Should I buy eggs or wait it out?

[gilcamp4]

Happy sunday everyone!

I have been sick so we opted not to spend the night at the wedding place. I came home and threw maggie out of the nest to the roost. This morning Iwent out and she was back in the nest so I put her on outside the run since she's not laying anyway. She wandered around doing that soft broody cluck. My plan is to exclude her from the coop during daylight and keep her on the roost at night. I am hoping that will do the trick.

Midge is still brooding away on the experiment eggs and will need a broody breaker. Fun times. I'm giving her a few more days on the experiment eggs and then I will do it. I have a little pen she can go i nby day but at night she needs to be in the coop to be safe. I will block off the nest boxes then I suppose and unblock them in the morning and remove her. Sounds like a lot of work. Darn chicken.

I could never block the nest boxes, I have one that lays early if we go out at 6 am the egg is there, I take the brooder and just put her out side every time I go into coop, it took one week with one but this last one was almost 3 wks she would get so mad at me.

 

[ronott1]

The sky was clear in California last night(no surprise--drought and all that) and the moon was very bright. I heard the egg song at 3:30 in the morning so I was not surprised to see two eggs in the Pita Pinta tractor coop this morning.

One of them was a soft shelled egg. I took it into the house, rinsed off the dirt and it is now in a zip lock bag in the fridge. I will use it in something tonight or save it for breading chicken breast tomorrow night.

Can't waist a perfectly good egg!

 

[mortie]

I think Maggie is cured. She was not as far along as Midge with her broodiness so she was a little easier to manage. The last couple of days I have gone out in the morning and removed her from the nest box, where she must have gone at first light because I always made sure she stayed on the roost after I moved her there, and put her outside the run. It wasn't as hardcore as putting her in a broody breaker but I wanted to try that first since she wasn't as into it as Midge is. The first day she was pretty moody. She walked around slowly, doing that soft cluck that she and Midge were both doing on their nests. When they were all done laying I let them all out so she would have company and just excluded ALL of them from the coop. At the end of the day I would let them back in and when it was fully dark I would grab Maggie out of the nest and stick her on the roost and then check back in an hour or so to make sure she stayed there. This morning she was out with the rest of the crew in the run and not in the nest. I'll keep an eye on her but I think she is cured.

Midge will sit on her experimental eggs through today and then she will probably need a broody breaker which I don't have so I am trying to think of something...I have a little pen for her but it doesn't have a mesh bottom. I've been looking on CL for some kind of cage, crate, or kennel that will work but so far no dice. I tried to candle a couple of her eggs last night but the light I was using wasn't any good. Poor Midge.

 

[mortie]

Cleaned out the coop today. I haven't done it since I put the bedding in it back in April/May. All in all, I think it worked out pretty well. When it rains a lot, there is some water getting in because I do get some stink then. I wish I knew where the problem is. It's not bad though, since I turn the bedding a couple of times a week it ends up drying out pretty good.

The contents looked like shavings mixed with dirt - which is what I have read that a DLM coop should look like. The contents seemed to be breaking down nicely. I'm quite pleased. One of my biggest fears when I started this whole chicken thing was that I would have to spend a lot of time cleaning up poop and/or have a bad stink problem. Neither of these has come to pass and I am very grateful for that! It took 3 wheel barrow loads to empty it out and now the contents are sitting on my spent garden waiting to be spread there. Looks like great fertilizer.

While I was working, Midge was kind of anxious, as one might expect. I was taking a short break between loads and was sitting in my chicken watchin chair and she came BUSTING out of the pop door, screeching like crazy. She took some hasty drinks and proceeded to the dust bathing area where she immediately picked a fight with Shadow, who definitely had the upper hand. Shadow was chasing her around, biting her, jumping on her back, etc. I don't know if Midge just irritated her or if she's been in the nest long enough that Shadow doesn't recognize her anymore. I opened the door to the run and Midge ran out along with everyone else. She poked around in the grass for a few minutes then booked it back to her eggs. Poor thing. I'm going to take her eggs away tonight for final analysis and put her on the roost to start the process of breaking her.

 

[lindz8504]

One of the incubator crew got left out last night. I saw him out in the yard at supper time and then things got busy and I forgot to go lock up until we were going to bed at 11. I couldn't find him last night but he was wondering around this morning so he must have found a safe place to roost for the night. I have been finding a few eggs in the coop floor and in the run. They appear to be one of the golden comets and are good sized and brown. Any idea what would cause one to start laying in random places like that? I have not had to look for eggs for awhile but I guess I'll need to start.

 

[mortie]

I dunno Lindz, once in a while I find an egg in the run. I don't know if it took her by surprise or if the nests were both taken or what. Birds!

Experiment over. Midge got off the nest again for a dust bath so I swiped the eggs while she was gone and shut the door to exclude everyone from the coop/run. I candled them and saw nothing remarkable. I broke them open and still saw nothing remarkable. I scrambled them up and I'm feeding them to the birds and I'm hoping to get midge in particular to gobble some up because I know she needs some nutrition in her.

So there you go. As I suspected, my bullseye eggs are not experiencing parthogenisis. I love science

 

[Wishing4Wings]

One of the incubator crew got left out last night. I saw him out in the yard at supper time and then things got busy and I forgot to go lock up until we were going to bed at 11. I couldn't find him last night but he was wondering around this morning so he must have found a safe place to roost for the night. I have been finding a few eggs in the coop floor and in the run. They appear to be one of the golden comets and are good sized and brown. Any idea what would cause one to start laying in random places like that? I have not had to look for eggs for awhile but I guess I'll need to start.

Bird brains?

 

[mortie]

 

[cheeka]

clindz, I've broken eggs in front pockets, side pockets, jacket pockets...lol...

can't remember who asked about Silkies roosting, they do roost, if they can get up there. some folks keep the roosts a bit too high, they can't fly. so if they can't jump up, they are stuck making other sleeping arrangements. I have a few staggered roosts, so Gossamer can hop onto the lowest and hop her way up to the higher levels. before she went broody and was moved, she would sleep between the Cochins... which is where I would choose to sleep if I were a chicken.. those girls are so fluffy.

we're holding steady with eggs, low numbers, but keeping it just around a dozen or a bit less each day. it won't last... by the end of the month, I'll be seeing empty nests all over the place.

 

[Scrambles55]

TWO!!

I do believe that Smoke and Penny have joined Rumples in the No Egg Strike.