I feel guilty taking my hens eggs

[bncranch]

I have 2 roos and 7 hens. They are all young and approaching laying age. One hen has begun laying. She lays one, skips aday, then has laid for 3 days consecutive, my guess is she will skip tomorrow because she layed it late afternoon. But I feel guilty taking the eggs as soon as she lsys them. Is this correct procedure or should I let her lay a few b4 robbing the nest! Sorry im a rookie and just wondering?

 

[Nutcase]

I would leave the eggs there and collect them at the end of every day. Hens are encouraged to lay if there's already an egg in the nest. But don't feel guilty!

 

[katbriar]

You can collect them every day and it will be fine with the hens. They won't hold it against you. And they don't count.

Their natural instinct is to lay every day until they get "enough" (number can vary) and then they would stop laying, sit and incubate the clutch. Not all hens go broody, but allowing them to lay several before you collect would probably increase the likelihood they would. And you want them to keep giving you all the eggs they can, right? ;-)

 

[bncranch]

Yes I want them to continue laying and thay was why I was ssking, but was afraid I was stressing them out by taking the eggs every day

 

[Nutcase]

No you won't stress them out, but they won't like you taking the eggs if they're broody!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

..... I feel guilty taking the eggs as soon as she lsys them. Is this correct procedure or should I let her lay a few b4 robbing the nest!....

I seriously doubt that your hens have a guilty conscience about accepting your chicken feed under false pretenses, so you shouldn't feel bad over harvesting a few cackle berries. At any rate regardless of what Tyson Food Ads suggest, chickens do not have fingers so they can't count up on their hands how many eggs they already have in their nest. Help your self.