Appleyard Eggs Are Too Big!

[MysticalMom]

Our Silver Appleyards are FINALLY laying. ( I was starting to get worried there for awhile, the older they got) These eggs are HUGE! Too big for even a jumbo egg egg carton. Obviously we could just keep them in a bowl in the fridge, but we have a side by side fridge ( which I hate!) and not a lot of room. Does anyone know if theres a bigger sized carton than jumbo that we can buy for these eggs?

 

[katharinad]

Try a goose egg carton:
http://www.eggcartons.com/product-e...r_6_Egg_Goose_Egg_Cartons_w_No_Label_FHPBL_6G

 

[MysticalMom]

Quote:
Katharinad!!! I knew you'd come through. *bopping my head* Why didn't I think of that!!

 

[katharinad]

Down side is you have to buy 25 of them.

You can also use a rectangular tray and fill it with rice and park them in there. Crumbled up aluminum foil also works.

How much protein are you feeding? Lots of protein produces large eggs.

 

[MysticalMom]

Great ideas K. Thanks much.

I feed Blue Seal Grower-Cal pellets and it's 15% crude protein. They don't get a whole lot of that right now as they free range over the farm all day. And since we are in the process of bush hogging the Christmas Tree fields they are having a ball with the bugs, grass and many many many grasshoppers at the edge of those. Of course they get their daily ( some times every other day, depending) treat, usually a few peas, or watermelon, cantaloupe, etc, sometimes romaine lettuce and tomatoes.. just whatever I have on hand.

We knew Appleyard eggs were BIG. We got some last year to incubate ( had humidity problems and only hatched 1) and couldn't believe how big they were. So I'm not really SURPRISED by their size. But now that we're getting a dozen eggs a day, we realize just how much bigger they are than all of our other ducks and those chicken egg cartons just aren't doing the job.

I like the idea of the goose egg cartons. BUT.. I dont like the idea that those are PVC plastic. I know I know. It's silly, but it seems almost wrong to me to grow veggies and herbs organically and raise organic, free range ducks and then package them in PVC plastic cartons.

 

[katharinad]

I know I didn't like the plastic idea either, but they don't make them out of recycled paper pulp. Another option would be turner trays cut up and put into a tray. I have seen some on ebay.

 

[DoesItQuack]

There was a "dairy bank" with egg tray insert that came with an old fridge of mine (so look on ebay etc and hopefully you can find one!). There are circular depressions in the tray, and the box (with lid) is large enough to accommodate duck eggs from my experience (I don't have Appleyards yet, really want some though, so if you're willing to send me some hatching eggs, PM me Hope this helps!

 

[Oregon Blues]

I use cartons made for duck and turkey eggs. Those are smaller than the goose egg cartons and bigger than the chicken egg cartons.

Have you tried cutting the lid off of the jumbo chicken egg cartons. Sometimes you can wedge the eggs in there, but you can't close the lid.