South Carolina

[Joycats]

Quote:
I am sooooooo behind.


Hmmmmmm. I would say collect for up to 3 days and then 3-4 to get to me........ and that is fresh. anything older than 7 days when I get it in my hands, I consider old.

Now I do hold onto my own eggs sometimes to set. I will say, that even with ideal storage conditions, anything older than 12 days seems to end up going bad during incubation

That's what I am saying. Thank you for answering, Kimberly. I know you get eggs quite often.

A lady on another forum put 2 dz "fresh hatching eggs" up for sale and I had drooled over her birds for a while so I sent payment. She told me that she would send them out the next day and send me the tracking number because her birds were laying like mad and since I have talked to her on the forum for almost 2 years and others had great things to say about her I trusted her judgement. I didn't hear from her for several days so emailed her and asked if the eggs were sent. She said sorry, no but she would get them right out and they would be "fresh!" Again nothing for several days so I emailed again and she said she was holding off because they were having a heat wave and she didn't want them to get too hot. I replied that she may as well send them because we will be in a heat wave down here for the next few months and there was no way around that.
So I am waiting again and still no eggs for a few days. At this point I figure I just need my money back. Geez! Nothing like a liar! Which I totally can't stand and deal with way too much. I emailed again and she replied that she had sent them and I should get them any day(still no tracking number though).....so yeah, the next day the PO did call me for the pick up. They were in transit only 3 days, the usual for me.

I unwrapped them and set them in my plastic incubation tray to rest for the day and the dates are going back 11 days! The freshest 2 eggs were the day before they were sent but most were 10-11 days old. Arrrrgh!

So I email her and told her that I hoped they hatched and by the way I paid for 2 dz and only 21 were sent (I did say it nicely.

). She apologized and said she thought I only wanted one dz and thought she sent plenty of extras.......And she said that eggs shipped at 8 days old was VERY fresh! She didn't see what the problem was. Trying to be nice I did say that the older the are the less likely they were to hatch after being shipped and fresh eggs were usually within 3-4 days before shipping. She disagreed and I scratched my head and thought I would ask around. I usually am not picky about stuff but thought perhaps I was over reacting.

All this made me a bit wary of what I was actually going to hatch out!

So she said she would collect over the weekend and send me out my other dz after I told her I would send her verification from my PayPal that I did indeed order 2 dz and I always type it in the message box what breed, variety and amount I ordered. For me and for the seller, since I print it all out each month for my records.

On Monday I receive my other dz and all are dated Thursday and Friday. Finally. <sigh>

And now you know the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey was so good about saying.

But really, she could collect up a dz fresh within 2 days but couldn't collect 2 dz in less than 8 days?

But they ain't fresh and I will certainly be watching those dated eggs with interest. Not that I expect all shipped eggs to hatch. I have gotten 100% hatch several times this year, once from Bargain but also from ebay eggs shipped from KY and CA. I have also not gotten any to hatch from as close as NC. It happens. But we have to have the best chance for them with freshness, right?

I would not send out eggs over 3 days old unless they were all I had for extras. And that would be from day 4. I have a reputation to keep up and do my best to try and help people, not hinder them.

Yeah, yeah, I'll shut up now. I had my rant. Thank you for listening.

I agree with you Amy - I never ship out eggs that are more than 3 days old unless the "free extras" might be from day 4. But what they pay for is never more than 3 days old. I too have received eggs from CA and had 100% hatch and then get eggs from SC with zero hatch. You just never know, but the best chance is from the freshest eggs. That is my opinion.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

That does seem to be the consensus. Thank you for answering. I think you and I talked about this the other day, too. I am getting all the same answers, as I usually do from all you intelligent SC peoples!

I was pretty sure I wasn't crazy but one never knows if they have gone over the deep end or not and it is nice to have others as a sounding board.
Thanks, Joy!

 

[emptynester]

Quote:
Whohoooo! You are going to have a blast!

I can't wait to see what all you put in! And what all comes out!

I am almost as excited as if it were me!

I can put in some Mille Fleur d'uccles right away, some RIR mixes and as soon as my LF cochins start laying uh-oh! LOL

 

[Cpntherfan]

hey how do you use your chicken poo? do you put in in veggie gardens? how often? how much? and do you leave it in the pine shavings?

 

[ChickyChickyBaby]

Quote:
Awesome deal!

I like the still air ones

 

[ChickyChickyBaby]

Quote:
I don't.

I throw the whole mess in the chicken compost pile. It goes in poop, shavings, & all together in one big pile

 

[Gold Griffin Chicken Mom]

Quote:
Leaves, wheat straw, or grass clippings on the ground help to rake up the chicken poop. I carry the bucket loads to my compost pile and throw them on top. When Hubby is cutting the grass and gets tired of carrying clippings into the runs, the grass gets added to the compost pile. Between the poop and the fresh grass, the pile gets plenty warm.

I've only done this once so far. After a one year wait, I removed the top layer of stuff that wasn't composted. That got transferred to the new pile. The rest was carried to the garden and spread on a couple of rows. It was tilled in back in May. (The garden is running LATE this year.)

Gum balls (the kind from gum trees) don't degrade worth a drat. I'm ready to declare war on the gum trees. Our entire yard had those nasty balls every where! Burn them or throw them in the trash. Otherwise we end up with lovely compost. The grubs love it. We sift through and suddenly have lots of feathered friends.

 

[ChickyChickyBaby]

Amy......
Since you got the one dozen so much fresher & quicker, I just wonder if maybe she screwed her orders up & did not have enough to fill your first one like she should have. Maybe she traded or sold more than she had

then realized she could not fill your order. Although in that case, she should have sent you a message and let you know your order would be arriving later that week or the next week.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

I advertise on Craigs List and now have several people that come a few times a year to buy it from me and clean out my coops at the same time!

Really chicken manure should be aged a while before using it in the garden. At least 6 months but a year would be good, too. The high nitrogen will burn up your plants if the roots touch it so it needs to be toned down. Composting it and turning a few times while aging is good, add leaves and other organic materials to it. It makes a nice rich bedding the following year if done that way.

Once my manure is gotten out of the coop there isn't much in the way of shavings left. They grind it in pretty good, even up in the shed. But in the coop DD puts the old bedding from her Guinea Pigs in there so it is well on it's way to being soiled. It is almost like dirt by the time the chickens are through with it.

I can't say how much to put on a garden as I have a brown thumb.

I am sure from all the manure I get into all day.

But I do think Daddy only put it on the garden once a year and DH does the same now. When we have a garden! The storm we had this past weekend did our plants in.

 

[Cpntherfan]

ok thats why i was asking i didnt know if i could overwelm my compost pile with chicken poo and wondered if i could just spread some on my grass somehow and rose bushes,shrubs and annuels