Any one want to join me in waiting for eggs, posting and comparing notes?

[Melabella]

I got these from my friend yesterday for my birthday

Happy Birthday!!! Those are cute chickens, are they wood? Hope you had a great day!

I've been so busy this week, I've had no time to check in at all. Between the snow storm, and work, and the snow days from school, and getting ready to travel this weekend...it's been nuts! We're leaving town this weekend. I fully expect to find like 3 dozen eggs when we get back.

So here's an update on my chicks, and I need opinions. Professor Neutron's slipped tendon just will not heal, and his leg is growing so fast that now the legs are different lengths, and basically, I think he's just doomed to only have one working leg. Should I let him continue to live on one leg? He doesn't seem to be in pain. But he is growing really slowly.. Here's a video of him getting around:

Oh Brooster, you know far better than I what to do. I have read that chickens do not express signs of pain, so I would worry if he was in pain. There is a thread that I have read for a long time, and there are so many wonderful woman in there that could give you input as they have had so much experience with this stuff. Especially members Mumsy and Delisha, and another member Aoxa. She just had a pullet that fell into a duck pond that froze, and got horrible frostbite on her toes before she discovered her. That hen is now doing unbelievable hopping around on that stump of a foot. Here is a link to the thread if you should want to post your vid there, or maybe you have all ready somewhere else.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/newestpost/729605

The only thing that worries me most is him getting along while all the other birds get larger and faster. You know how they all can be,,, keeping up may be hard. I know you will know what to do. Wishing I could be more help.

Have a great weekend, and enjoy that wonderful Easter Egg Hunt! lol.....

I officially have the MEANEST chicken on planet Earth! She is also the smallest of the hens. She is a Blue Hamburg, only lays 4-5 per week and pecks every one of my other girls. Napoleon Complex in a female! Here she is in "chicken jail" And she is TICKED off about it!!!

Another jail bird! Maybe the spring has all these ladies loco. So sorry you are having those issues. I am praying mine stay peaceful!

Debbie! Happy Birthday! The best people have march B-days. MINES TODAY!

My DH has a March birthday as well! Hope your day was glorious!

I thought I'd share my egg dying experience from this afternoon! I'm a cookie decorator and I have a ton of food coloring gels on hand.

Here's the kind of cookies I make...




I wanted to color some of my chickens eggs and decided to use the food coloring gel I use for my frosting instead of getting those Paas tablets. I used 3/4 cup warm water, 1 1/2 tbsp. white vinegar, and a few drops of food coloring.
















I love how they turned out! The dark olive green and the dark blue one on the right are from my cuckoo marans. The rest are just regular light brown eggs.
Anyone else coloring eggs? Share your pictures!

The otherfoote...
THOSE COOKIES ARE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THINGS I'VE SEEN IN A LONG TIME! Wow , you are talented! Those eggs are brown eggs you colored.. I didn't realize you could color brown eggs! Marvelous! I have a confession to make, I bought a dozen white eggs at the market today. I felt like a traitor. I did take a moment to think about the battery girls who laid them, and actually got sad. Poor things stuck in a cage somewhere... makes me a bit nutty to think about. Those stinkin 10 chickens out behind my barn don't know how lucky they are they made it onto this little piece of property and get treated like royalty! I especially love the royal blue eggs.... Amazing.. thank you for posting those pictures. When we die our white eggs, I will take pictures!

Have a great weekend all!
MB

 

[Melabella]

Happy birthday to all the March celebrators. And Congratulations to all those egg milestones, first egg, first dozen, so exciting!!!

I thought I'd update you on my shell-less egg situation. In case any of you start getting these as your young ones come into lay, my good news is that it sems to have stopped after about 2 months. It's so terribly disappointing when you've only just started getting eggs and you find shell-less ones, generally mine were right under the roost. As if she didn't even get up and go to the nesting box! Sometimes 5 or 6 a week from 4 chickens. Such a waste to see them sitting there amongst the poop.

