Eggs for food vs eggs for chicks...sound off please

[Beccazon]

I am curious to hear from those who have chickens they intend to or have used for eggs AND chicks. Mine have just started laying. Like just yesterday. I have 7 gals and 3 cockerels. The boys are in a separate pen.

I would like to try raising some chicks of our own after the hens are all in a pattern of laying steadily. I would like advice and wisdom as to what age is best for mating (all are 4 months now), what season is best for it, should I allow one or both nice roos at a time to rejoin the flock of hens for a time, if so how long? How long after mating should I allow for possible fertilized eggs? Is there a best time to remove roos when I want to go back to egg production solely for eating?

Please give info, ask me questions, I would like to research the thoughts and ideas and options prior to deciding I want to try for chicks.

Thanx guys!

 

[Chef JimmyJ]

Don't know with whom or when the " Don't Eat Fertilized Eggs " started, but it is ridiculous! Well then, Don't drink milk cause that's an UTTER EXCRETION! Don't eat Honey cause that's Bee VOMIT! Don't eat Organic Vegetables because they are Fertilized with COW POOP! Don't eat Cheese because it made with BACTERIA and MOLD! Don't eat Mushrooms because they are FUNGUS! Don't drink Spring Water because Animals POOP IN THE WOODS! Don't eat Imported Asian Rice because the People who pick it, POOP IN THE PADDY'S! I'm sure there are others Stupid Reasons not to eat some this or that. SILLY PEOPLE...JJ

 

[Beccazon]

Lol, to funny. I was like that as a kid. I would only eat store bought eggs...

My mom-in-law is adamantly refusing to eat at my house now and my sis-in-law is repulsed and "better not find out if I feed her a duck egg". I laugh it off but honestly...it angers me. Like, grow up already! I was so not raised closed-minded or picky. Guess who's getting lied to on Easter when they bite into that delish deviled BYC egg!

 

[sylviethecochin]

I would like advice and wisdom as to what age is best for mating (all are 4 months now)

They can mate at any age. As for what age is best? I prefer over a year. I want to see consistent production of large eggs without any health problems. I want to see good temperament and good growth with no health issues from my roosters as well.

what season is best for it

Spring is best, around April. That's the point of highest fertility. Because of our shorter summers, though, I like to shoot for chicks as late in the year as I can manage. They usually won't begin laying in the fall if I hatch them in the spring, and if they haven't started laying in the fall, they won't lay during winter, so I'll have wasted 1-3 months of feed before I get eggs in the spring (assuming they would have begun laying at 5 months.)

should I allow one or both nice roos at a time to rejoin the flock of hens for a time, if so how long?

I prefer to establish a permanent flock rooster. Less mess with the pecking order that way. With seven hens, I would leave it at one rooster.

How long after mating should I allow for possible fertilized eggs?

Up to a month.

Is there a best time to remove roos when I want to go back to egg production solely for eating?

Nah. Roosters don't usually affect egg production (if they affect it for the worse, they're stressing your hens and shouldn't be kept anyway) and fertilisation doesn't affect taste. Unless your weather regularly remains at 100℉, and you don't gather eggs for days at a time, I see no reason to keep the rooster away from his flock.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Yes, there is no reason to avoid eating fertilized eggs. We collect our eggs daily and put them in the refrigerator. For fertilized eggs to begin developing they have to be kept very warm, like around 99°F and kept there, plus they need very high humidity practically like a sauna. Once refrigerated any possibility of development is stopped cold, pardon the pun, so there is no chance of finding anything unwanted in your breakfast! I don't actually incubate eggs so my figures may not be accurate, but if you refrigerate your eggs you have nothing to worry about. You can actually keep them at room temperature and they'll be fine. Other countries than America do exactly that!

 

[aart]

I am curious to hear from those who have chickens they intend to or have used for eggs AND chicks. Mine have just started laying. Like just yesterday. I have 7 gals and 3 cockerels. The boys are in a separate pen.

