19 and a half weeks old and still no eggs :( egg countdown anyone??

[cheeka]

it's too much surfing back through the pages... did i ever mention here that my bantam EE started laying?? pretty little green-blue egg. she was roughly 31 weeks old... I've lost track of so much...


first pic; all my egg colors with Peaches first egg
second pic; all my ee eggs, Peaches first egg in the center...
third pic; Sirus guarding Peach in her litter created nest...

if I did already tell y'all, sorry for the repeat...

She's a good little layer, 5-6 eggs a week for the past 2+ weeks

 

[bruceha2000]

So Bruce, do you have a little chart of each egg, the date laid, the weight, and the probable hen?

I should have been counting. But in all the excitement I didn't think of that.

I have an Excel sheet with dates and each bird (good thing there are only 12!). I don't have a scale so I sort of guess at Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large and

WOWZER!

- I can tell the 2 Ancona eggs apart, they are the only white layers and Zia's are a bit pointier on the skinny end.
- I can tell the EEs, Andromeda lays blue, Persephone green
- The Australorp lays a brown egg, don't know if both are laying or not.

- The Cubalaya eggs are smaller than the others but I can't necessarily tell which laid unless I get two.
- One of the Faverolles lays a medium light brown egg as does the Chantecler so I can't tell them apart and I STILL don't know if the other Chantecler is laying.
- The other Faverolles lays a lighter cream brown egg so I usually can tell when she has laid.

The PLAN is to also track how much they eat and how much it costs but I only have "fill the feeder twice a week" until it got cold now it is like every other day.
Since I haven't been keeping track, I'll just have to go by the feed receipts if I get organized. Not sure I want to tally up the capital costs even though I used alot of stuff already here. Mostly the costs have been hardware.

Tickets to Portland just bought - arriving Jan 26th PM, heading to San Francisco the following Saturday early.

Bruce

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I have an Excel sheet with dates and each bird (good thing there are only 12!). I don't have a scale so I sort of guess at Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large and

WOWZER!

- I can tell the 2 Ancona eggs apart, they are the only white layers and Zia's are a bit pointier on the skinny end.
- I can tell the EEs, Andromeda lays blue, Persephone green
- The Australorp lays a brown egg, don't know if both are laying or not.

- The Cubalaya eggs are smaller than the others but I can't necessarily tell which laid unless I get two.
- One of the Faverolles lays a medium light brown egg as does the Chantecler so I can't tell them apart and I STILL don't know if the other Chantecler is laying.
- The other Faverolles lays a lighter cream brown egg so I usually can tell when she has laid.

The PLAN is to also track how much they eat and how much it costs but I only have "fill the feeder twice a week" until it got cold now it is like every other day.
Since I haven't been keeping track, I'll just have to go by the feed receipts if I get organized. Not sure I want to tally up the capital costs even though I used alot of stuff already here. Mostly the costs have been hardware.

Tickets to Portland just bought - arriving Jan 26th PM, heading to San Francisco the following Saturday early.

Bruce

I am IMPRESSED!!! Do you decorate your spreadsheet with a photo ID of hen bird and "prints" of her signature egg?

I already had a really cool digital kitchen scale that I use to weigh the eggs. I weighed every egg for quite a while. Now I only occasionally weigh a few to see how small the smallest are, or how big the biggest are. The eggs are getting bigger as the hens mature, which is nice.

About the feed costs ... yeesh I'm not ready to think about that with much precision.

We buy all our feed at the same farm store we have a general account at, and I can't say I was all that pleased to know a person can go to their account online and print out a tally of how much is spent on each category of item: hardware, pet foods, feed, clothing, tools ... the sensible part of me knows I have to face this eventually, cost out the eggs, and determine if I can sell them for enough to cover the feed. I had already figured that first dozen I sold should have been marked at $5,000.00

due to sunk costs like building a ginormous coop, but I think I sold it for $3.00. I did raise my flat price $0.50 since then, but with volume discounts and credits for cartons, I seem to have actually lowered my price to $2.75. Obviously this is NOT covering the feed.

One of the reasons we aren't covering our feed costs is the amount of waste. We have the standard 30 lb galvanized hanging feeders, 3 of them in the big coop. We already knew our birds beak out a lot of feed because we see it in the bedding, but we didn't realize how much until I filled all three feeders one day, and all the food was gone the next. That's 90 lbs of feed in ONE DAY.

