Egg collecting

[TnChickHen]

What time of day do you collect eggs? I usually get 2 eggs a day, 1 from my BO Ginger, and 1 from my RIR Ruby. I've thought about letting the eggs sit until I go to lock everyone up at night. What do you do?

 

[TigerLilly]

Due to the heat & humidity where I am, I collect at least twice a day & they are both long before they roost for the night.
I pretty much have an idea of who lays at what part of the day, So that's when I collect. I like to get them inside as soon as possible, not just for the heat, but also in case their are predators laying in wait. (An egg-eating snake might not be too noticable behind the coop!)

 

[chicmom]

I collect my eggs every day after work (around 5pm). It's just a habit, I guess. I go down to the coop and say howdy, everybody comes a'runnin! I just love it! Then I take the eggs.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

We collect when the thought comes to mind. As everyone is collecting it's common to get eggs the next day and find twice as many, "I thought you gathered yesterday."

In general we collect in afternoon after they've all layed.

 

[erinchelsea]

I wait till late afternoon when they're done laying. My girls are lazy and don't lay in the morning anyway!

 

[gryeyes]

I collect when I get home from work, after a 10 hour day and a 90 minute commute. On the weekends, I collect throughout the day because it's so much fun.

It's dark when I leave for work, and I don't want to disturb the loud-mouthed crowers before they would naturally start to greet the morning and leave the coop. Sometimes, however, a couple roosters will crow when they hear me start my car.

When it starts getting dark before I get home from work, I will disturb them in the evening by turning on the lights in the coop so I can see to gather the day's eggs.

 

[AZBootsie]

I have a boring life, so I collect eggs a couple or 3 times a day. Lately more because I have a broody that keeps stealing my eggs. She is already sitting on way to many!!

 

[moetrout]

I collect late in the afternoon, but if they sit until the next day it's not going to hurt anything. I have left on a Friday night for a weekend trip and not collected the eggs until Sunday evening......in the middle of summer. Eggs will be just fine.

 

[gryeyes]

Quote:
Ahh, yes, if the concern was about safety of eating eggs left in the nest a while, I missed that. But Moetrout is right: unless there is broody hen setting on the eggs to incubate them, eggs can be gathered as much as four days later. Plus, I keep mine on my kitchen counter for weeks. I only refrigerate the "dirty" eggs, after I wash them.. Washing removes the "bloom" that helps keep the shells sealed.

 

[TnChickHen]

Wow, I love all the answers I'm getting. Fantastic advice! I have a 2 year old RIR that I would like to become broody, but not sure how to approach that.