around my yard from time to time

 

[Grateful11]

Sam's Club Member's Mark Pasture Raised 1 1/2 dozen for $6.22. They did have Eggland's Best for $4.38 for 1 1/2 dozen, they seem to have disappeared from their website at every store around.

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[StihlPotlicker]

My small flock of 7 ducks completely stops production in the winter. They just suck up the feed and make a bunch of noise.

Ducks are kinda worth the extra trouble though. Their eggs are considerably better eating than hen's eggs, in my opinion. The yolks are considerably bigger with less "white". A couple of the ducks produce some huge eggs, also. They are so big that any recipe calling for eggs needs to be adjusted accordingly.

Bacon & crunchy fried potatoes, with a couple of over-easy duck eggs on top of everything...

I heard that bakeries love duck eggs over chicken eggs

 

[StihlPotlicker]

I'd agree that duck eggs are better. But not worth the mess IMO. They tore up the bank of my pond. Crap everywhere. When it came to winter and they wanted to be indoors they made one hell of a mess out of the coop. You can't keep drinking water within their reach. Lay their eggs on the ground wherever they feel like. It was an Easter egg hunt daily trying to track them down. Hens are alot easier to deal with.

I thought about getting some ducks for our overgrown pond. But maybe not uh?

 

[JRM]

I thought about getting some ducks for our overgrown pond. But maybe not uh?

Some people love them. I don't know enough about them to know if Some breeds are better than others. I had Pekins. They are messy. Crap everywhere much like a goose. I housed them with the chickens in the winter as they wanted in when it got cold. I have auto waters supplied by a rain barrel outside, they would sit there and play with the waterers non stop. The floor (dirt floor and sawdust) was thoroughly saturated. They are playful but mischievous. Always looking to get into something.

If you use your pond for drinking water it would obviously be a bad idea to bring in ducks. They will surely contaminate the water.