NY chicken lover!!!!

[Gramma Chick]

Quote:
on another thread they said snakes sometimes are in nesting boxes too...so look before you grab ..
Might get more than you expected ..Though I have not seen a snake in about a year ..on our land anywhere ...

 

[armorfirelady]

Hi all,

I am very behind on BYC -- many pages missed during the past few very busy days.  Hope everyone is doing OK, Silky troubles aside!!

QUESTION:   Every now and then one of my hens' eggs breaks.  Today, Helen decided to use a box she has NEVER shown an interest in.  Therefore, there was only a scant handful or two of shavings in it, and her egg cracked  (LESSON LEARNED FOR ME:  DON'T BE STINGY WITH BEDDING).     [COLOR=FF0000]Anyway, is it safe to eat the cracked eggs? [/COLOR] Nothing has leaked out of this one, so maybe the membrane is not broken, just the shell.  I check and collect eggs often throughout the day; it's very fresh, just laid in the past couple of hours.


Thanks

[COLOR=FF8C00]Have a Spook-tacular Halloween.  Hope all the kiddies have tons of fun today and tonight, despite the horrible weather.[/COLOR]


TOB

Make sure they have oyster shell available all the time & yes the raw egg is fine shells and all. But you can cook them if its a ick factor you

 

[rancher hicks]

x 2 yes I never waste it , I ether set aside in the frig in a bowl for breakfast the next day. or give it to the chickens .
If it is totally cracked & a mess I just throw it at the chickens ...they love raw egg ...they dont bother it unless it is open ...

Well now I wouldn't risk encouraging an egg eater. Chickens aren't as stupid as some would have us believe.

That said I have a cracked one just today. I figure since I cook them they should be safe to eat. If the crack is substantial I just toss it in the trash. Right now though I'm short on eggs so I'll use it for myself tomorrow.

Snake story it was a small black snake and yes I freaked. Right now with the cold though I would think they'd be looking for a place to lay up for the winter. We once had a big o' snapping turtle in the yard. Don't know where she was going cuz she was far from the creek. Course we didn't kill her but tossed her over the fence where she could get to the creek.

I don't kill snakes either unless they don't move along as some have done. Once had a big one get stuck in the hardware cloth of a hoop coop. It was there til it died. To big for me to mess with.

Oyster shell? I sometimes mix the dusty stuff into the pellets so it's not wasted. I do put some out for them on occasion too. While walking though the woods I found a long piece of old pvc. About 4" in diameter that I'll cut to use to make a tube over the grit dishes so I can just fill the tube and not have to lug grit out so often. I got the idea here on BYC somewhere. Now does anyone know if this PVC will be okay. It's not as thick as the stuff we buy and it's black inside. Just don't want to poison the birds. Some of the old stuff might not be safe. I may just toss it.


Another question I have is my Del rooster George has spurs that are so long he has trouble walking. How can I cut them? One side must be six inches long. Poor guy is goose stepping all over the place.

 

[ke5hde]

Well now I wouldn't risk encouraging an egg eater. Chickens aren't as stupid as some would have us believe. 

That said I have a cracked one just today.  I figure since I cook them they should be safe to eat.  If the crack is substantial I just toss it in the trash.  Right now though I'm short on eggs so I'll use it for myself tomorrow. 

Snake story it was a small black snake and yes I freaked.  Right now with the cold though I would think they'd be looking for a place to lay up for the winter.  We once had a big o' snapping turtle in the yard.  Don't know where she was going cuz she was far from the creek.  Course we didn't kill her but tossed her over the fence where she could get to the creek.   

I don't kill snakes either unless they don't move along as some have done.   Once had a big one get stuck in the hardware cloth of a hoop coop.  It was there til it died. To big for me to mess with.   