MB - I never did get round to trying your Papaya idea. At the time they were hard to find or very expensive because of the floods we have had up north where they are grown. And now I'm happy to say I don't seem to need to try anything else as it has been at least a month since it happened. The only thing I did try was liquid trace elements and amino acids, which I put into their wet mash with liquid calcium supplements. Whether this really sorted it out, or they just grew out of it, I'll never know.

So, if you newbie eggies start experiecning this, it may well pass after a month or two.

All the best
Katrina

Katrina,,

I am always so happy to see your posts! It tickes me to think you are all the way across the world, in the middle of your morning perhaps, while I am waiting for sheets to dry to put back on my sons bed, he has a friend sleeping over, and I couldn't let the poor boy sleep in those disgusting sheets.. How do boys make sheets so gross in a week. Forget I asked that. I think we all know the answer to that. Stinky, smelly little man people! lol...

I found just about the same time frame about the jelly shelless eggs. Mine are all gone as well. I only had about 6 all together. The wierd thing I have been having is some of my eggs from my wyandotte seem to be gettinng smaller and smaller. They are supposed to be getting bigger no?

Please try the papaya one day, as it just so healthy, and the seeds are a natural wormer. Like I said,, after the first few bites... just stand back. I swear that they know when I am coming with one, they just attack me!

Have a great day!
MB

 

[theotherfoote]

Oh, thanks! I'm just glad to NOT be decorating cookies tonight. Those are for a wedding reception on Saturday. After 200 of those suckers, I'm in need of a neck massage!

There are lots of 'how-to' sites on coloring brown eggs. A lot of them use natural colors like beets, onion skins, and tea bags. I just went with what I had.

I'm looking forward to seeing your easter eggs!

 

[countrygirl74]

Country girl - Congrats on your first dozen. Where did you get
your EE's from? Beautiful color eggs. Mine lays olive green. Would
love to get the lighter colors included in my egg basket. May be worth
the ride up north for me. However, Am not impressed
so far with the fact that my EE gave 2 eggs last week and one today.
My other two girls have laid an egg a day for 12 days straight! Not sure I
would add many EE's if they only provide 2 a week.Perhaps she just
needs time to get regular. The other two started laying about a week
before her. I love the EE look though.

I only have one EE old enough to lay right now. I got her from Ideal Poultry when I ordered a batch last fall. I just picked up another EE with all my new chicks from my local feed store. They get theirs from Privett Hatchery. They are due to have more EE's in April. If you go to http://olsensgrain.com/Chino/events/chick/Chinobabies.html or http://olsensgrain.com/Prescott/events/chick/Prescottbabies.html for dates they will be here. They are labeled as Americaunas... if you need me to pick you up a couple and want to get them another day, let me know!

Here's a chart of the 1st 16 days of her laying... I don't know if they don't lay as often or not as this is my first experience with an EE. I know they are sporadic for a few weeks after starting to lay as are all my girls. Not a single one has laid for me everyday yet. But the funny thing is that my silkie and my EE have laid me the most so far! One day my EE laid me 2! I'll be interested to see if she gets more "regular" after a few more weeks.

Day 1: laid 1st egg!
Day 2: 0
Day 3: laid
Day 4: 0
Day 5: 0
Day 6: laid
Day 7: 0
Day 8: laid
Day 9: laid
Day 10: laid
Day 11: 0
Day 12: 0
Day 13: laid 2!
Day 14: 0
Day 15: laid
Day 16: 0

I thought I'd share my egg dying experience from this afternoon! I'm a cookie decorator and I have a ton of food coloring gels on hand.


I love how they turned out! The dark olive green and the dark blue one on the right are from my cuckoo marans. The rest are just regular light brown eggs.
Anyone else coloring eggs? Share your pictures!

Those are gorgeous!! I didn't know brown eggs could be colored so well!

 

[debbie_nibbles]

Thank you for the birthday wishes Then my DHs is this Sunday, The chickens are ceramic. They were perfect for the colors in my kitchen! Hav a great day everyone!

