What did you do in the garden today?

[chickengr]

@Wee Farmer Sarah I mostly meant freeze eggs now for him to eat shortly - he eats 2 egg muffins a day so if I can do a huge batch now I can relax for a bit. But, with that said, if I cook them now & vacuum seal them they'll be fine for over a year. I started around August hoarding eggs too, but then my girls all stopped laying in Sept! I wasn't prepared for that! I'd only ever had RLS & they just never stopped laying at all so I was totally caught off guard. That won't happen again. It's a good idea to feed some back to the girls too, especially with the price of feed right now. Thank you for that reminder @chickengr.

I asked how to dehydrate eggs.

I also boil for an hour unhatched eggs - both infertile and with dead chicks in shells. my chickens go nuts for them. a friend of mine who has a farm told me to do that. she has an 800 egg incubator with plenty of unhatched eggs. no waste and more feed for chickens, ducks and dogs.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I cook the excess eggs to my chickens. it helps the feed bill.

I do this too...but I still have too many eggs. I just collected a 5 gallon bucket that is brimming to the top. :/

I also just read an article that avian bird flu is spreading across 12 states now. They are talking about mass culling of birds. This is a concern for several reasons....

1. I'm worried the state will come test/cull my birds since I had a couple that were sick a few months back. Arkansas has many commercial bird farms thanks to Tyson. I don't have any birds that are sick currently (that I know of) but out of precaution, I don't trust what they might do....

2. With states culling such a huge amount of birds in so many states, the cost of eggs & chicken meat is bound to rise meaning *possibly* more demand for my eggs since I am not intending to raise prices. As mentioned before, I also give away a lot of eggs if/when I can.

 

[TJAnonymous]

All four of my luffa seeds have sprouted! I also put 2 seeds in each container. Some containers have both seeds sprouted. Super pumped about that!

 

[AngBantamLuv]

I do this too...but I still have too many eggs. I just collected a 5 gallon bucket that is brimming to the top. :/

I also just read an article that avian bird flu is spreading across 12 states now. They are talking about mass culling of birds. This is a concern for several reasons....

1. I'm worried the state will come test/cull my birds since I had a couple that were sick a few months back. Arkansas has many commercial bird farms thanks to Tyson. I don't have any birds that are sick currently (that I know of) but out of precaution, I don't trust what they might do....

2. With states culling such a huge amount of birds in so many states, the cost of eggs & chicken meat is bound to rise meaning *possibly* more demand for my eggs since I am not intending to raise prices. As mentioned before, I also give away a lot of eggs if/when I can.

How many birds do you have? Are they free ranging, or in a run?

I learned from posters in the UK that covered enclosed runs were required to minimize AI spread to chickens.. so I had that done when my coop/run were built. Larger flocks of course, are harder to contain.

I just gave away a few dozen eggs, its just me, so i can't keep up but I'm considering cracking the excess into ice cube trays and freezing them... not sure if that will work? Inevitably, once i give away "extras," they stop laying.

 

[TJAnonymous]

How many birds do you have? Are they free ranging, or in a run?

I learned from posters in the UK that covered enclosed runs were required to minimize AI spread to chickens.. so I had that done when my coop/run were built. Larger flocks of course, are harder to contain.

I just gave away a few dozen eggs, its just me, so i can't keep up but I'm considering cracking the excess into ice cube trays and freezing them... not sure if that will work? Inevitably, once i give away "extras," they stop laying.

I just started another thread about AI to see what others are doing.... My chickens are allowed to free range several times a week. They stay on my property and don't range beyond an acre or two. Otherwise they are kept in 35' x 135' run with my goats & ducks. Biosecurity isn't usually an issue because I don't go to other places where people have chickens and no one comes here. However, I can't control the wild birds and there are always a ton of them.....especially starlings, sparrows, blue jays, etc.

 

[AngBantamLuv]

I just started another thread about AI to see what others are doing.... My chickens are allowed to free range several times a week. They stay on my property and don't range beyond an acre or two. Otherwise they are kept in 35' x 135' run with my goats & ducks. Biosecurity isn't usually an issue because I don't go to other places where people have chickens and no one comes here. However, I can't control the wild birds and there are always a ton of them.....especially starlings, sparrows, blue jays, etc.

Yea, i have a ton here too.. i know the roof requirement is to prevent the feces contamination from the wild birds. They need direct contact w shared food, water, or feces to spread it. It isn't airborne (thankfully). Could your chickens hunker down until it's done in your area? I wonder if there's a live map somewhere to show its current infection areas

Today I'm cleaning the coop.. but i need to get some extra buckets for the chicken manure.. will start planting my garden soon!