Oyster shell?  I sometimes mix the dusty stuff into the pellets so it's not wasted.  I do put some out for them on occasion too.   While walking though the woods I found a long piece of old pvc. About 4" in diameter that I'll cut to use to make a tube over the grit dishes so I can just fill the tube and not have to lug grit out so often. I got the idea here on BYC somewhere.  Now does anyone know if this PVC will be okay.  It's not as thick as the stuff we buy and it's black inside.  Just don't want to poison the birds.  Some of the old stuff might not be safe.  I may just toss it. 


Another question I have is my Del rooster George has spurs that are so long he has trouble walking.  How can I cut them?  One side must be six inches long. Poor guy is goose stepping all over the place. 

If YOU don't feel the pipe is safe then I say toss it.
As for the spurs, I read somewhere that you can cut a potato in half, microwave it, then twist it onto the spur, it should come off.
Found it... Hot Potato Method of Spur Removal

There are many methods of spur removal but this hub is going to focus on one specific method, the hot potato method. You can read about other methods by visiting my blog post How to Remove Rooster Spurs and also viewing the video below.

What you will need to accomplish this is:

Baked potatoes (2)
Something to hold the hot potato
Here are the steps to remove the spurs:

Bake or microwave your potatoes.
Wrap them in tin foil.
Catch the rooster, hold him under your arm, and place a hot potato on each spur.
Leave on for approximately 5-10 minutes.
Gently pull off the spur casing.
Hope it helps.

 

[Cass]

Quote:

Use the search on top of this page and there are a LOT of threads regarding this problem. Some use pliers, some say cut them with dremmel, one even used a hot potato to loosen them and just pull them off with their hand. Seems easy enough. Catching the rooster? Now that's an whole nother problem.

 

[stonykill]

these 2 Khaki's escaped AGAIN today. So I let them free range all day. They are trouble these 2. Cute as a button, but trouble. They found water that the free range ducks have never found. Trouble I say...trouble

I guess she figures being she lays an egg every day now that she can do what she wants

 

[armorfirelady]

Stony I am curious. Do ducks use nest boxes? I'm just curious how you find your duck eggs when your ducks free range.

 

[Pyxis]

Well I'm never using my LG incubator again. I don't know what's wrong with it but it seems to cause bad development in chicks. Out of 15 silkie eggs I've locked down, four have hatched, and one I had to help. This is out of 35 eggs to start with. The other ones that hatched on their own aren't drying right. I never ever have this problem when I incubate in my homemade bator. Now that it's happened several times in the LG I'm going to have to assume it's the incubator doing something to addle the chicks, even though I keep the temp and humidity perfect I always have bad hatches when I use it, shipped eggs or eggs from my own flock.

I'm hoping my faverolles that are due tomorrow do okay and hatch out well. I did this batch in the LG too but I've locked them down in my homemade bator so we'll see. The last batch of chicks I did entirely in my homemade bator hatched with no problems, and were from the same shipper, so fingers crossed.

 

[stonykill]

Stony I am curious. Do ducks use nest boxes? I'm just curious how you find your duck eggs when your ducks free range.

ducks lay eggs before 7am. So eggs are laid before they are let out at 7:30ish. I don't know whether they lay overnight or 1st thing in the am but the eggs are always there when the coop is opened in the morning. Yet another reason ducks are superior to chickens

 

[stonykill]

Well I'm never using my LG incubator again. I don't know what's wrong with it but it seems to cause bad development in chicks. Out of 15 silkie eggs I've locked down, four have hatched, and one I had to help. This is out of 35 eggs to start with. The other ones that hatched on their own aren't drying right. I never ever have this problem when I incubate in my homemade bator. Now that it's happened several times in the LG I'm going to have to assume it's the incubator doing something to addle the chicks, even though I keep the temp and humidity perfect I always have bad hatches when I use it, shipped eggs or eggs from my own flock.

I'm hoping my faverolles that are due tomorrow do okay and hatch out well. I did this batch in the LG too but I've locked them down in my homemade bator so we'll see. The last batch of chicks I did entirely in my homemade bator hatched with no problems, and were from the same shipper, so fingers crossed.

when I used to incubate I used 2 lg's. Never had an issue like that. Or issues for that matter