How do you all keep track of you eggs to date? (Poll)

[tlcmurphy]

Just be careful if you are a new chicken owner. I have seen way too many new owners closely monitor every activity of their chickens and become what I call a “Chickocondriac”. Which is when they monitor everything their chicken does so closely that when their chicken does something perfectly normal, but they haven’t observed it before they go into emergency mode. For example they have observed their chickens lay Monday,Wednesday, Friday, but this week their chickens laid Tuesday Thursday or skipped laying for a week or two altogether (perfectly normal and healthy if showing no other health signs). So they start dunking their chickens in baths, separating them, shoving their hands up their vents and calcium pills down their throats, restricting food or giving them a bunch of treats they shouldn’t have. Then the chicken goes from perfectly healthy to stressed out and in shock because of the owners actions not because the chicken was sick originally. It may sound silly, but I see it all of the time on here especially.

Munchausen by Poultry?

 

[Auntiejessi3]

x2! I use Flockstar as well, it’s a wonderful app.

But I’m pretty sure you have to pay for it now? In May or June I paid $2 for a month and now I believe it’s automatically renewing. Unless they changed it back to being free.

Only if you want access to some of the features, like the hatching and sales/expenses, but I think it's worth it.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I just write on the calendar how many eggs I got in a day, plus how many by color. Ex: 6 BL, 2 GR, 5 BR, 1 Ch, 1 Cr.

That's 6 Blue, 2 Green, 5 Brown, 1 Chocolate, 1 Cream.

It would be nice to have it in a spreadsheet so I could make a line chart out of it. But I have no way of knowing which hen lays what egg exactly... beyond the Marans laying the chocolate egg.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

Munchausen by Poultry?

I swear when I see things like “My chicken didn’t lay an egg for a week, but was otherwise acting fine so I decided to start treatment for egg binding. I dunked her in a bath three times and I started feeding her lettuce because it’s her favorite and I want her comfortable. Since keeping her inside and bathing her she has stopped eating chicken food, will only eat lettuce and is now acting weak. I also tried giving her calcium tablets, but when I picked her up she vomited. What is wrong with her?” It takes everything in me not to say “You. The answer is you. You are the problem.”

 

[tlcmurphy]

I swear when I see things like “My chicken didn’t lay an egg for a week, but was otherwise acting fine so I decided to start treatment for egg binding. I dunked her in a bath three times and I started feeding her lettuce because it’s her favorite and I want her comfortable. Since keeping her inside and bathing her she has stopped eating chicken food, will only eat lettuce and is now acting weak. I also tried giving her calcium tablets, but when I picked her up she vomited. What is wrong with her?” It takes everything in me not to say “You. The answer is you. You are the problem.”

Yep…

 

[Auntiejessi3]

I swear when I see things like “My chicken didn’t lay an egg for a week, but was otherwise acting fine so I decided to start treatment for egg binding. I dunked her in a bath three times and I started feeding her lettuce because it’s her favorite and I want her comfortable. Since keeping her inside and bathing her she has stopped eating chicken food, will only eat lettuce and is now acting weak. I also tried giving her calcium tablets, but when I picked her up she vomited. What is wrong with her?” It takes everything in me not to say “You. The answer is you. You are the problem.”

I just refrain from commenting on those posts

 

[Chicken_tiger_catt]

Can you lock them in the coop for a week or so, until they learn to use the nests?

They used to use the nests. They are in a pen now, but all the layers keep flying out.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

They used to use the nests. They are in a pen now, but all the layers keep flying out.

Can you put some netting over the pen

 

[SueT]

I keep a chart on the wall with daily egg count, notes...there are 2 coops, hence 2 columns for the amounts--w and b under banties refers to white and blue eggs. The big chickens just get tally marks.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

They used to use the nests. They are in a pen now, but all the layers keep flying out.

When our pullets start flying, we clip one wing on each bird. It puts them off balance so they can't fly effectively. By the time they get a new set of feathers they have usually forgotten they could fly AND gotten heavier, so flying over our 4' fences is not as likely.