Should I buy eggs or wait it out?

[Chickens1001]

Actually Golf Balls are a good idea!! That is what my family does sometimes!! It won't bust like the store bought eggs!! They stimulate the hens to lay!!

 

[Wishing4Wings]

Quote: Hi Sally, I've been here, mostly reading though. Troubles in paradise, so haven't been in the mood to post without being whiny, but I love hearing about everyone's adventures and chicken antics. The chicken drama around here involves one of the 4 little Serama pullets that we bought a few weeks ago. Of course it's the best, smallest girl, Penelope. We have been careful about quarantining, and when the other two Serama got lice, were really glad to have done so. But a few days ago my hubs noticed one of Penelope's eyes was watery. I looked but didn't see anything, so let it go. He brought it up again this weekend, and not only was the eye watery, but the upper orbital was swollen too. I even got a small bit of puss out from under the lid. Stupid me hadn't been checking her as I should have.

So, in addition to disinfecting everything as much as possible, I started researching and looked up the symptoms and was sucked into the spiraling vortex of dire, fatal and fast spreading diseases. Seems swollen weepy eyes are the first sign of a whole host of nasty diseases for which culling is the cure. Because we had reached the 3 week point in the quarantining, we were very lax and handled chickens from different pens without washing first. Soooo, everyone has been placed on Denagard as a precaution for Mycoplasmas, but as this seemed likely to be viral, we are at the mercy of whatever it is.

However, after 24 hours on the Denagard, the eye is not worse (yay) and there is no symptom development in any of the other chickens (yay-yay). If things keep going this way for the rest of the week, I will stop worrying so much. I don't think the pullets brought anything here, but maybe they picked something up from my big girls. I have been checking the hens frequently for mites and did not always wash my hands before handling the youngsters. The back yard has been visited by an unusually large number of quail this summer, so transmission from the wild is also likely. Or she may have just got something in her eye.

At any rate, maybe i won't have nightmares about culling tonight.

I don't think it would be weird to apologize to the neighbors. Maybe a dozen eggs would smooth over any plantings Ethel may have dug up!

 

[Wishing4Wings]

Actually Golf Balls are a good idea!! That is what my family does sometimes!! It won't bust like the store bought eggs!! They stimulate the hens to lay!!

Hi Chickens101

I was really surprised to find that chickens can be fooled by golf balls. A broody hen seems to be able to tell if an egg is not developing and will push it out of the nest, but a golf ball will remain. Must be the bad ones smell or something.

Sounds like you have experience waiting for eggs. What kind of chickens do you have?

 

[okallthis4eggs]

TEN

TEN.....Today Seven Of Us Laid TEN Eggs



Don't Tell Dad He Thinks Were Great
He Forgot Them Yesterday Cause It Got Late
So Double Pie And Scratch Galore
Ole Fool Thinks Tomorrow...He Will Get 10 More

 

[cheeka]

lindz, I get $2 a dozen. it's fair for my area. although, some people charge $2.50 or $3. my folks, who live in Denver, pay $5 a dozen for eggs like ours... and I have a friend from high school out in Central California, she pays $6 at the farmers market. it needs at the least, to cover it's equal daily feeding cost... plus a little extra. it costs me at minimum 85 cents a day to feed my laying hens. most days I get a dozen eggs... so I make enough to pay to feed the girls, and enough to feed the boys so they are not a burden on the budget.

speaking of the boys... W4W , yeah, I have a problem. I love the boys more than the girls... and I adore the girls... I've learned that boys can easily live in pairs or more, the 4 I got from Stillwater live happily together... for now anyway... but pairs have worked here very well...and they free range well together, there is enough space for everyone out in the yard...they have their corners staked out and take turns parading for the hens. I am addicted to the sound of crowing. and now I have pitches ranging from very high tinny comical all the way to deep raspy tough ole bird. it's music to my ears.

we made PIE's today. yes, pieS. pigs got 2 of them and pecked those platters clean! better give us more than 8 Eggs tomorrow for our efforts!





I stopped at my favorite farm stand today and the lady asked me if I'd like a watermelon for the little girl... we were surprised to find out that it was yellow inside, her very first! I like the yellow better, more flavorful, like a honeydew... after her treat, I put her in the bathtub, she was SO filthy... I should have hosed her off outside first, she had dirt streams everywhere from the melon... she likes being grubby girl. I had to bring out the germX and a roll of paper towels to wash her hands and face up enough to touch food. she refused to come inside.

 

[Sallysec]

TEN

TEN.....Today Seven Of Us Laid TEN Eggs



Don't Tell Dad He Thinks Were Great
He Forgot Them Yesterday Cause It Got Late
So Double Pie And Scratch Galore
Ole Fool Thinks Tomorrow...He Will Get 10 More

W4W I wish you the best of luck and hopefully everyone recovers with no long term issues in sight. I am still glad I kept those two little ones in my house for as long as I did until they passed. I worry about that regularly since I have two different flocks still that don't meet.


MC, I am hopeful to have blue again with these CL eggs...I started documenting my incubation with these guys today.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...actually-try-to-do-things-right#post_11861223

We shall see if the gamble of shipped eggs pays off...

In the mean time, here are some pics from today

I look cute, but when your not looking.....

I walked in to this mess after leaving them alone for five minutes while on the phone

Only the oldest cares that I caught them...


This is the picture I promised from a few days/week ago of the pins...she is fully feathered and laying as of today .

this is me dropping a tomato on my way to the house...and the attack that occurs in seconds. This is why they follow me around the yard...something might fall at any moment.


So Ethel is on the left of this picture, should I think about clipping her wing after yesterday? I don't really believe in altering them for multiple reasons but the biggest being:
I feel like if I am going to let them free range during the day that they deserve to have the best chance to get away from predators etc.


The shipped eggs!

Sorry for all the pictures, I actually had some of the chicks but they are too large for me to upload.

 

[Sallysec]

Cheeka sounds like you had another awesome day with Mylee, and I love that she gets down and dirty. I try to get my son in the dirt and he can't stand it and runs away lol.

As for eggs, I know that one of my friends locally sells her eggs to friends for $3 a dozen. I know that there are people at the farmers market selling for $6 though, organic and soy free for around $8-12.

My husband sold a few dozen to co workers for $4 in jersey.

 

[cheeka]

nice pics! couch cushions are the best!

W4W, I'm hopeful that she maybe just got pecked a bit or got something in her eye... it can means so many things... my friends in the valley, their EE got some puffy eye thing, but it cleared up...

the Chicken Chick (Egg Carton Labels by ADozenGirls)... just went through a huge ordeal with a wattle infection that caused her roosters eye to swell...

 

[Sallysec]

I love her facebook! ..Cheeka do you have any issues loading pictures usually?

 

[Sallysec]

I am not really good with the camera and didn't know that my husband had changed the setting to finer settings which basically means halfway through my day of taking pictures the pictures are now too large I guess for me to use...grrrr!