I would like to try raising some chicks of our own after the hens are all in a pattern of laying steadily. I would like advice and wisdom as to what age is best for mating (all are 4 months now), what season is best for it, should I allow one or both nice roos at a time to rejoin the flock of hens for a time, if so how long? How long after mating should I allow for possible fertilized eggs? Is there a best time to remove roos when I want to go back to egg production solely for eating?

Please give info, ask me questions, I would like to research the thoughts and ideas and options prior to deciding I want to try for chicks.

Thanx guys!

I would strongly suggest you get thru your first winter before adding more birds. Winter is a whole other learning curve, as is hatching/integrating/slaughtering.

Why do you have chickens....eggs, meat, pets?
How much housing space do you have, in feet by feet with pics?
When you say "raise some chicks" are you going to buy chicks, use an incubator, or hope for a broody hen?
Do you want to sell chicks or keep them all?
Do you have separate space to grow out chicks and a plan to integrate them?
Are you prepared to 'get rid of' the ~50% male chicks if you hatch?
Keeping multiple males in separate enclosure is a waste of feed, IMO, pick one and get rid of the others...unless you are a serious breeder making chick/ens to sell or show.
Moving a male in with females should produce fertile eggs within a week.
Just one mating can produce fertile eggs for up to a month, tho hatching eggs are best at less than about 10 days. Best not to hatch pullet eggs, wait at least a few months.

My overall goal was/is eggs to sell enough to pay for feed and most the bedding.
Coop/run building and other equipment and supply costs are the 'hobby' part.
I keep one cockbird and ~dozen hens, hatch replacement layers each early spring and slaughter the cockerels by 14-16 weeks. I also slaughter the older hens then or in the fall because I only have so much housing to get thru winter. Did a too crowded coop one winter, never again. Do not underestimate the need for more than 'adequate' weatherproof housing.

 

[SueT]

re eating fertilized eggs, last yr a BYC member put some Walmart eggs in her incubator and one of them actually hatched! She named it Wally. So there's a good chance many people are eating fertile eggs without knowing it.
Back in the 1960's, fertile eggs were considered superior and you had to pay more for them! It was a selling point.
I think there's absolutely no difference.

 

[Mvan42]

Don't know with whom or when the " Don't Eat Fertilized Eggs " started, but it is ridiculous! Well then, Don't drink milk cause that's an UTTER EXCRETION! Don't eat Honey cause that's Bee VOMIT! Don't eat Organic Vegetables because they are Fertilized with COW POOP! Don't eat Cheese because it made with BACTERIA and MOLD! Don't eat Mushrooms because they are FUNGUS! Don't drink Spring Water because Animals POOP IN THE WOODS! Don't eat Imported Asian Rice because the People who pick it, POOP IN THE PADDY'S! I'm sure there are others Stupid Reasons not to eat some this or that. SILLY PEOPLE...JJ

Well when you put it that way.. lol.

 

[Peppercorngal]

I bought a herd of chickens because I wanted eggs. I ended up with 3 roosters and ended up keeping one. (Harvey the Great) He grew to be a very good rooster and lives with the hens. One day a hen got broody and I let her have eggs and she hatched them and raised the babies. This year the same occurred. I have all the chickens together, roosters, chicks, hens, everyone. I do have 2 coop and runs and they choose where they want to hang out and sleep, they all share a free range area. I believe in just letting the chickens be chickens. If I get too many roosters, I sell them. If a hen is broody, I use that as an opportunity to hatch some chicks. I leave everyone together, they all get along. Right now I have 3 mature roosters and no problems. They all have their own harem of hens, and can actually stand together and not fight. I don't try to make broody hens unbroody, make roosters not crow, none of that. I let them be exactly who they are. I have an egg business and usually sell out, everyone loves my fertile eggs!

 

[Beccazon]

Thank you! Haha well MOM here knows we can eat them but try telling the kids or the hubby. Those were some truly special facial expressions A year would be good. That would be spring of next year and actual decent weather in my area lol