How many pullets is enough?

[love2garden22]

There is just the two of us, but we would like to have a few extra eggs to store over the winter and to give away to friends.....We've brought our 27 pullets down to 12, by giving the extras away on freecycle......How many eggs will we be getting a day, a good guess will do?
They are Black Sex Links.
THANKS!

 

[heyeddah]

8-12 would be my guess.
How do you store eggs for the winter?
Pickeled?

 

[love2garden22]

Well, apparently you wash them with warm water, dry them and dip them in food grade mineral oil and let the extra oil drain off by setting the eggs on a baking rack, then you store them either in a cool location or refrigerator for up to 6 months.
The other method is to freeze them by scrambling them up and trying not to whisk in any air, then pouring them into ice cube trays to freeze (oh yeah, you add a small bit of salt to them when you stir them) then you pop the cubes into a freezer bag, and three cubes equal a large egg.
Since I've never actually done either method, I can't say how it works. I've only checked out all of the books in our local library and this info was in some of them and I copied the pages.
Thanks for the answer.

 

[jvls1942]

I think you could feeze eggs if you do not mind the yolks breaking when you cook with them.. I would also guess you would take them out of the shell >> ?? I am only guessing at all of this.. as long as I am at it, I would guess that your chickens would lay almost year round so the eggs would not have to be frozen or stockpiled..

How many pullets is enough?? they are like peanuts,,,,,,,,,,,,,one is too many and a hundred is not enough.

 

[CovenantCreek]

Your sex links will almost definitely lay year round, even without added light but definitely with it. The first year I had my sex links, they started laying in August and by the last day of the year they were producing at a rate of 355 eggs per year per pullet. That was 2007, last year they continued to produce almost 1 a day per hen. So far this year, I think they may be slowing down, but I cut them some slack for being nearly 2 years old and having to finish their molt.

To preserve the eggs, you can use the method outlined love2garden22, or you can use wax to seal the eggs for slightly longer preservation. Eggcartons.com has both the mineral oil and the wax (KePeg).

 

[love2garden22]

Dear Covenant Creek, How long did/should our sex links lay eggs for? 3 years, etc. We're the kind who get attached to animals, so we'd like to keep them as long as they're laying anything at all. However, even our tender hearts will not go as far as to keep 12 'pets'. Thanks

 

[CovenantCreek]

Quote:
My RSLs are only coming up on 2 yrs this spring. From the 4 of them, I'd say I'm currently getting 3-4 eggs per day that I can identify as there's (from size and color). The quality has diminished some -- the whites are more runny than I like and the shells aren't as strong as they used to be -- but they show no signs of slowing down production. I may stop putting their eggs in the cartons to sell, but they're still better than anything from the store!