 

[KnobbyOaks]

I had my first double yolk egg this morning for breakfast. It was one of the ones laid in the first two weeks. That was the yellowest scrambled egg I've ever seen, hardly any white in it. But yummy? I just hope it was filled with all the good cholesterol, not the bad.

Theotherfoote, those eggs are gorgeous as well as the cookies. You have a talent and I too didn't realize you could color brown eggs. Who knew.

MB, I bought a papaya a couple weeks ago and fed it to the chickens, they ate it, but I was wondering how many seeds are supposed to be in them. It seemed like there was only 6-8 maximum. So how do you get more seeds by looking at them in the produce section?

Everybody have a great day. Heading off to fight the crowds at the grocery store.

 

[CatSol]

Theotherfoot... WOW those are stunning. Eggs and cookies. I have always wanted to try to die brown eggs. (but they can be so expensive now I just have to wait) I had thought that they would come out darker. But I only have 2 girls laying right now and I only get blue eggs Wow ... that was not a complaint. I would hate to die blue eggs... hmmm may have to try that anyway and see what I get. Love how that gel came out. I will look into that when I am at the store again. Thanks for the wonderful ideas. But I don't have kids and we may not have company this year... does it sound strange to die eggs for only adults to eat?
Happy Birthday Debbie. Yah! Another March b-day. Mine was early in the month. Love those chickens you got.
Brooster that video was so sad. I don't know... I don't think I could do it for a chick. I have always heard about people culling early when there is issues or not up to a breed standard. And I really do understand why it is done... And I have only put down one bird but that was full grown turkey. I hope you find the answer for him/her.... I wish you the best of luck what ever you decide to do.
Country girl my two Americanas/EE are from Murray McMurry. When they first started laying I got a LOT of eggs. One of them went for several weeks without stopping. The other took a little bit of a break. Now they both seem to have slowed down. I mostly get one egg a day now. Only a few days of no eggs at all.
My little gold star is now officially 20 weeks old. She has squatted every day for me since Sunday. Does anyone else here remember how many days between 1st squat and 1st egg? I forgot.... It feels like it has been so long ago for me

 

[Melabella]

I had my first double yolk egg this morning for breakfast. It was one of the ones laid in the first two weeks. That was the yellowest scrambled egg I've ever seen, hardly any white in it. But yummy? I just hope it was filled with all the good cholesterol, not the bad.

Theotherfoote, those eggs are gorgeous as well as the cookies. You have a talent and I too didn't realize you could color brown eggs. Who knew.

MB, I bought a papaya a couple weeks ago and fed it to the chickens, they ate it, but I was wondering how many seeds are supposed to be in them. It seemed like there was only 6-8 maximum. So how do you get more seeds by looking at them in the produce section?

Everybody have a great day. Heading off to fight the crowds at the grocery store.

wow,,, I have never seen that few seeds... did it look like this when you cut it open, only a few seeds?

 

[debbie_nibbles]

I tried the papaya and yes they do love it! I also tried a piece myself for the 1st time and YUM!!! Thanks again to all for the b-day wishes and Happy Birthday to all I have missed! Hope you all had a great day! The husband came home and said Sorry we can't leave like we planned for vacation So...... we need to go next weekend! Butthead! I'm so excited! Warm weather here we come! My wonderful friend wants to live at our house while we're gone to take care of the girls, and collect the eggs, she's as excited as I am LOL I'm thinking I'm going to miss the EE's first egg but I can deal with it Might not be on here much, tons to do, remove the fishing/winter motorhome things and load up the traveling stuff

 

[KnobbyOaks]

wow,,, I have never seen that few seeds... did it look like this when you cut it open, only a few seeds?

Hmmm, so that's what it's supposed to look like. The one I had had a much smaller area for seeds to be in and the seeds were smaller and only about 8 of them. Bought another one at the grocery store today and decided to get the ripest one I could find, yellow and softer. So we'll see how that works, seed-wise.