Backyard Chickens?
- Thread starter Dragonborn
- Start date
They will stop laying during molting but your long dry spell probably had more to do with shorter days. Now that the days are getting longer you will get to regularly scheduled laying.
Some light the coop during winter to get some egg action going but I just let nature take its course and give the girls a break.
Mine are going nuts with the egg laying averaging 9 - 12 a day. We've had 3 days in the last two weeks with 14 eggs from the 14 hens. I took a photo of the 14 - it's amazing how each hen is very consistent about laying the same shape/color. I can identify over half of them. I know the 4 brown egg layers, but don't know who's is who's on those.
There is a 15th hen, hasn't laid in years, coming up 8 years old we fondly call the free-loader, but I see no reason why she can't just stay on board. This flock gets along better than my past flocks by far. No dominant bullies and no paranoid fearful one at the bottom. They have a way of walking into a space and the lower ones get out of the way, but no pecking and screaming. They'll be a year old in June and it's amazing how there are no stand-outs top or bottom.
There is a 15th hen, hasn't laid in years, coming up 8 years old we fondly call the free-loader, but I see no reason why she can't just stay on board. This flock gets along better than my past flocks by far. No dominant bullies and no paranoid fearful one at the bottom. They have a way of walking into a space and the lower ones get out of the way, but no pecking and screaming. They'll be a year old in June and it's amazing how there are no stand-outs top or bottom.
Yes, I had two old hens left and was going to just let them die out, but changed my mind and ordered 16 day-olds from Meyers. The oldest hen died now just the one left from earlier stock. Two of the new 16 were killed by a hawk on two different occasions after I'd moved them to the coop and paddock. I decorated the paddock in shiny aluminum decor and a blowing ghost left from halloween decor and the hawks have stayed away. Good thing we don't have close neighbors, I'm sure their eyeballs would roll, but hey, the decorations work.
Yes, 4 brown egg layers, 3 blue egg layers and the rest Easter-Eggers. I assumed half the EE's would lay beige/tan eggs, but every one of them lays blue to green shades.
Speaking of eggs, I see our local store has white eggs on sale for $1.66/dozen and brown eggs on sale for $3.99/dozen. People will pay more for the brown ones because they say they're so much better. I'm sure they're associating the color with local farm fresh eggs, but in reality, those chickens that lay the brown eggs for the stores are kept in every bit as bad conditions as the white layers are. I will gladly pay $4/dozen from a local farmer but I will not pay that much more in the store because of the color of the egg.
DD4MSpock
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To answer the OP's original question, no, I would not do backyard chickens. They would not be welcome in my neighborhood due to the roosters' incessant noise (a huge HOA complaint). In fact, the last time I had to deal with that noise was when I was on vacation on Bora Bora Island (2006). 5AM in the freakin' morning... when I didn't even have to be up for diving until 8:30a. Besides, we have feral hogs in this area that patrol regularly at night. Even in a tight, secure coop, any chickens in our AO would not stand a chance.
That said, if I ever needed to keep chickens for food (eggs, meat, etc. etc.), and I had the facility for it (separate barn out in the sticks where the "HOA Karens" couldn't complain about them), and I had all the sanitary conditions under control (that;s a lot of chicken poop to deal with) I'd do it.
That said, if I ever needed to keep chickens for food (eggs, meat, etc. etc.), and I had the facility for it (separate barn out in the sticks where the "HOA Karens" couldn't complain about them), and I had all the sanitary conditions under control (that;s a lot of chicken poop to deal with) I'd do it.
interesting little tidbit here…
Two of my daughters absolutely cannot eat store bought or eggs in a restaurant. It rips their stomachs up. But they can eat my backyard eggs all day long. Them suckers sneak in when I am at work and steal all of my eggs from the storage room.
My wife cackles at me because I will not eat lunch meat for lunch during the weekends, I would rather cook me a fried egg sandwich. Somewhere in me, I think I am giving myself some nutrient enriched food. True or not, that’s the hoodoo voodoo I tell myself, haha.
There was a discussion about this on a chicken fb page and the real reason they charge more for brown eggs is there are no breeds of brown-egg-layer chickens that have a high rate of lay like the white egg layers of commercial egg farms. When the million $$$ farms "have to" produce brown eggs to the brown egg demand, those chickens may lay 4 per week rather than 6 ((I'm guessing at numbers here)). When you have a millions on chickens that eat the same amount of feed for a year I'm sure it adds up and that's all they do is rate cost against profit.
