Colder folks .....regarding egg laying

[2468Chickensrgr8]

I have 5 geese( embden and production Toulouse) and 12 ducks( Muscovies and one runner) all hatched out relavely around the same time ....there roughly 5 months old now.. My silly questiuon is
when should I look forward to eggs.......
and
When that starts up should I leave them locked up in their coop for the morning until they figure out where to lay their eggs?
and
should I prepare egg laying boxes for them
I am asking Cold weather folks as I live in Ontario Canada ....would weather have a facter in this ?
Thanks

 

[Olive Hill]

The geese will probably not lay until Spring, the muscovies can also tend to be seasonal layers. The runner, if female, may start laying this winter. Weather doesn't really have an effect on laying per se, but length of day does. And, as it so happens, short length of day also tends to coincide with cooler temperatures.

 

[Denninmi]

FWIW, I live in SE Michigan. Certainly not as cold as many parts of Ontario can get. But, let me reassure you, eggs left even 24 hours and frozen solid are perfectly good for eating. Sometimes they crack open, sometimes not, it depends on whether totally or only partially frozen.

If they are totally frozen and crack, just rinse carefully under cold water right away after harvesting, let them thaw just a minute or two to free the shell from the egg, and then go ahead and crack them and take them from the shells. The frozen egg will pop right out, and you can then bag and freeze for later use, or let them thaw and use right away.

I find frozen eggs perfectly acceptable for baking, scrambling, pretty much everything but frying. They would probably be fine for that, too, if packaged separately, but when I package them in groups of six, they make one big glob when poured into the pan, kind of hard to fry them that way.

Generally, I go out in the evenings and harvest the days eggs, and they are NOT frozen at that point, unless it's been extremely cold out that day. Usually, they only freeze if I don't harvest them and they go all night.

Now, if you want to HATCH the eggs, obviously, not only can they not freeze, its better that they not fall below an internal temperature of about 40 to 45 degrees F.