Way more than 60 chickens should be eating, even in winter.

I have been considering switching to fermented feed, but preparing and distributing 30+ lbs of that per day is not a procedure I've got the brain power to problem solve right now (and I'm having issues getting the rest of the staff to sign on to this idea even though all sources indicate fermented feed is also much healthier for the birds). So we built some hopper-style feeders out of 4" PVC pipe ... it's a vertical piece for a hopper, a horizontal piece for food access, and a angle piece between them. We drilled appropriately sized holes in the horizontal piece, sanded them smooth, hung them high-ish, and filled the hoppers with feed. It works GREAT for not wasting feed, but it is pretty feeble for automatically refilling itself. So several times per day I find myself scooching food forward with my fingers ... good thing I got that Masters Degree, huh? I did have the tops tilted a bit yesterday so we shall see if that helps at all.

The next phase of the experiment will be switching from crumbles to pellets to see if that helps the feed move down into the trough. I expect to register a lot of complaints from the girls during the switch. Which is why we haven't already switched.

But yeah, costing the eggs we sell ... Can I get a tax deduction for "charity?"

We can't wait to see you. We've been sprucing up the coop a bit in anticipation of visitors.

 

[bruceha2000]

Quote:

Of COURSE I do! HAH!

The closest I am to that is a one or 2 word description of the egg. No photo IDs, though it would help my wife if she had the spreadsheet. She still can't remember all the girls names and which birds go with the names. Took me long enough and my daughter (who you will get to meet) was quite annoyed that I:
1) couldn't remember all the names
2) didn't spell some of them correctly.

Well geez, *I* didn't name them and how am *I* supposed to know that Fae means "fairy" and she hadn't named her Faye? And how am *I* supposed to know that Uwe is actually spelled Yue and means "moon" in Chinese?
I'm just a feeble minded middle aged guy. I only have so much brain power!!!!

Quote:
I had already figured that first dozen I sold should have been marked at $5,000.00

due to sunk costs like building a ginormous coop.

No, no, one can't put the capital costs on the first sale. You have to amortize that over its useful life. We'll get down to a reasonable $0.50/egg cost eventually.

Quote:
My girls had chick starter crumbles then went to "crumblets". I guess they are half size pellets? I don't THINK we get a lot of waste and there weren't any complaints.

Quote:
Only if you give them TO a charity

Quote:
Don't work at it too hard. My converted horse stall and lower part of the barn are so far from being able to BE "spruced up", I'd probably feel uncomfortable in something TOO spiffy

Bruce

 

[UrbanMamaHen]

Finally! Got my 1st two pullet eggs from my Welsummers. Whoo-hoooooo!!!!

My 5 Wellie girls are 8mos old today. I had all but given up on them for the winter and was waiting for spring!

My two Wellies are 9 months old and still are not laying! Congrats on yours.

 

[RoxyBird]

About the feed costs ... yeesh I'm not ready to think about that with much precision.

We buy all our feed at the same farm store we have a general account at, and I can't say I was all that pleased to know a person can go to their account online and print out a tally of how much is spent on each category of item: hardware, pet foods, feed, clothing, tools ... the sensible part of me knows I have to face this eventually, cost out the eggs, and determine if I can sell them for enough to cover the feed. I had already figured that first dozen I sold should have been marked at $5,000.00

due to sunk costs like building a ginormous coop, but I think I sold it for $3.00. I did raise my flat price $0.50 since then, but with volume discounts and credits for cartons, I seem to have actually lowered my price to $2.75. Obviously this is NOT covering the feed.

One of the reasons we aren't covering our feed costs is the amount of waste. We have the standard 30 lb galvanized hanging feeders, 3 of them in the big coop. We already knew our birds beak out a lot of feed because we see it in the bedding, but we didn't realize how much until I filled all three feeders one day, and all the food was gone the next. That's 90 lbs of feed in ONE DAY.

Way more than 60 chickens should be eating, even in winter.

I have been considering switching to fermented feed, but preparing and distributing 30+ lbs of that per day is not a procedure I've got the brain power to problem solve right now (and I'm having issues getting the rest of the staff to sign on to this idea even though all sources indicate fermented feed is also much healthier for the birds). So we built some hopper-style feeders out of 4" PVC pipe ... it's a vertical piece for a hopper, a horizontal piece for food access, and a angle piece between them. We drilled appropriately sized holes in the horizontal piece, sanded them smooth, hung them high-ish, and filled the hoppers with feed. It works GREAT for not wasting feed, but it is pretty feeble for automatically refilling itself. So several times per day I find myself scooching food forward with my fingers ... good thing I got that Masters Degree, huh? I did have the tops tilted a bit yesterday so we shall see if that helps at all.

