post your chicken coop pictures here!

[gpeters3]

Just be aware, when you wash an egg, you are washing off the natural protective bloom. Without that bloom, eggs are more prone to bacteria entering. They must be kept refridgerated, once washed. The U.S. is one of the only countries where you will find eggs in the refridgerated section,because they were washed. In Europe, it's actually against the law for commercial eggs to be washed and refridgerated.

My new refrigerator keeps thing much colder than my old one, without freezing. It is more uniform, no cold or warm spots so food lasts much longer. I put eggs in imediately after washing but i have been soaking them so i will change my method. Thanks again for the link

 

[perchie.girl]

best way is to optimize clean eggs by having clean nests or roll out nests.... then store them in a cool place and wash them just before using them....

At least thats what I want to do

 

[peastix]

I put any soiled eggs[thankfully rare] aside and use first, washing immediately before use.I store eggs in a bowl on the kitchen bench. They get eaten far too quickly to refrigerate.Room temperature eggs are much better for baking.

 

[perchie.girl]

I put any soiled eggs[thankfully rare] aside and use first, washing immediately before use.I store eggs in a bowl on the kitchen bench. They get eaten far too quickly to refrigerate.Room temperature eggs are much better for baking.

and omelette making..... LOL.

deb

 

[FarmerPhronc]

My new refrigerator keeps thing much colder than my old one, without freezing. It is more uniform, no cold or warm spots so food lasts much longer. I put eggs in imediately after washing but i have been soaking them so i will change my method. Thanks again for the link

gpeters3 I have to ask why are you even bothering to wash your eggs? Eggs left without washing, with their natural bloom for protection, can be kept for at least 2 to 3 weeks if not longer without refrigeration. I will admit that I refrigerate mine however I don't wash them.

 

[gpeters3]

gpeters3 I have to ask why are you even bothering to wash your eggs? Eggs left without washing, with their natural bloom for protection, can be kept for at least 2 to 3 weeks if not longer without refrigeration. I will admit that I refrigerate mine however I don't wash them.

If you have ever had a case of salmonella you would know why i wash them. I dont care if they lose their flavor on the bedpost overnight as long as no one gets sick. My fear is that handling them in the process of cooking may transfer some bacteria ftom the outside of the shell to the food. Call me a worry wart but i had to go by experience with other food products.

With my previous setup the birds roosted in the nests and the eggs had a lot of poop on them but now they stay clean so the danger is reduced considrably. Since there is no debris on them, a quick rinse will be good enough to kill any microbes im sure so that will be my new method til i learn of something better/safer in the never ending search for perfection

 

[gpeters3]

best way is to optimize clean eggs by having clean nests or roll out nests....  then store them in a cool place and wash them just before using them.... 

At least thats what I want to do

Im too old fashioned to use rollouts. I want the birds to be comfy in the nest so straw is my choice, not cold metal or wood. Im very happy they use the roosts now so my nest straw stays very clean. The kids like to look in the nest and see the eggs too. It is posible to take the fun out of something of you get too modern

 

[MeepBeep]

If you have ever had a case of salmonella you would know why i wash them. I dont care if they lose their flavor on the bedpost overnight as long as no one gets sick. My fear is that handling them in the process of cooking may transfer some bacteria ftom the outside of the shell to the food. Call me a worry wart but i had to go by experience with other food products.

The data is far from conclusive or that black and white on washing, in fact there is plenty of data that suggest washing them actually increases the salmonella risk by giving the bacteria a path inside the egg, thus the reason washing is outlawed in most European countries as they have concluded washing actually increases the risk...

For example here is Ireland's stance on washing... https://www.fsai.ie/faq/egg_washing.html

This is a pretty universal stance adopted by most EU countries...

 

[bruceha2000]

Mine are eating as much usual I just brought a 50 pound bag of feed about a week ago and they have it about gone already and they even have corn they can eat and they are free ranged

50 pounds in 1 week for 22 birds that free range?? It took ~3 weeks for my 16 to go through that much in the winter when there was no forage. If your area is like mine, you have woodchucks cleaning out your feeder daily. If not 'chucks, some other animal. I am assuming you have layers, not meat birds. I don't know beans about meat birds.

Home made waterer with nipples from feed store or hardware store suspended so nobody spills or poops in it :0}
about 3 dollars for all the stuff from the dollar store.. but sure if you had a bucket with a secure lid you could suspend it and they could drink from it.. I prefer clear or light buckets so you can see dirt or need for refill without having to take it down. Easy to take down just unscrew the lid. Keeps the ground squirrels out of the water and food too.
.

Opaque water containers don't grow algae. And if the container has a cover, there won't ever be dirt in it. If you don't want to look inside, you could put or make a "water level sight glass in it.

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Given how hot is it where you live, I trust you can open that coop up A LOT so you don't have baked chicken.
And yes, if you have the skills (minimal for a basic coop) and tools, a build your own will be a lot cheaper, a proper size and being custom, be exactly what you need rather than what someone thinks will work for everyone.

