Our introduction to keeping chickens, the high's, the lows and pics of our journey.

[cwrite]

There is a difference in shop bought eggs and ' fresh ' eggs .

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2011/08/hardboil-peel-fresh-eggs-my-tuna-egg.html

Thanks Fancy - that's good to know in advance! My chickens are 15.5 weeks now so I haven't had a fresh egg yet! They are growing their wattles, their combs are pink & they are huge so I think they may not keep me waiting that long. I have exams in four weeks so I'm hoping they can hold on until after 20 weeks so I have time to get their nest boxes made! These may be famous last words if they make me wait until after 24 weeks, but in the meantime they just have to cross their legs.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Lol, I got a free dog kennel with no floor in it. Popped it in the pony shelter, lined the ground with hay and they prefer that to their proper nest boxes. My husband is not impressed after the grief I gave him about getting them finished.

 

[vehve]

Speaking of nestboxes, do you have completely separate boxes? I was a bit lazy when we hastily put the finishing touches to ours on Saturday (The new girls we got on Sunday are 18 weeks now, with one of them having significantly redder wattles and comb, so right about at POL), so we put in two kitty litter boxes in the eggnest section, they have separate entrances, but I only put a half wall between them because I had a suitable scrap peace of plywood. Now it sort of reminds me of a public restroom in Turkey or something, you know the kind were you can enjoy eye-contact while doing your business. I'm wondering if I should put in a solid wall to separate the two nests, or if they will do fine with it as it is.

And about the cooking times, the peeling might be harder with fresher eggs, but they will be cooked through with both methods was all I meant.

 

[vehve]

Here's a picture to explain my description of the nestboxes a bit better.


Ben, I added a picture of the (almost) finished composter to my coop page, if you're still interested. It's up and running, feels like it got to about 50-60C in there at times. Anyhow, quick decomposing going on.

 

[Fancychooklady]

In my sussex pen they have 10 nest boxes but the 6 hens prefer to use just 1. Bens got some nice nest boxes in his cubby coop.
Soft boiled eggs are much trickier to achieve. My kids love runny eggs so they can dunk their soldiers.

 

[joannefiddler]

In my sussex pen they have 10 nest boxes but the 6 hens prefer to use just 1. Bens got some nice nest boxes in his cubby coop.
Soft boiled eggs are much trickier to achieve. My kids love runny eggs so they can dunk their soldiers.

ok...need translation help...I can only guess that soldiers are pieces of toast?? Or they are little plastic army men that your kids subject to some kind of chemical warfare in the form of yolk.

 

[vehve]

In my sussex pen they have 10 nest boxes but the 6 hens prefer to use just 1. Bens got some nice nest boxes in his cubby coop.
Soft boiled eggs are much trickier to achieve. My kids love runny eggs so they can dunk their soldiers.

So I can just leave the nests as they are in your opinion? Yeah, Ben's got nice looking nests.

Actually what I've found to work is weighing the eggs, and boiling them for about one minute per 10 grams. So a 50g egg is 5 minutes and a 65g egg about 6½ minutes. This with room temperature eggs put in boiling water. Sometimes I add half a minute. After they've boiled, I give them a quick rinse (10 seconds) in cold water to stop the cooking process. That's how I make the perfect softboiled breakfast egg for eating out of the shell (with Maldon-salt).

 

[Bens-Hens]

Eww. I think I'll pass on the really dark meat.

But about boiled eggs - I missed the discussion and am curious now. I've always put the egg in cold water, brought it to the boil & then 10 minutes for hard boiled eggs. Then replaced the boiling water with cold & they peel without a problem if you do it while the eggs are still warm. Am I supposed to be boiling my eggs for 15 minutes? Is this for backyard eggs or bought eggs?

Yes, as Fancy says, there is a difference. I warn you, once you start getting fresh back yard eggs you have a high probability of becoming an 'egg snob' The whites, stand thicker, the yolks are brighter and if you boil them the yolk is in the middle of the egg, not sunk down to one end! Down side is, the shell membrane is tight with the shell, so peeling it if you want hard boiled eggs for treats, salads or curried egg sandwiches get hard as the white clings to the shell.

