Should I buy eggs or wait it out?

[Whoops]

They look like very happy, spoiled, chickens

 

[lindz8504]

Quote:

golly they are pretty!

Great guess Cheeka! (although the one pictured is the one Ratchet killed.)

One!!!
Today we laid one!!!
And a beauty it is.
This is next to the one from Thursday!
Same BCM or the other????
The color in this pic is pretty spot on. I almost didn't see it in the coop. Not in the nest. I'm thinking curtains are in order!!! Either that or the chickens said to themselves about the fake eggs..."we better not lay in the nest...those eggs have been there for a month! She never takes them out!"

GUESS WHAT!!!!!!!!

 

[cheeka]

so cool lindz! such a pretty egg! mine weren't as dark as any of the newest Marans eggs posted, and mine are gorgeous now ~ all of yours will be really dark and stunning! so cool!

and yeah... they're spoiled. W4W (I think) said not long ago re the veg n pizza party that my flock eats better than kids she's seen... I hear that a lot. they do eat well... and get the most incredible stuff from the ground at least 6 months of the year. I never saw such huge grubs as the ones Peach has dug up ~ they are all foraging champs which is really nice.

 

[Scrambles55]

THREE... THREE... We got THREE eggs today! The girls got spaghetti noodles and I found one worm. Mmmmm boy!! Smoke scarfed up that one. As far as I know... Rumples spent all but 15 minutes on the nest, but... she could have come out with the girls at dawn. When I checked on them when I woke up she was in the coop on the nest and that was at 6:30 a.m. She did lay an egg, but it was outside of the nest.

 

[Scrambles55]

Lindz... Lovely eggs!! I love the smoothness of them.

 

[chickenlindz]

Yay Lindz! Can't wait to see if the second egg comes out as different as mine did.

 

[cheeka]

The Cheddar Cheese Dog had to go out one last time. it's snowing.

 

[BullChick]

Cheeka, I need you to go through this with me again. Straw for bedding. Everyone in the PA thread is against it, and they have been since I joined 2 years ago. I made a comment about it a few weeks ago, and several people were happy to put it down. SO!!
Why does it turn to "cement"? Is that only on wood floors, or can it happen out in the grass/mud too?
I have a plastic pitchfork (IDK why that is all TSC had. At least at the time). I also have metal garden rakes I am/was planning on using. Is that okay?
You said something about getting the straw (deep litter) changed before spring. Is that because of stench?
I really do think I want to use straw! If I decide to use it in the chicken coop, can putting it in a container with DE keep any bugs that want to live on it away? Or, do the bugs come later, from the farm?
What is the square root of 7?
If straw is so evil, why do so many people use it? It is like cloth diapers. Few like to use them, but they are popular for photo shoots. So is straw.
Do they bother to put rubber pants on those babies before they pee through the cloth diaper?
Are they really those cloth diapers with a plastic liner in the middle?
Are you tired of my questions yet?
Are you going to smack me upside the head now?

 

[mortie]

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes. What a lot to catch up on. I can't hope to respond to everyone but I wanted to share that today it was actually above 30 so I started on my coop. Here is what I have so far. I also made a little pen for the babies so they can spend some time outside scratching on nice days before retiring back to their brooder to warm up.

Ignore the roof I was just showing hubby how it would kinda look.

 

[cheeka]

MC, straw can go sour. it's important that it stays dry... during the melt, (this time of year) it's almost impossible to keep it dry, so as much wet stuff needs to be pulled out, and dry to replace. wet hay will mold faster, shavings disintegrate fast after absorbing water... straw won't last as long as wood chips, and I've used wood chips - I have access to the town's wood chip dump - all the free wood chips I can haul away... but I worried about their feet - some of those wood chips are big, and have pointy bits...

the Dome has the most straw, because they have the biggest drainage problem. it's about a foot deep, and they keep it loamy and fluffy... the bantam boys pen has about 8 inches of straw and they keep it like a hardwood floor - level and smooth. this needs to be replaced the least often... the Fosters have deep areas and shallow areas, from their own housekeeping. I just put more straw on any puddles that form.

by Spring, yes, it can be ripe. but it also hard packs once the weather warms and dries. it's a lot easier to remove before the top 3-4 inches get hard packed, but a good metal rake or pitchfork makes fairly easy work of it. load it into a wheelbarrow and haul it to the compost pile. I love straw, cheap and cheerful. I do sprinkle DE in the Dome, but it's not needed anywhere else, as there is a lot less water. hope that helps!