The chickens are finally laying! Tips, tricks and tools for amazing eggs.

[aricbishop]

Hello everyone!

My girls are finally laying and they seem happy - even if winter is around the corner! I wanted to create a post to know if anyone of you have resources for egg shell quality.

My chickens eggs are nice, but I was wondering if there might be more resources out there to help determine what is normal egg shell quality, but I also read a wonderful blog post about the beauty of natural eggs and they won't look like store bought eggs.

I am also curious to know how everyone cleans their eggs. I purchased these wipes from Boomgars, but I wanted to know what everyone else does as they clean and collect their eggs!

I just want to make sure my girls lay a decent quality of egg and that they are happy. Attached you should find some pictures of the girls and the eggs I have gathered so far.

Here are the girls in the garden:

Here are some of the eggs I have collected (what types of material do you use for your nesting boxes?):

Here are some other photos of the girls:

 

[N F C]

Nice looking birds and eggs!

I use pine shavings in my coop and as long as I keep it clean (and collect eggs every day) I don't have a problem with messy eggs.

 

[kerbotx]

You've got some beautiful girls making some beautiful eggs there! I use a combination of materials in my nest boxes - a plastic grass-like nesting pad on bottom, it acts as a soft landing pad for the egg, that doesn't get scratched out of place. Then I top that off with pine shavings. I really like Standlee Flock Fresh bedding - it's super soft & smells nice, and the girls seem to like it - but it didn't seem to last as long as a bag of pine shavings, and it costs twice as much.

As for cleaning the eggs, I generally don't; if it's super dirty, I chuck it out in the run for the girls to eat. Otherwise, I might use a plastic scratch pad to remove any minor debris. Refrigerate. Maybe wash right before using, if it seems necessary. For my setup, I feel that a clean floor goes a long way towards clean eggs, as poop seems most likely to get tracked into the nest via their feet.

 

[FarmerGirl101]

I put newspaper on the bottom to prevent the broken eggs from sticking, a layer of Aspen bedding (pretty much like a mat), a layer of pine shavings, and then a layer of hay

 

[drumstick diva]

Beautiful girls and eggs