- Mar 29, 2010
- 6
- 0
- 7
Hi we're new chicken owners... thought we could handle a couple of chickens since we've been raising quail for about 3 months. Ha Ha. Anyway I have a question in another category asking if anyone can tell me what kind of chickens I bought! I'll put a photo here too, just in case someone wants to chime in with the answer.
The three hens we bought were supposedly laying before we purchased, and we have gotten a few eggs (4 eggs in 2 weeks!) and feel rather frustrated. We are still in the process of getting some nesting boxes added to the tractor we made, but I have some rectangular boxes (usps shipping boxes... don't tell my post man, I could get arrested for misuse!) that they seem to like to sit in.
Like I said, we've only gotten 4 eggs (maybe 5) in two weeks, and at first we thought they may not be laying because of a new environment. Then my husband said he read that if you give them something "egg like", like a golf ball, that may encourage them to lay. so we have one in each nesting box. Does not seem to be inspiring them... My son caught them pecking at an egg yesterday morning, and he left them for a few minutes and when he returned there was no evidence of the egg, so it appears that they ate everything including the shell. This makes me wonder if they've been eating other eggs as well and that we just hadn't observed it. If so, how do you get them to stop eating their eggs?!!!!
We'll be hopefully getting their "real" nesting boxes built this weekend and hung on the end of the tractor, and now I'm wondering if I should design them in a way that the egg rolls out of the box as soon as it's laid. Or if there are better ideas from you more experienced chicken farmers. So far they haven't actually laid any of their eggs in the temporary boxes, but just out in the open floor area of the tractor, on the grass. Again, any input would be appreciated . Would love to see the productivity increase maybe 2 eggs per day which doesn't seem unreasonable.
The three hens we bought were supposedly laying before we purchased, and we have gotten a few eggs (4 eggs in 2 weeks!) and feel rather frustrated. We are still in the process of getting some nesting boxes added to the tractor we made, but I have some rectangular boxes (usps shipping boxes... don't tell my post man, I could get arrested for misuse!) that they seem to like to sit in.
Like I said, we've only gotten 4 eggs (maybe 5) in two weeks, and at first we thought they may not be laying because of a new environment. Then my husband said he read that if you give them something "egg like", like a golf ball, that may encourage them to lay. so we have one in each nesting box. Does not seem to be inspiring them... My son caught them pecking at an egg yesterday morning, and he left them for a few minutes and when he returned there was no evidence of the egg, so it appears that they ate everything including the shell. This makes me wonder if they've been eating other eggs as well and that we just hadn't observed it. If so, how do you get them to stop eating their eggs?!!!!
We'll be hopefully getting their "real" nesting boxes built this weekend and hung on the end of the tractor, and now I'm wondering if I should design them in a way that the egg rolls out of the box as soon as it's laid. Or if there are better ideas from you more experienced chicken farmers. So far they haven't actually laid any of their eggs in the temporary boxes, but just out in the open floor area of the tractor, on the grass. Again, any input would be appreciated . Would love to see the productivity increase maybe 2 eggs per day which doesn't seem unreasonable.