I have read heaps of ways and tried most of them. The ice way works well, but we eat so many we have a hard time keeping the ice up. If you boil old eggs (like store bought) for 14 minutes they yolk goes grey around the outside, but fresh eggs are bright and firm.

Nom nom nom!

There is a difference in shop bought eggs and ' fresh ' eggs .

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2011/08/hardboil-peel-fresh-eggs-my-tuna-egg.html

I tried that way with the ice (not steaming) and it worked well, but when I boiled for nearly as long and rinsed under cool water it worked just as well and saved on ice.

Speaking of nestboxes, do you have completely separate boxes? I was a bit lazy when we hastily put the finishing touches to ours on Saturday (The new girls we got on Sunday are 18 weeks now, with one of them having significantly redder wattles and comb, so right about at POL), so we put in two kitty litter boxes in the eggnest section, they have separate entrances, but I only put a half wall between them because I had a suitable scrap peace of plywood. Now it sort of reminds me of a public restroom in Turkey or something, you know the kind were you can enjoy eye-contact while doing your business. I'm wondering if I should put in a solid wall to separate the two nests, or if they will do fine with it as it is.

And about the cooking times, the peeling might be harder with fresher eggs, but they will be cooked through with both methods was all I meant.

Here's a picture to explain my description of the nestboxes a bit better.


Ben, I added a picture of the (almost) finished composter to my coop page, if you're still interested. It's up and running, feels like it got to about 50-60C in there at times. Anyhow, quick decomposing going on.

Mine are actually similar, I have a divider wall but they do not go all the way to the top. A friend has a large open cage with straw on the bottom and all her girls lay on the floor in there. They just make their own little dent each day. Only time they have trouble is when they have a broody, they tend to hoard the days eggs so they have to handle the girls to collect. Some of their girls don't like to be handled when sitting!

I think that will be fine, only thing to watch for is if any of them start to roost on the divider, if you find droppings in there you might need to make it higher.

Will check the album later, we produce quite a bit of poop here, always looking for new ways to use it.

In my sussex pen they have 10 nest boxes but the 6 hens prefer to use just 1. Bens got some nice nest boxes in his cubby coop.
Soft boiled eggs are much trickier to achieve. My kids love runny eggs so they can dunk their soldiers.

Yep, our boys love them too!

ok...need translation help...I can only guess that soldiers are pieces of toast?? Or they are little plastic army men that your kids subject to some kind of chemical warfare in the form of yolk.

Hahahaha, sorry to laugh. Yes, soldiers are slices of toast cut into strips, perfect for kids and dunking into eggs!

So I can just leave the nests as they are in your opinion? Yeah, Ben's got nice looking nests.

Actually what I've found to work is weighing the eggs, and boiling them for about one minute per 10 grams. So a 50g egg is 5 minutes and a 65g egg about 6½ minutes. This with room temperature eggs put in boiling water. Sometimes I add half a minute. After they've boiled, I give them a quick rinse (10 seconds) in cold water to stop the cooking process. That's how I make the perfect softboiled breakfast egg for eating out of the shell (with Maldon-salt).

Interesting, might have to try weighing the eggs, sounds like a good trick since we get a variety of sizes that cook at different rates.

 

[vehve]

Ben, there's only about 15cm of space above the divider, I'm not that worried about them roosting there. Wouldn't be very comfortable at least.

I'm not sure if you would have much of an added benefit of insulating, but it might be an idea to look into it. I can help you with putting together a design, those freezer panels you've got would be excellent, or if you can find an old freezer crate somewhere for free, even better. Here you have to insulate a compost if you want it to work during winter.

Here you're considered a egg snob if you mention that you only buy organic eggs versus the 70 cents per dozen "free-range" chickens. Battery-hen-keeping has been outlawed since 2011, so now most of the eggs sold here are free range, which people get a positive mental image about. I wonder what they would think seeing the enormous warehouse with hundreds of birds cramped into tiny sections. At least with organic eggs the hens have to be given an opportunity to go outside, and a certain amount of wall space needs to be windows, so they get natural light. I don't really care if they're fed organic feed, I would want a standard for happy chickens.

 

[vehve]

Just had to share this video.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=782804648419650