How Many Eggs Did You Get Today?

[Scott16475]

Is there a light in their coop?  That might help.

Yep, there's a light.

 

[RoosterCogburn7]

Yep, there's a light.

Interesting, are they molting?

 

[COChix]

I am seriously thinking about donating eggs to our crisis nursery where abused women can go with their babies and toddlers. Thank you for your charity work! I will be looking further into how to go about it here in Washington state. We have really strict egg laws here, so I need to research it. Goodness gracious i think you found your broodie! She has the same stern, very serious expression as my Black Orp. The instinct is strong in that one! I understand how you feel, I can't wait to give my Orp some eggs. The minute she goes broody, I'l give her a clutch of crested cream Legbar eegs. She hatched 7 late summer. I would be so tempted if she were broodie now like yours is!!! How do you resist? This is broodie the day she hatched the CLB chicks. I don't use this cage anymore though. I have a whole room behind this cage (see the door) that is now my hatching area. I have to have her away from the nesting boxes while she sits on the eggs because she will return to the wrong box if I do. But, after they hatch, she is a one fierce mama and I can open that door. She then walks her babes around in the hen house, and eventually takes them down the ramp into the outside run. From there she takes them outside to free range, thus teaching them everything they need to know before ditching them at 8 weeks....LOL

Thanks on the charity work, defintely check you eggs laws, Colorado is pretty good. For a smaller production farm, if we sell under 250 doz eggs a month then we do not have to follow labeling requirements, per Dept of Ag. As well as we don't have to apply for an egg dealer license, so long as we are selling directly to the consumer . However, since we are selling from our home, we have to provide labeling per the Colorado Cottage Food act. That basically requires labels, such as where produced, a blurb about the eggs not being from a government facility and lastly we have to give a warning about Salmonella and proper storing for the eggs. As far as the broody goes, I might name her Marge for some reason, but I digress. I did further reading and often a hen will pull our the feathers on her chest and belly, the do this to help keep the eggs warm, so makes me wonder about her. How can I wait?

Pretty hard to wait when we have a high fertilization rate, it's hard to say just how high. That is a shot of our breakfast and we had 4/4 that were fertile. To answer your question, don't have much choice, it's cold and snow here again. We got 6-8 inches on the ground and it was 5 this am. I don't want to chance hatchingp in the winter and loosing some to cold, that would break my heart. Besides we have a small place and right now don't have anywhere to put a broody with eggs. We do have a second coop enclosed in the run that we will use this spring for our broodies and chicks. We will partition off part of the run so the mama and babies can have access to the run during the day while others free range, until we integrate everyone. the second coop is not as warm as the main coop and for the winter I decided to block off the second coop since know body was using it. Nice that you have a hatching room? Is that inside your house?

So, I go out to the coop this morning and it's chilly again so I figure 5 eggs is gonna be it for the day. NOPE! I went out to work in coop a while ago and low and behold dh says uh there's more eggs in here. I peek around the corner and what do I see but one egg in almost each top nest box and one in almost each bottom box and then 2 in the favorite middle one. The ones sharing had a broken one so that is 14 eggs today out of 15 layers (banty stopped after 3 eggs for season )from our 28 girls. The gifts just keep rolling in.e Here is the egg skelter since Sunday. I split eggs in carton and some for us.

woohoo congrats on more eggs, I need an egg skelter.

Yep, there's a light.

Scott we got got 6-8 inches Christmas night and yesterday. Our gang was not too happy as we had 60 degree weather a week ago. Anyway, after going through frostbite With one of our Welsummer's comb after the last cold snap, I decided to try and not use the heat lamp. Unless it is going to dip below zero at night and I mean like -5 or colder, that is when I will utiltize the heat lamp set up in their coop. I used a heat lamp back in November during our cold snap and below freezing temps. Being my first winter with chickens, I over reacted and thought they needed a heat lamp, not just one but two! Anyway, it got too moist in the coop from the heat and then when the girls went outside is when the girl got frostbite. Too drastic the changes in temp in the coop and then going outside to sub zero cold. Lesson learned, have not used the heat lamps since. After reading a lot more from people living in extreme cold, like Alaska, I realized the errors of my ways and made my decision. Anyway, sorry for the rambling message. Our girls have continued to lay even during the cold and less light (no supplemental light in the coop), but we have cold hardy breeds as well. Sure they have slowed down, but that is ok as it is all part if their natural cycle. 15/23 - yesterday's count. I would say the reduced protein in the feed is definitely showing. Will be buying some higher protein feed and mixing with the feed we have now, probably in the next week.