The next phase of the experiment will be switching from crumbles to pellets to see if that helps the feed move down into the trough. I expect to register a lot of complaints from the girls during the switch. Which is why we haven't already switched.

I don't have time for fermented feed either - I'm in grad school and work full time + life. ack.

But, you know what saved me here (and forgive me if I sound ignorant- I'm only 9 months into my first chicken project)- I found a small group of people in town who have whole grain feed mixed at our local feed store. It's nearly the same stuff that gets pelleted (except living and uncrushed). We did have to order a few strange ingredients to cover the nutritional requirements (a weird little Swedish pea and some other stuff- I could probably get a recipe). Our local mixer requires 500lbs+ to mix properly and our cost ends up being around $20 for a 50lb bag... which a dozen or so people split depending on the size of the order for that month. We also help with the legwork of bagging the feed, etc.

Now, that sounds like a lot of $$ and work, but they eat nearly all of it, despite beaking out just as much. In the spring/summer/fall the spilled seeds germinate (high humidity in MO helps), which encourages scratching and does wonders for my composting coop floor (keeping the poop dug in, and keeping them warm in winter). I do throw out a few handfuls of cracked corn and BOSS to encourage scratching/hunting in the winter, since there are no longer sprouts... but they spend more time hunting in there during the winter anyway since they hate snow Anyway, I've actually halved my feed costs since switching, and the coop is less dusty/requires fewer cleanouts. I provide oyster shell and crushed eggshell separate from feed in a big flower pot at all times and I haven't had any issues with soft shells. Grit separate too...

We do have to feed dark, leafy greens along with the whole grain mix (or kelp- also orderable through the feed store) to supplement for certain vitamins (or I suppose a multi-vitamin in the water could work?)- but I try to grow and freeze a ton of that in the summer. And, a lot of grocery stores will let you have produce that's about ready to pitch- especially through the winter when no one wants to go out back to the dumpster in 15F repeatedly all day.

It's been a cool community project and egads, the eggs (which started in October) have been prolific. Good stuff.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I don't have time for fermented feed either - I'm in grad school and work full time + life. ack.

But, you know what saved me here (and forgive me if I sound ignorant- I'm only 9 months into my first chicken project)- I found a small group of people in town who have whole grain feed mixed at our local feed store. It's nearly the same stuff that gets pelleted (except living and uncrushed). We did have to order a few strange ingredients to cover the nutritional requirements (a weird little Swedish pea and some other stuff- I could probably get a recipe). Our local mixer requires 500lbs+ to mix properly and our cost ends up being around $20 for a 50lb bag... which a dozen or so people split depending on the size of the order for that month. We also help with the legwork of bagging the feed, etc.

Now, that sounds like a lot of $$ and work, but they eat nearly all of it, despite beaking out just as much. In the spring/summer/fall the spilled seeds germinate (high humidity in MO helps), which encourages scratching and does wonders for my composting coop floor (keeping the poop dug in, and keeping them warm in winter). I do throw out a few handfuls of cracked corn and BOSS to encourage scratching/hunting in the winter, since there are no longer sprouts... but they spend more time hunting in there during the winter anyway since they hate snow Anyway, I've actually halved my feed costs since switching, and the coop is less dusty/requires fewer cleanouts. I provide oyster shell and crushed eggshell separate from feed in a big flower pot at all times and I haven't had any issues with soft shells. Grit separate too...

We do have to feed dark, leafy greens along with the whole grain mix (or kelp- also orderable through the feed store) to supplement for certain vitamins (or I suppose a multi-vitamin in the water could work?)- but I try to grow and freeze a ton of that in the summer. And, a lot of grocery stores will let you have produce that's about ready to pitch- especially through the winter when no one wants to go out back to the dumpster in 15F repeatedly all day.

It's been a cool community project and egads, the eggs (which started in October) have been prolific. Good stuff.

