What do you gather eggs in?! Pics?

[heartsizedfarm]

Sure! I have a black bow tie and a lightish purple one. Which should I wear when you and I are done chasing our respective chickens to the barn before we head to the porch??

Okay I'll accept the light purple one since you don't have a polka dot. Red wine or white wine?

 

[bruceha2000]

Okay I'll accept the light purple one since you don't have a polka dot. Red wine or white wine?

Depends, what is Bee serving - lamb, beef, pork, chicken, fish??

Of course, being on the porch it is probably pot luck so we'll have all of the above. Better have some of both!

 

[Chicks Galore3]

You guys crack me up! And yup..,I've been seen chasing chickens in a dress and muck boots before. Whenever I know I will be going out I either don't let the chickens out, let them out early, or plan time to put them in. I have 23 chickens now and they aren't that much work. A water top off in the morning/night and a feeder refill morning/night, add shavings monthly, and deep clean once a year. Not more work then other animals or a family.

 

[Chickenchick11]

I only have only 6 ladies so I usually just wear a big kangaroo pocket hoodie and put the eggs in there or take a cool whip container or something like that and put them in there. I'm looking at getting a cute wire basket one day.

 

[B-Goock]

LOL chicks galore
When I was a kid there was an older couple up the road that had a farm and every day the lady would wear a dress and "muck" boots. She was a tough but nice old farm lady. Once at her house my sister and I found a copperhead and yelled to let her know. Over the hill she came with...... nothing, just her. No hoe, gun, shovel, or anything. She grabbed that snake and popped it's head off!

On gather eggs if I'm home I just go out several times and set them in my shirt or if I'm wearing a hoodie in the pocket. When I'm not home I use my boys to go get them.

 

[winteree]

I think there is a BIT of difference between 17 and 70 to 90! I agree, if you get up there, it IS a lot of work simply due to the area you need to deal with, the number of feeders, etc. My mornings take maybe 5 minutes, same in the evening. No difference between the 12 I started with and the 10 I have now. On a daily basis, I doubt 17 would be much more work than 12. I use Deep Litter.

Morning is:
- Open the barn door - all the chickens run out then chase me down looking for their treats (food scraps) and/or BOSS
- Open the people door to the coop (it is inside the barn and has a PulletShut auto door) and rake through the litter (~10' x 12').
- Collect any eggs that may have been laid.
- See if they need feed, the feeder is in the coop
- See if they need water - the 5 gallon water tank is outside the coop and I only have to add water every few weeks.
- In warmer weather, open the door on the other end of the barn alley.
- Leave

Evening is:
- Close the far barn door if open
- Collect eggs laid since the last time I visited which MIGHT be 'not at all' if the temp is above freezing.
- Close the people door
- Toss scratch out for the girls (and they have been hitting on me the whole time. They aren't patient!)
- Leave, closing the barn door.

Yes, there is the extra this and that plus cleaning out the DL every year. Now if I was "kitty scooping" sand or cleaning a poop board every morning, it would take longer. I'm lucky that my girls have a lot of room to run around in an area I am not concerned about keeping sanitary. The girls pretty much 'till' the shavings in the run just keeping busy and looking for anything they can eat. And they can go outside any time they want so they do, other than winter. They aren't real fond of wandering in the snow. Outside is SO much more fun than hanging in the run, especially when there are bugs and greens to eat. They pretty much never go in the coop during the day except to eat chicken food, drink or lay an egg. Except the STUPID BROODY ONES!

Bruce

i know but i would never have got as many chickens as i did if i didn't have the experience before hand. I just like to have my bases covered and we are talking about someone who hasn't raised chickens before i don't like going into anything unprepared and i would be nervous as hell getting that many on my first try because she not just getting 17 layers but i believe 25 meat birds as well. And my first dance with meat birds at my house was hell in a hand basket Even through i want to try again I'm twice shy about meatys.

 

[winteree]

We have 10

10 is a good round number

 

[winteree]

These are our meat birds... We got attached to them! QQ its going to be hard to take them to the butcher....

very nice i wish i knew about the feeding schedule when i raised mine it was so heartbreaking to see them go downhill so fast like they did.

 

[winteree]

You guys crack me up! And yup..,I've been seen chasing chickens in a dress and muck boots before. Whenever I know I will be going out I either don't let the chickens out, let them out early, or plan time to put them in. I have 23 chickens now and they aren't that much work. A water top off in the morning/night and a feeder refill morning/night, add shavings monthly, and deep clean once a year. Not more work then other animals or a family.

becuase if the weather here we have to change all the water dayly in the summer (or any day in the higher 90ies-100f). I haven't made a big feeder for my birds yet so their food gets changed every 3 days. i use a deep litter meathod of sorts but i change the bedding once a month or it goes moldy.

 

[Chicks Galore3]

Quote: I empty the water daily too. Guess it sounded like I didn't but it gets all slimy if I don't. I do scoop out the poopiest shavings in the coop and add new ones in the summer otherwise it stinks to high heaven.