Just starting to Lay

[K Spot]

Hi y'all! I have 2 girls and a rooster and 7 babies! I'm waiting for my 20 week old girls to start laying! I'm a rookie at this and I don't want the eggs to get fertilized! What and how do I prevent this! I want eggs to eat! Not more chicks!!!!

You can eat fertilised eggs - just collect eggs everyday like normal and pop them in the fridge to eat later.

Fertilised eggs only develop when a broody hen sits on them to incubate, or you put them in an incubator yourself.

 

[donrae]

So what you're saying is, you don't need special food so long as you go out an buy calcium and oyster shells? also if you're telling someone to feed the shells back to the chicken you should at least inform them that the eggs need to be finely crushed otherwise you can end up with chickens eating their own eggs. I just avoid it altogether and use the shells for compost. But supplying them with layer food helps to supplement vitamins and calcium lost due to laying eggs. layer feed is also higher in protein but you can always supplement that with feeding them more meat. In case you didn't know it is totally safe to feed chickens meat even chicken meat is okay just try to avoid feeding them raw meat.

Okay, really not wanting to start a thing here but there are folks that take the information here as gospel and you're giving wrong information.

I've had birds for 20 years. I never crush my egg shells, I just crack the egg open, put the shell in the bowl of scraps that go out to the birds, and the birds eat the half shells. Never had a problem with a hen eating her own eggs.

Layer feed is actually LOWER in protein then the feed I use. I can't see my labels at the moment but I think my all in one is close to 20% and layer feed is more like 16% or 18%.

I'm not aware of layer feed having any other vitamins than a grower or all in one.

Chickens are omnivores and happily eat raw meat. Mine have eaten lots and been fine.

To the OP--I've also never wormed my birds. Look around on the natural chicken keeping thread, lots of us don't worm or use natural things like pumpkin seed. As I've said, I've had birds for 20 years, no problems with worms/mites, anything like that. My birds are happy, no behavioral issues, glossy feathers, great producers of large hard shelled eggs. I must be doing something right. Not by any means saying my way is the only way to raise chickens, just saying the proof is in the birds.

 

[buttercup95]

Okay, really not wanting to start a thing here but there are folks that take the information here as gospel and you're giving wrong information.

I've had birds for 20 years. I never crush my egg shells, I just crack the egg open, put the shell in the bowl of scraps that go out to the birds, and the birds eat the half shells. Never had a problem with a hen eating her own eggs.

Layer feed is actually LOWER in protein then the feed I use. I can't see my labels at the moment but I think my all in one is close to 20% and layer feed is more like 16% or 18%.

I'm not aware of layer feed having any other vitamins than a grower or all in one.

Chickens are omnivores and happily eat raw meat. Mine have eaten lots and been fine.

To the OP--I've also never wormed my birds. Look around on the natural chicken keeping thread, lots of us don't worm or use natural things like pumpkin seed. As I've said, I've had birds for 20 years, no problems with worms/mites, anything like that. My birds are happy, no behavioral issues, glossy feathers, great producers of large hard shelled eggs. I must be doing something right. Not by any means saying my way is the only way to raise chickens, just saying the proof is in the birds.

I don't think you're entirely correct either. I'm extremely glad that you've had such amazing luck, but it doesn't mean everyone is going to. Also not all chickens behave the same way and where you live greatly impacts the probability of them getting worms/mites. I have personally experienced hens eating their own eggs. So crushing them is a great precaution and I have no idea why you would try to say it wasn't because it doesn't affect the nutrients gained from the egg and it's easy to crush them up with a spoon in a bowl. Also none of the information I gave was "wrong" it was just a different way of doing things as you said there are multiple way of doing things. I don't feed my chickens raw meat because they could get sick. I'm not saying they will but they could.

 

[whittychick]

Oh t

You can eat fertilised eggs - just collect eggs everyday like normal and pop them in the fridge to eat later.

Fertilised eggs only develop when a broody hen sits on them to incubate, or you put them in an incubator yourself.

Oh thank you! I didn't know that! Love learning new things about these amazing animals!

 

[christiem]

My girls have started to lay just this week. Is it normal for them to lay all different times of day. And should I keep them from free ranging for a while so that we are sure they know where to lay?

 

[Studio2770]

Christiem, it's normal for them to lay at different times. Mine free range also and they lay in the boxes. If they're already laying in the boxes, they should keep it up. I put decoy eggs in the boxes before they started laying.

 

[tatsmom25]

My Leghorn layed her first egg @ 21 weeks and one of our Buff Orpingtons layed her first egg today at 20 weeks. I have crushed oyster shell out for them. Since we have many others who are 8 weeks younger, I'm waiting to give layer feed until they are all laying. Layer feed is actually lower in protein and higher in calcium which isn't good for birds that aren't laying yet.

 

[sepaditty1]

I had to laugh when I read your question about now to prevent the eggs from getting fertilized. Not because it's a silly question, only because I have a roo named Frankie that is singlehandedly trying to re populate the world. I think the only way to keep ours from being fertilized is...stew? Maybe pot pie?

 

[flockanuts]

If chickens aren't supposed to eat raw meat, what should I tell my Buff Orpington that just ate a freshly-killed field mouse????