I've been offered free egg eating hens - should I accept?

[CatDaddyAlbert]

A two letter word from someone that tried REALLY hard to deal with the problem without heating up the oven..... NO

 

[tandpmiller]

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Technically they are from our friend's parents - just acquaintances really, but getting older and wanting to downsize. My friend said they would "probably be willing to give them away" but in getting more details, her parents do want $5 each. They are Welsummer and Wyandotte breeds.

Again, she's not SURE they are eating the eggs - but suspicious (not sure of more details than that). We would definitely give them oyster shells anyway. I'm wondering if the birds are just overcrowded since they have over 100 and the daughter said they really didn't have the room. . . we are planning on letting them free range as much as possible while we are outside and do not want to trim beaks so they can forage.


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The coop is 7.5 x 9.5 (I know, weird measurements but it's a converted grainery) so this would give them 3.5 ft. per bird and we have cold MN winters. They are 1 yr. old birds.

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Thanks for the link!

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That's kind of what we thought - we'd still be getting eggs, and we could always cull the egg eaters if we saw which ones were doing it. They are duel purpose. I've considered baby chicks, but it's just not doable this summer - I was looking for young hens (these are 1 yr. old) to begin with.

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Thanks for the advice - will check for that if we go look at them.

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I've heard of that. I think I'm coming to the conclusion that we'll take them. Do a roll-away nest boxes, some fake eggs, and give them a bit more room than they've had, calcium, and at least get SOME eggs while watching for the guilty parties to give themselves away.

Thanks so much for everyone's advice!