How Many Eggs Did You Get Today?

[akroberts1085]

Yeah, I had to buy a brand-new cement mixer for the project. That was the biggest expense at around $200.00 at the time. I had about $240.00 into the cement mixer compost sifter project with the barrel, screens, and the hardware.

However, I was sifting out about $60.00 worth of compost every hour. That project broke even the first afternoon I used it - 3 years ago - and it has not cost me a penny since. It is one of the few investments that I have made that paid for itself on day one.

Since I had so much chicken run compost to use, I doubled my raised bed gardens in the first 2 years and will probably double it again by the end of this coming summer. Not a bad thing for an old guy heading into retirement years.

I used the old wood frame and wire compost sifter on top of the wheelbarrow for many, many years. But I just got to an age where it made more sense to invest in better composting equipment to save my old back from all the manual labor. What used to take me an hour or more to sift manually, I can now do in less than 10 minutes with the cement mixer compost sifter.

My composting chickens do most of the work inside the chicken run, scratching and pecking, and they love it. I think happy chickens give more eggs as a result. In any case, my backyard chickens have improved my life with fresh eggs and black gold compost whenever I want.

I will try to get enough money to make a set up for composting the way you do, because I'm not saying that I'm old it's more a case of my family inheritance is nothing more than medical issues. I tell people that my inheritance is arthritis bersidius and tendonitis . Of course there's always the fact of my just not doing enough to keep my body in motion.

 

[gtaus]

I will try to get enough money to make a set up for composting the way you do

I was buying lots of bagged compost every year. I wanted to increase my gardening, improve my compost quality, and not go broke all at the same time. When I committed to increasing my gardening, my needs for more compost, and my aging body, it just made sense for me to invest in that cement mixer compost sifter. I'll never have to buy bagged compost again in my lifetime!

my inheritance is arthritis bersidius and tendonitis .

Yes, it runs in my family as well. I have been spared, but I do have family members that were crippled up with arthritis. All the more important for you to consider options within your budget that assist you to enjoy your hobbies without triggering your ailments.

I am just getting older and work alone. So, I give myself permission to buy the tools and equipment I need to enjoy my hobbies as I get older. I don't do any in ground gardening anymore. Everything is now in raised beds, for example. Much easier on the back for me. I even have some elevated planters that are waist high. It works for me. I have more garden space now in my 60's than I did in my 30's and 40's. Just had to do it differently.

 

[Jenbirdee]

5 eggs!! :
4 duck
And the first chicken egg of 2025!!

 

[Jenbirdee]

I will try to get enough money to make a set up for composting the way you do, because I'm not saying that I'm old it's more a case of my family inheritance is nothing more than medical issues. I tell people that my inheritance is arthritis bersidius and tendonitis . Of course there's always the fact of my just not doing enough to keep my body in motion.

I get you after years of composting in piles outside the garden been a far corner of the property. Difficult to move buckets of compost carry them down to the garden. Couldn’t even get wheelbarrow through the gates. So Now I toss everything right into one section of the garden about 1/7 . And then after it compost, I just plant right in it and switch to another 1/7 of the garden.

 

[EmmaDonovan]

You can scramble them and pour them into muffin tins you've sprayed with cooking oil. Freeze them and when frozen remove from the tins and store in ziplock bags in the freezer. Use for baking or cook and serve as scrambled eggs. Ree Drummond would add onions, bell peppers and chopped ham or other pork product and cook them in the microwave, I believe! (The Pioneer Woman.) You can also feed them to your chickens or dogs for extra protein (I would cook them first but I guess you wouldn't have to. No onions for the dogs, though.)

This is what we do only I use extra large silicone ice cube trays. They come with lids and since the trays are flexible it's really easy to pop out the cubes. They last at least six months in those ziplock freezer bags. One cube = 2 medium eggs.

 

[EmmaDonovan]

Yesterday I got 20 eggs, today 15….. I am over run with eggs, one of my clients went south at New Years for a month, another moved. So I am trying to move eggs. No success, as such I now have 20 dozen in the fridge.

Will soon have to waste the oldest eggs. Don’t like doing that.

My goodness, how many hens do you have?

 

[Ponypoor]

My goodness, how many hens do you have?

Too many!

Between old elderly lawn ornaments and the 5 week old dumplings there are 48. 4 are Roos, and I am just betting those two dumplings are also Roos.

I would say maybe 23 of them are laying regularly at the moment. Once the Spring flush is over the older ladies (3 - 4 yrs old) will drop off laying.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

@gtaus, how do you get the chicken poo into the cement mixer? Do you have to dismantle it, remove the plastic bucket on the front end?

 

[Chicken_Obsesser]

11 yesterday!!!

 

[Chicken_Obsesser]

I call that "blorping out." Especially when they've settled in for the night and are extra puffed out. For some reason I imagine the puffing out making this sound: blorp.

View attachment 4038381