And regarding slope, indoor plumbing drains are spec'ed at 1/4" per foot slope. You don't need much to get water to run off the roof ASSUMING there is no sag, even 1/8"/foot is fine for that. The higher pitched roofs are usually made for volume inside or snow. Even a foot of snow won't slide off a 10/12 pitch roof as long as the temps stay cold. The narrower the apex of the "triangle" the more it can hold (for a given dimensional rafter) because the rafters are running the load more vertically to the top plate which is supported by the vertical walls.

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If you can do so, consider running a long roost from where you took the picture to the top bar of the ladder roost, about 1' from the wall on the right. Chickens like to roost as high as they can get and if they can't all fit at the highest level there will be lots of squabbling with the top of the flock and those lower. They will sleep lower if they have to but they would be happier higher up.

And I agree with what Latestarter said about nest access. I have a 1" wide board (1.5" tall) about 8" in front of and 4"-5" lower than the top of the "nesting material retaining" board that is the front of the 4' long 3 nest box. They hop up ( ~18") to that access perch then decide which nest they want to use.

With all of the amazing cool designs here mine is nothing spectacular. Definitely built on a budget and I like what it has become. The chickens are free range all day and really only go inside at night and are let out when the sun comes up free to graze the land as they please for the time being. As they become more adventurous I might build a run to keep them from going too far away. Their primary purpose is to eviscerate the tick population around here which has always been a problem. I'm hoping to have 10+ birds in here laying eggs when it's all said and done. It's been a wild ride so far. Looking for more adventure to come. Hope you enjoy the pics.

They likely won't go too far away, not if there is a lot to do and eat close to home. But I see a lot of woods there, I would be concerned about predators unless you have chicken safe dogs in the same area. I lost 2 hens to foxes (one April last year, one the April before) and they had to cross a couple hundred feet of open field (grass not yet growing) to get up close to the barns and snag an unwary hen.

I find it interesting that people with acreage and other animals dont have chickens in the mix. My brother has goats, ducks, cattle, dogs and horses but never has had any chickens on 20 acres. Chickens are one of the easiest to care for and they supply meat and eggs. He is a Michigan roper and has downsized to team roping from calf roping. He cant get the feet so his job is to get the head. Myrt is skilled at bouncing the rope to catch the feet. They are dedicated cowboys. Guess you can only focus on so many things, eh?

That is weird! I spend no more than 10 - 15 minutes a day (the NEED to do time) on my chickens. They don't need open clean water daily like ducks do, they must be more work. Mostly I see my girls when I am out working in the yard and they come to "help".

Really nice!

I worked on a farm/ranch that had over 250 hens. One of my jobs was to wash eggs. We washed them by dipping them into a solution with antibacterial dish soap, rinsing, then dipping them into a solution with food grade hydrogen peroxide. We would then dry them, place in cartons and refrigerate. Those eggs that were a little soiled we would allow to soak for 2 to 3 minutes and lightly scrub those spots with a scotch pad. You have to understand that these eggs were sold wholesale to retail establishments, so we were licensed by the state, had to follow their rules and were subject to inspections to make sure we complied.

Now that I'm retired and raising a few chickens of my own I don't ever wash my eggs. I prefer to keep that natural bloom protecting the egg in place. Yes I sell some directly to a few friends, thankfully selling them in this way doesn't require me to be licensed and subject to such laws.

Yep, same here. The only eggs I wash are the ones that were laid overnight off the roost (and are in the litter on the floor, guaranteed to have "stuff" on them and the shells are usually discolored where they sat in the litter) or those that have some on them from dirty chicken feet. My chickens refuse to use the foot washing stations I have set up in front of the nest boxes

I wash and refrigerate those immediately, I also write "washed" on them so I know and I don't sell those to friends. The rest go into a carton on the counter. I don't refrigerate when the girls are really productive and fill a carton in a day or 2 and will be going to their new homes in the next day or two. Otherwise I do since they "degrade" more slowly in the refrigerator. I'm sure every egg laid by those of use with just a few hens are not USDA Grade A but AA right out of the hen

But when you buy them at the store, even if marked AA they don't HAVE to be. In fact, only 72% have to be AA there, the rest can be A or even some percentage of B. Even the cartons marked A can be 18% grade B.

https://www.ams.usda.gov/grades-standards/shell-egg-grades-and-standards

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One does have to wonder about salmonella in battery hens. I would think given they spend their entire lives in "lock down" the chances of them having salmonella is quite low. Yet, due to USDA rules, their eggs have to be washed to an inch of their lives then because there is nothing to keep any type of bacteria from getting through the (now) porous shell, must be refrigerated. I wonder how much of the salmonella people get from commercial eggs came from the factory and how much from "downstream".

Egg washing the way the "big boys" do it.

 

[perchie.girl]

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rollout nests are far from cold and they have been in existance for many many years. I plan on making mine out of wood. There are quite a few here at BYC that have made their own. Also they have a nest liner that looks like grass and is cleanable and it has a nap so that the eggs are encouraged to roll away and out of sight.

Here is a simple DIY roll out box

deb