 

[rebrascora]

Well, I got 46 eggs today so far and maybe another 1 or 2 to come yet...... and I only have 17 laying hens!!!!
I've been averaging 6 a day for the past week which I thought was OK considering the time of year and that some are in moult still and some are being harassed by young cockerels, that are going to be dealt with soon.

My broody hen, Tasha, has a secret

nest up in the eves. I was getting the odd egg from her in the nest boxes in the hen house after she cast off her brood several weeks ago but then it stopped and I thought perhaps with the short days etc she had stopped. A few days ago I caught her coming down from the loft above the stable that I use for the hen house. Today I found time to get a ladder and crawl board(the floor boards up there are rotten) to go and check her secret

nest out..... I've retrieved her from it twice last summer when she has gone broody with clutches of 14 eggs each time. I took an 18 unit egg box with me today, thinking that would cope with whatever I found.
Boy, was I wrong!!!
The nest was actually a pile of eggs and 3 had rolled off and dropped onto the floor boards a foot below and were still intact. In total there were 43 eggs up there. She has been sharing the nest with one of her daughters as the eggs were a mixture of pinkish ivory, which she lays, and little green ones that her daughters lay. The nest is actually an old jackdaws nest made from twigs.

I've just cracked and cooked three of the ones from the bottom of the nest, which I'm assuming will be the oldest and had them scrambled on top of toast and ham for tea.... absolutely gorgeous...... just 40 more to go! I guess I will have to find time for a baking spell in the very near future.

The other 3 eggs I got today were laid by my more conventional girls who use the nest boxes provided. I imagine it will be a relief to Tasha and whichever daughter is keeping her company up there, to have room to deposit eggs in a "nest" tomorrow rather than on the top of a perilous mountain of other eggs. Little monkeys! I have to say, considering that they are getting no supplemental light, these farmyard mutt hens are doing me proud. The eggs might be small but they are keeping me stocked through the winter when the production birds are taking time off.

What I love most is that I bought Tasha at auction for a fiver because no one else would bid and she has turned into an absolute gem. Successfully hatched and raised 2 large broods last summer and lays through the winter when she is not broody. You can't ask for more. Fast turning into my favourite hen, even if I do have to go to extreme lengths to collect her eggs!

 

[Scott16475]

They aren't molting and I'm not sure what is going on. Between mid November and last weekend, we were averaging 1 egg a day but since then we've had several days with 4 (we have 4 girls) and all other days with 3 eggs.

I know hens tend to slow in the winter but I've read comments on here from folks in Canada whose hens lay every day all the while mine weren't laying. I'm hoping we've turned the corner and 3 or 4 eggs a day will now be the norm.

 

[ChickyChickens]

Idk...I just got home and there were like 150 eggs in the nest boxes...so i think maybe 20-40

 

[COChix]

They aren't molting and I'm not sure what is going on. Between mid November and last weekend, we were averaging 1 egg a day but since then we've had several days with 4 (we have 4 girls) and all other days with 3 eggs.

I know hens tend to slow in the winter but I've read comments on here from folks in Canada whose hens lay every day all the while mine weren't laying. I'm hoping we've turned the corner and 3 or 4 eggs a day will now be the norm.

Hard to compare to others, there are so many factors that play a roll in laying, let alone laying in the winter. Could be breed specific? Don't remember what breeds you have, could also be an age thing as well. Ours are 8 months, which definitely plays a role. Sounds like your girls are doing just fine.

 

[matt44644]

14/15

 

[ChickyChickens]

AA

 

[tntchix]

6 eggs early, 3 a while ago, and yet another with a small circular break in it. That's 2 cracked and one actually crushed egg in 3 days.

Could be worse, I guess.