Easter Egg Hunt is Over !!!!

[speckledhen]

Thank you, Ruth. I'm booked till the end of May, but on occasion, I have a cancellation and I can put you on my standby list. I'm trying not to actually book any after that because I want to reevaluate whether or not I still want to ship hatching eggs. I bet I can find a spot to send you a half dozen or so somewhere in the next couple of months, though...

 

[ruth]

Quote:
Oh that would be too cool. I don't want that many. Really would be happy with a pair or a roo and couple of girls. Your guy is so handsome.

I'm trying to get 3 or 4 of each breed.

This is why I never collect things - once I start I HAVE to have everything that was ever made. Now I HAVE to have a few of every breed for my chicken collection.

I started collecting vintage jewelry 3 years ago and within a month I had turned it into a business and opened my own shop. Was a fun time though and met many great friends through that shop that I kept for 3 years. Some of those friends were here this weekend and saw my chickens for first time and how they were following me around and I was picking them up and petting them. They were amazed. I told them when they were leaving to tell everyone who asked about me, (who knew me as the really dressed up and decked out woman who owned the vintage dress & jewelry shop) that the last time you saw me I was carrying chickens around a farm.

Personally I believe multiple personality disorder is highly under-rated.

 

[allenacres]

The last chicken I told to stay in the pasture, and lay your eggs at home, got eaten by a coyote. Then the coyote came back and cleaned out her eggs. Did a good job too, clean as a whistle with just a hole in them. But feathers everywhere.....poor chicken.

 

[airmom1c05]

Ever since I introduced the Silky Serama Bantams breeder pair and the little allegedly Americauna young pullet as company to my mixed hen Brandy, her regular 6 eggs a week in her laying box has stopped. At first she acted jealous and laid a couple of eggs in the bantam's tiny laying box which was comical if not next to impossible. Then I didn't see an egg for 5 days. Today would have been 6 days. I have been crawling around in the dirt under the coop, too, looking for eggs. Also I was worrying that she had one stuck! I have been giving them all more treats than I should, including Pepper Jack Cheese, Romaine lettuce, and cantaloupe. I recently read the young Americauna should NOT have oyster shells, so I removed those. Yesterday I smartened up (from reading.....Man! lately I read too much.....I think I'm developing chicken brains!) anyway, I placed the young chick in a pen in the coop with her food because she was eating layer crumbles and treats and the older birds were eating treats and medicated chick starter and not getting oyster shells. So that is a slight improvement, but today I found half of one of Brandy's egg shells in the middle of the coop floor. Unless she pushed it out of the laying box, it must have been laid in the rafters of the coop and rolled to the floor. The bad news is she ate the insides. (I know it was her because (get ready for this) THERE WAS EGG ON HER FACE!!!!! LOL! That's really not that funny because I don't want her to eat the eggs. I want to eat the eggs. After that, much to my surprise, there was a still warm Brandy egg in the cat carrier next to her laying box! Hallelujah! (Or so I thought.) It had a peck hole in one end. To Brandy's credit (or full crop) she had not devoured it. Also, to be fair, I noticed the shell wasn't as hard as usual, so maybe she's not turning into an egg eater after all. Maybe since she can have oyster shell again since Dahlia is separated from the older birds, her shells will toughen up. Perhaps it broke when she tried to reposition it. I've had the privilege of actually watching her lay about 6 eggs, and she always repositions them right after they drop. As far as possibly laying eggs in the rafters, maybe she's looking for a more private spot than her box. She really shows tendencies of jealousy towards the other females. She seems to wish to be an only bird again. Poor Brandy! The trouble with the rafters is that our coop is really an old recently moved home made tin storage house. When it was moved, it was not releveled. I certainly hope I don't have to call in professional foundation folks to have the thing leveled properly so her eggs won't fall out of the rafters. There is much more to raising chickens than meets the inexperienced eye.

 

[ruth]

Hi Airmom - that's funny - literally caught with egg on her face. BUT....if she's turned into an egg eater that could be where your eggs are going. Could be she's decided they taste pretty good.

 

[ruth]

Hi Allenacres - welcome. I see you're new. Sorry to hear you lost one to a coyote. We have a German Shepherd dog, Rex, and a mutt, Lucy who stay outside and won't let even the scent of something get into the yard. While I know it's possible something can and probably will happen to a chicken if left to free range long enough, so far, thank God my girls have been free ranging since they hatched.

I believe the trick to free ranging is to have lots of predators of your own. All of our dogs and cats interact with the chickens and are one big happy family.

 

[allenacres]

airmom1c05 have you tried feeding the egg shells back to your chickens? That is what I do. I dont have any problems with chickens eating their own eggs and the shells give them calcium. All my eggs have nice hard shells.

chicken brains.

 

[airmom1c05]

The only egg shells so far I have fed to Brandy are the ones from today, but to be honest, I worried that might make her more determined to break her own to eat!?!? I have fed all the birds scrambled eggs once, but they didn't really seem to love them. The little rooster wouldn't touch them. Dahlia, my Americauna pullet is such a greedy gut (probably because she is at the bottom of the pecking order) she ate most of it.

 

[ruth]

I feed all of my shells back to the girls but I grind them up first so they won't recognize them as egg shells. Mine also love shredded cheese and black oil sunflower seeds - both are great for calcium and protein.

 

[allenacres]

Hi Ruth, thank you. Yes we do the same, have a GS cross who does a great job of chasing off the coyotes and usually does. This was a sneaky coyote and a bad chicken. She was in some really tall grass outside the pasture and the coyote must have sneaked up behind her when she went out to lay her egg. He had the forest behind him as an easy escape.

But yes I totally agree with having dogs to help protect the chickens (and the kitties). Ive only lost this one to the coyotes, one to a hawk and we have had chickens for 2-1/2 years.