 

[TJAnonymous]

Yea, i have a ton here too.. i know the roof requirement is to prevent the feces contamination from the wild birds. They need direct contact w shared food, water, or feces to spread it. It isn't airborne (thankfully). Could your chickens hunker down until it's done in your area? I wonder if there's a live map somewhere to show its current infection areas

Today I'm cleaning the coop.. but i need to get some extra buckets for the chicken manure.. will start planting my garden soon!

I haven't heard of any cases in Arkansas so I should be in the clear but it is obviously spreading to the states north of us so it's only a matter of time, I think.

About 3 months ago, I had 2-3 birds who were sick with unknown illness. One died, two recovered. I spoke with the head vet at the University of Arkansas, Poultry Dept. We thought it might be MG. He suggested I take the one that died to the state lab to get tested. He said if it WAS MG, the state may decided to cull all my birds - with or without my approval - although he thought the chances of that kind of drastic measure would be low since there are no commercial flocks near me. I ended up not getting the bird tested since the others recovered. However, this guy knows my birds were sick so there's always a chance that information was put into a database. It's a small chance but you never know.... I've seen the state & fed govt do some pretty messed up things on less evidence.

 

[AngBantamLuv]

I haven't heard of any cases in Arkansas so I should be in the clear but it is obviously spreading to the states north of us so it's only a matter of time, I think.

About 3 months ago, I had 2-3 birds who were sick with unknown illness. One died, two recovered. I spoke with the head vet at the University of Arkansas, Poultry Dept. We thought it might be MG. He suggested I take the one that died to the state lab to get tested. He said if it WAS MG, the state may decided to cull all my birds - with or without my approval - although he thought the chances of that kind of drastic measure would be low since there are no commercial flocks near me. I ended up not getting the bird tested since the others recovered. However, this guy knows my birds were sick so there's always a chance that information was put into a database. It's a small chance but you never know.... I've seen the state & fed govt do some pretty messed up things on less evidence.

I don't think 2-3 birds is a good indicator of AI.. this highly infectious version can wipe out 50% of a flock. The virus will go north as summer arrives.. it moves with water related fowl and birds (ducks, seagulls, geese). So if you can keep yours covered until that migration is done, you can show you've done your biosecurity from wild birds and lessen the chance of being on anyone's radar.

Neither of us in in Ga, but their page is pretty informative..
https://extension.uga.edu/topic-areas/animal-production/poultry-eggs/avian-flu.html

 

[chickengr]

I do this too...but I still have too many eggs. I just collected a 5 gallon bucket that is brimming to the top. :/

I also just read an article that avian bird flu is spreading across 12 states now. They are talking about mass culling of birds. This is a concern for several reasons....

1. I'm worried the state will come test/cull my birds since I had a couple that were sick a few months back. Arkansas has many commercial bird farms thanks to Tyson. I don't have any birds that are sick currently (that I know of) but out of precaution, I don't trust what they might do....

2. With states culling such a huge amount of birds in so many states, the cost of eggs & chicken meat is bound to rise meaning *possibly* more demand for my eggs since I am not intending to raise prices. As mentioned before, I also give away a lot of eggs if/when I can.

keep some eggs for hatching just in case.

culling so many birds sounds like a political thing. after ww2 some people were hiding chickens on the far back of their properties. it seems we might do it as well. someone will say we should be concerned about our health. but if we starve that is not going to be good for our health, right? sick chickens will die anyway and the rest can be used for breeding, eggs and meat.

 

[chickengr]

I haven't heard of any cases in Arkansas so I should be in the clear but it is obviously spreading to the states north of us so it's only a matter of time, I think.

About 3 months ago, I had 2-3 birds who were sick with unknown illness. One died, two recovered. I spoke with the head vet at the University of Arkansas, Poultry Dept. We thought it might be MG. He suggested I take the one that died to the state lab to get tested. He said if it WAS MG, the state may decided to cull all my birds - with or without my approval - although he thought the chances of that kind of drastic measure would be low since there are no commercial flocks near me. I ended up not getting the bird tested since the others recovered. However, this guy knows my birds were sick so there's always a chance that information was put into a database. It's a small chance but you never know.... I've seen the state & fed govt do some pretty messed up things on less evidence.

can't you just say that you butchered all of your previous flockand started over? chickens don't have birth certificates.