The Middle Tennessee Thread

[TinTennessee]

Noob questions. What is the average age of a pullet before the start laying ? How long can you leave an egg out before it actually has an embryo in it. Like literally if you cracked the egg you would have a bloat ? That's what I've heard them called anyway. When you find a partially developed chick. Sorry if that made anyone sick. How long does the average hen lay ? Thanks

 

[DMRippy]

Noob questions. What is the average age of a pullet before the start laying ? How long can you leave an egg out before it actually has an embryo in it. Like literally if you cracked the egg you would have a bloat ? That's what I've heard them called anyway. When you find a partially developed chick. Sorry if that made anyone sick. How long does the average hen lay ? Thanks

They lay depending on breed. White Leghorns can lay as early as 16 weeks, some take 7-8 months, I had one that took 9. I depends on when they get ready to lay too. If the days start getting shorter about that same time, they may wait till spring to start laying.

Now for the eggs, yuck! Had a lady tell me a story about a friend that gathered eggs and got the ones that were under a broody and she boiled the eggs and eat it! Never eat an egg again.

I have left eggs out for hatching at room temp or a little cooler for about a month with no babies. They have to have the heat to grow the chick. Now if you leave the eggs out in the summer, you might have some problems. We were kidding on another thread that the TN Dept of Tourism should brag that you can "incubate egg on the back porch" LOL

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

Actually, I think someone on here did have some hatch out in a coffee can that they had left out. I may be remembering the story wrong, but I think they had been under a hen and for some reason the hen abandoned the nest. She put them in a coffee can to eventually dispose of and then forgot about it. When she went back out some time later there was a freshly hatched chick toddling about. I can totally see how it would possible on these days in the high 90s with humidities in the 80%!


Do any of y'all have some marans chicks? I sold some 3 week olds to a couple last night and they want some marans chicks to go with them. I told them I would ask about. I don't know that they are picky about what kind of marans. They just want the dark eggs eventually.
Let me know what you've got and I'll pass your contact info along.

 

[DMRippy]

Actually, I think someone on here did have some hatch out in a coffee can that they had left out. I may be remembering the story wrong, but I think they had been under a hen and for some reason the hen abandoned the nest. She put them in a coffee can to eventually dispose of and then forgot about it. When she went back out some time later there was a freshly hatched chick toddling about. I can totally see how it would possible on these days in the high 90s with humidities in the 80%!


Do any of y'all have some marans chicks? I sold some 3 week olds to a couple last night and they want some marans chicks to go with them. I told them I would ask about. I don't know that they are picky about what kind of marans. They just want the dark eggs eventually.
Let me know what you've got and I'll pass your contact info along.

I have some cuckoos marans, just hatched this week. They lay a lighter egg, but it is huge! I have a few Marans chicks I just hatched too... I was going to keep them, but I could sell them. I can always hatch more. If you still have my number just give it to them or send me theirs in a PM.

 

[DMRippy]

Hey all you hatching people.... I have a delima.... I have some SLW eggs in the bator and when I last checked them 1 was WAY behind the others but MOVING, What should I do? Give it a chance or toss it.... they are nice quality lines so I don't really want to toss it, but if it is going to cause problems down the road I will. I had this happen once before too, but it was sooooo far behind it was scary and it was in an egg that had a blood ring, so I did toss that one. I am going to check them again today if it is still going what should I do?

 

[TinTennessee]

i read a story on here about someone who went on vacation, had a friend gather eggs place them in a basket and place on a shelf. When she got home she put them on the counter and forgot about them. several hatched. i think they said they were gone for 2 weeks and she left them on the counter for another 2 weeks or more.

Another noob question. would it / could it hurt to place eggs from my neighbors coop under my birds? basically the same as buying hatching eggs. my birds are nowhere near ready to lay or go broody just curious. At what age will a hen / pullet go broody. I would assume ( i hate to ***/u/me) it would occur in older birds. Anyone have a clue on this one?

 

[DMRippy]

i read a story on here about someone who went on vacation, had a friend gather eggs place them in a basket and place on a shelf. When she got home she put them on the counter and forgot about them. several hatched. i think they said they were gone for 2 weeks and she left them on the counter for another 2 weeks or more.

Another noob question. would it / could it hurt to place eggs from my neighbors coop under my birds? basically the same as buying hatching eggs. my birds are nowhere near ready to lay or go broody just curious. At what age will a hen / pullet go broody. I would assume ( i hate to ***/u/me) it would occur in older birds. Anyone have a clue on this one?

Pullets will go broody. I had some that just started laying try to go broody, I broke that. But still my broodies this year have been pullets or just barely hens. Depends on the breed too. I don't expect my White Leghorns to ever go broody. My marans, I expect it and my rocks too. The rocks have been the broodiest so far, and the best mommas.

Maybe my EE will not go broody when I add in the White Leghorns. I have one EE that just hatched 3 little chicks yesterday, and I added one egg from my hatch that still had a live chick, so maybe she will get it to come out.

 

[TinTennessee]

Donna with mine being only 10 1/2 weeks old they aint going broody anytime soon right? heck i doubt they would even know what an egg is. I just thought i might place the eggs i collected from her coop in my nest boxes to give them an idea where they were supposed to lay. Or is it just entirely to soon to think about egg laying?

 

[DMRippy]

Donna with mine being only 10 1/2 weeks old they aint going broody anytime soon right? heck i doubt they would even know what an egg is. I just thought i might place the eggs i collected from her coop in my nest boxes to give them an idea where they were supposed to lay. Or is it just entirely to soon to think about egg laying?

Way to soon to even think about that. You will know when they need to learn. They will get pink and then red in the combs and waddles. When that starts you can put golf balls in the nest box. They will explore the nest boxes too. Most of mine just used the nest box, but I have 3 that REFUSE to use one

 

[CarolJ]

I've got a broody hen. She's gone broody several times - I broke her the other times except once when she sat on some eggs for a week and then quit. So this time I set up a broody pen and after she'd sat on some fake eggs for a couple days, I moved her into the broody pen. It's only been 3 days - but so far, so good. I've got 11 eggs under her. I hope that having her in her own pen - with nothing to disturb her - will make her stick with it this time. She's one of my Araucanas (about 9 1/2 mths old), and they're supposed to be pretty good broodies.

I got rid of all my extra roos - if you offer them free on Craigslist, they are taken almost immediately. And it was worth it to me to give them away because I really needed them gone.

Did anyone get some of those crates that were free? I want some - but I know I can't manage them by myself, and my husband is in the middle of a fencing project so I don't want to take him away from that to help me. Maybe I can get some of the crates in a month or two. They'd be nice frames for a coop and run.

It seems everytime I'm out in the coop, I brush against some of the wire or otherwise scratch my hands, arm, legs. Yesterday, I turned around in the coop and tripped over a stool and fell against one of the cages - scratching my arm. Then I was carrying a bag of sand out to the run, dropped it (because it was @#@!! heavy) and ended up getting a gash on my hand. Still not sure what I hit it against. Anybody else got chicken-keeping battle scars? I've decided keeping chickens can be a dangerous thing!

Do any of you have automatic coop doors? I'm thinking about getting one. Not sure what brand is best, though. I want them mainly for when we go out of town. I can get someone to check on the chickens each day - but don't want to ask someone to be there at the crack of dawn to open the pop doors and then again right at dusk to close them.