Nuggets nuggets everywhere!

[NuggetsNuggets]

Hello all!

I'm glad to have found this forum, because I'm a city girl, recently transformed to a country girl and loving it! We live on 40 acres, have 14 chickens, 2 wild hogs, 2 dogs, a donkey, a draft horse, 1 registered quarter horse (shown in my avatar with Red Chicken on her back), and three assorted baby horses, all under the age of 2, and 1 bossy house cat! I am a former police officer, now not working due to injuries from the job. In addition to my animals, I also take one college class every 8 weeks.

I love my chickens, almost as much as I love my quarter horses, lol.

My boyfriend bought me 10 first run chickens, then 10 guaranteed pullets to start. That was this past October. Then we had a friend give us 3 roosters in January. So, I started off with 23. Of those, I had 2 Rhode Island Red roosters and 1 orange (breed unknown) that were given to me. Of the first runs, I had 8 barred rock roosters, 6 silver & black (breed unknown), 4 lovely barred rock hens, and one odd red hen (aptly dubbed Red Chicken).

The three roosters that were give to to use bullied our hens and the other roosters terribly and would attack them in tandem.

The orange rooster simply disappeared, then we had the 2 Rhode Island reds and 4 barred rock roosters in the freezer. If I've done my math right, we should have 17 chickens total left. However, one of the barred rock roosters disappeared yesterday, and my count is 14. So we are missing a couple.... Coyotes, most likely. On top of that, my boyfriend surprised me and bought me 10 black six linked last Friday - I am keeping them in the kiddie pen in our well house, protected from the others and predators.

My ladies have started laying eggs and I'm averaging 6-7 per day. The biggest problem I'm having is first, what to do with a these eggs?!? How long can I keep them out at room temperature (my used egg cartons are filling quickly, and these eggs are still pretty small). And secondly, none of my current "adults" will eat pellets. They'll eat the heck out of crumbles and scratch, but won't touch the pellets. He's on his way home and I've asked him to get crumbles and scratch, which I know they will eat.

So... I'm thankful for any advice and look forward to reading a lot more.

Safe travels everyone!

Lee Anne

 

[TwoCrows]

Not all birds eat pellets, especially if they are not used to them. And it may also be the brand of food they don't like, not necessarily the pellet itself. They say eggs can sit out on the counter for 1 week safely. I don't trust it and always refrig mine. I sell mine, give them away and if we just can't eat the excess eggs, I boil them up and feed them back to the birds. They love it!

Great to have you aboard and enjoy BYC!

 

[Tuhmu]

and good luck with all your poultry adventures!

I usually only let mine sit on the counter overnight at the most, unless they are ones I'm saving for someone that wants to hatch them. As far as what to do with them, I give a lot to family members and co-workers. It seems like the second anyone hears that you have fresh eggs, they want them!

 

[NuggetsNuggets]

Thank you for the replies... I was a little nervous about the eggs, so I washed them off and have been sticking them in the frig almost immediately. Right now I have about 3 dozen, most of which are pretty small, because all my hens are newbies too... Lol... I'm going to be doing some egg-rich baking over the next few days, so I will use quite a few, but I think the idea of hard boiling them and giving them back to the chickens is a great idea! Should I simply hard boil them, then crush them up, shells and all and feed them back to the chickens??

Up until about 2 months ago, we were putting their feed in a feeder and they were eating whatever we put in there. A friend suggested we feed them twice a day, and add scratch to what we put out... So they were getting crumbles and scratch.

They have been hunting me down like a pack of wild, starving chickens, and that's when I realized they really weren't eating the pellets... So rather than waste the pellets, I put them in a round, low container, so the chickens can get to them at their leisure and they were eating a few here and there. But as soon as I put the crumbles and scratch out, they dove in... So... That's probably what I will stick to.

Thank you again.
Safe travels,
Lee Anne

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

 

[Kelsie2290]

Hello and Welcome To BYC! Sounds like Chicken Math has taken over your coop, good luck with the new chicks!
The EU seems to have picked 28 days for unwashed, unrefrigerated eggs, which is how they are usually sold over there. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2008:163:0006:0023:EN:PDF
But they do suggest eggs that have ever been cold/ refrigerated should continue to be stored that way, which may be a problem this time of year. An old but rather entertaining test that Mother Earth News did on various ways to store eggs and how well they lasted. http://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/how-to-store-fresh-eggs-zmaz77ndzgoe.aspx I like to refrigerate asap just because they last longer. I do prefer to refrigerate my eggs asap, but don't wash them until I use them or give them away.
X2 on the chickens may just have to get used to the pellets, I feed my adults pellets, and even the bantams will eat them, I do like them because I see a lot less waste with pellets. Scratch is like candy to chickens though, and they pretty much will always act hungry for it.
The dogs love extra eggs also, if you want to consider giving yours some. I usually hardboil or crush and scramble/bake them, shells and all for both the chickens and the dogs, do try to crush them up enough when feeding them so they don't look like eggs.

 

[drumstick diva]

No.1 Beware of people bearing gift chickens - they will be roosters.

No.2 Beef up security to keep predators out, or you will have to keep replacing birds.

No.3 welcome to the flock

 

[sourland]

Hi, Lee Ann, welcome to BYC. You were a LEO - time for coyote target practice.

 

[gander007]