I LOVE this story. We are brand new to chickens, too (since spring 2012). One of my big goals is to do exactly what you've described, and by growing as many of the different seeds/grains as possible right here on our property (we have a farm). I'm just so scared of having to be responsible for all the knowledge about chicken nutrition. But gearing up for the day this might happen, I've broached the issue of storing larger quantities of seeds here, and that conversation didn't go very well. I'll talk to the local feed mill next ...

One thing I've been doing this winter is growing fodder from rye seed we use here on the farm for winter cover crop. We got half-a-ton extra, and the pasture is sparse right now, and I dove into that project. It was supposed to be "free," but I'm investing in fancy trays and have already bought shelving and ... that's all a part of Chicken Math, right?

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Well geez, *I* didn't name them and how am *I* supposed to know that Fae means "fairy" and she hadn't named her Faye? And how am *I* supposed to know that Uwe is actually spelled Yue and means "moon" in Chinese?
I'm just a feeble minded middle aged guy. I only have so much brain power!!!!

Now that's just precious. I admit it is Nelson who does most of the naming around here. He is also becoming a walking encyclopedia of breed names. Proper Nouns are the stuff that made me such a poor student. It is Nelson who can sometimes tell which hen has laid which egg. He is now "banding" mating groups ...

Me? I skip through the coop with my egg basket saying "Oooh, how pretty!" and "Thank you!" over every egg. I'm sure it only gets worse from here.

No, no, one can't put the capital costs on the first sale. You have to amortize that over its useful life. We'll get down to a reasonable $0.50/egg cost eventually.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're talking more details here and all I'm getting is "blah blah blah"

My girls had chick starter crumbles then went to "crumblets". I guess they are half size pellets? I don't THINK we get a lot of waste and there weren't any complaints.

Next batch of feed is definitely going to be different!

Only if you give them TO a charity

Drat, there's always a catch.

Don't work at it too hard. My converted horse stall and lower part of the barn are so far from being able to BE "spruced up", I'd probably feel uncomfortable in something TOO spiffy

Oh, we're pulling out ALL the stops. Today the younger birds got ... wait for it ... they got ROOSTS. Can you imagine such fanciness out here on the farm? I did have to spend some time after dark putting them up on the things, the poor little darlings. They'll wake up wondering what happened and where they are. Tomorrow I'm going to change out all the bedding in the nesting boxes. Who knows what I might dream up next.

By the way, you do know to bring your hip waders, right? It is mud season here (not to be confused with weed season).

Bruce

-Lj

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

it's too much surfing back through the pages... did i ever mention here that my bantam EE started laying?? pretty little green-blue egg. she was roughly 31 weeks old... I've lost track of so much...


first pic; all my egg colors with Peaches first egg
second pic; all my ee eggs, Peaches first egg in the center...
third pic; Sirus guarding Peach in her litter created nest...

if I did already tell y'all, sorry for the repeat...

She's a good little layer, 5-6 eggs a week for the past 2+ weeks

Awwww! Thank you, Peaches. Those are very pretty eggs.

 

[RoxyBird]

I LOVE this story. We are brand new to chickens, too (since spring 2012). One of my big goals is to do exactly what you've described, and by growing as many of the different seeds/grains as possible right here on our property (we have a farm). I'm just so scared of having to be responsible for all the knowledge about chicken nutrition. But gearing up for the day this might happen, I've broached the issue of storing larger quantities of seeds here, and that conversation didn't go very well. I'll talk to the local feed mill next ...

One thing I've been doing this winter is growing fodder from rye seed we use here on the farm for winter cover crop. We got half-a-ton extra, and the pasture is sparse right now, and I dove into that project. It was supposed to be "free," but I'm investing in fancy trays and have already bought shelving and ... that's all a part of Chicken Math, right?

Chicken math = why I have 11 chickens in 6 chicken-per-household city limits... hahaha. You know, they've figured out how to jump up into the compost bin and into my next door neighbor's fenced-in yard... and do so frequently. SO, technically that's 6 chickens for one property and 5 for the other... right? And really, the bantys only count as 1/2 a bird anyway...

If I run across the recipe they are currently using I will post it here. I know the ingredient list is available on someone's personal page- but I'm not sure about % ingredients.

You know, just an idea - you could probably contact an Ag school (especially at a state school like U of MO) and find someone with a student who needs a project and can help you formulate a diet for free, including whatever you can grow easiest. A lot of those professors do consulting work of that type for larger-scale production farms and have students who could use the practice.