Frozen Eggs

[gmayberry]

I went out to feed / water the chickens today and collect the eggs.
I noticed a crack in one of the eggs and cracked it open.
Frozen.
I have been wondering about this since it is getting colder.
My wife and I both work during the day so collecting eggs, feeding etc. does not happen until about 4:00 pm.
Last night the temps were in the mid to low teens the coldest it has been this year.
I have an optional heat bulb in the coop but upon advice from this forum do not want to use it unless the temps get down around zero.
The birds are fine, eating well, laying well and active.
Do we throw the eggs out, thaw them and feed to the dogs?
Just wondering. I thought this might happen.
Thanks in advance for any input.

 

[BWKatz]

Could u put a heating pad under the nest box? Just be careful if u put it in it,don't want to start a fire.

 

[TDM]

Quote:
Large commercial poultry houses are both heated and insulated. I insulated my mobile hen houses, and would heat them if feasible. Instead I stock my coops at two square feet per bird, and hope that the 40 to 50 btu's generated per bird is sufficient to prevent eggs from freezing. Last night it was near zero, and not one egg was frozen.

 

[jtbrown]

Only got up to 22 or 24 here today. All the eggs but an oopsie on the floor were fine, it was cracked from freezing I think. Will refrig til Friday when I'm off and give the girls some scrambled Eggs.

 

[donrae]

I give the frozen eggs to my dogs. Eggscicles--it's hilarious to watch them try to figure out how to eat them!

 

[SouthDakotan]

My first year of poultry rearing, I used a heated dog watering dish as the nest

Its non conventional, but I knew that our -30 nites would definitely bring frozen eggs all winter. So I used it and they happily layed their eggs in the designated "nest" and I only plugged it in once I started finding frozen cracked eggs.

Nice thing is, the dog dish keeps the eggs warm when the birds aren't on the nest, but the hens are happy because they aren't being "Baked" by an overhead heat lamp.

I tried the overhead heat lamp later in another arrangement with a 2nd batch of hens, but it didn't work as well. That arrangement had only one nest too. But I got lots of frozen eggs instead.

My issue now is how to create that "heat blanket" system for a wall mounted galvanized nest condo style box?