Only roosters make the irritating noise and you don't have to have roosters, just hens. Some hens do make noisy cackling but nothing like a rooster crowing at 3 in the morning. If you have a yard the poop is excellent fertilizer and composted in a bin you can sell for $. Our handful of chickens has never made enough compost for me to share with anyone.
They run the commercial eggs through some kind of machine to catch any deformities of nature like blood spots, and then wash & bleach spray them. I may not be relating this exactly right, but something to that affect that was the reason I read not to feed store bought whole raw eggs to dogs. I'd have to go back to look it up, but it may be the "processing" that is harder for some peoples system?
That could very well be. We get our eggs from our trainer when we can and she asked if we were okay with duck eggs mixed in since some people won't eat them. I said of course we're fine with them and they're a tiny big bigger, or at least hers are.
DD4MSpock
Hot Topics Subscriber
Honestly, I was never aware of that (i.e. that a chicken can lay "unfertilized" eggs without a rooster). But one is necessary for fertilized eggs that will turn into chicks. Nonetheless, I still think the HOA would have issues with any homeowner raising chickens in a coop in the back yard. That, and there is the matter of the feral hogs.
Just fyi, I had ducks for a while, and read (and can confirm) that their eggs are stellar for baking! I never liked the taste of them much if I had them scrambled, but for baking they did make things rise much better.
It's true! Duck eggs are richer and creamier because they have a higher fat content. There is a bakery that has a booth in our local famers market that charges a premium price for her baked goods that have duck eggs.
We've had an incredible amount of hawks this spring. One of our neighbors shared this on an email chain that we have to give tips and tricks to help to care for and protect our animals. He says if you encourage crows to hang around the hawks will stay away. He keeps a few raw peanuts in the shells in a made by him feeder. It's a simple 4x4 put in the ground at maybe 4 foot or so. Then just screw a board, his looks like a 1x6 about a foot long and lay the peanuts on it. That will encourage the crows to hang around and the hawks yo stay away. Does it work? I have no idea but he swears by it.
It's true. We have ravens here, one nesting pair for years. If I ever saw a hawk soaring overhead, if I kept it in sight for a few minutes pretty soon I'd see the ravens dive-bombing it in the sky driving it off. Hawks will eat the ravens/crows eggs or chicks, so they are very defensive of their nesting territory. The pair usually disappears for a while in the fall/winter and that's when we had the hawk attacks. Then I put my shiny decor out and the ravens came back. Then they found the nests and I had to block the ravens out without discouraging them to hang out. Since we're in terrible draught here, they come drink out of the chicken water bowls. The chickens don't mind the ravens at all, I've seen the ravens pecking around on the ground where we toss scratch occasionally. We've had the young raven fledglings stealing eggs too, but that's another long story from a few years ago.
Good to know. I don't really have problems with hawks until recently. I think last year, maybe the year before Cluck had a tangle with one and this year they seem to be thick as theives. They haven'y really bothered the hens.....yet.
I did have a cowbird lay eggs in one of the nexting boxes but so far no attacks on the chickens.
LOL, we don't have cowbirds here, but I was familiar with them in Arkansas. I knew they'd lay in other birds nests, but never heard about them laying in chicken coops.
BG1
Hot Topics Subscriber
Ok the feral hog thing got my attention...
BACON! Everything goes with BACON.
Especially eggs. You could get them in the same place, if properly equipped...
This gear conversation may need to go to the OffTopic area.
DD4MSpock
Hot Topics Subscriber
Ok the feral hog thing got my attention...
BACON! Everything goes with BACON.
Especially eggs. You could get them in the same place, if properly equipped...
I wouldn't trust these hogs (i.e. disease, etc.). And the HOA would be all over anyone that attempted a "backyard butchering" station. I'm not saying it hasn't happened, but I don't want to be responsible for butchering it.
BG1
Hot Topics Subscriber
Heh, ya sort of snarking there...srry!
Took a couple classes once from a guy on how to hunt and butcher wild pig. Lots of fun.
He was way into it, had a shed setup with stainless steel topped tables, band saw, sterile washup. We the class processed one all the way to wrapping cuts labelled and given out by drawing. Ate good a couple days!
There are definite things to look out for- parasites and if you see blue flesh- its the pigs feeding on stuff with herbicides and banned rat killer you got to watch out for here:
Wild pigs are turning electric blue in California. Here’s why.
Feral hogs with "slushie-blue" innards turned up in Monterey earlier this year—and not for the first time.
www.nationalgeographic.com
If I were to harvest a pig, I'd do like when deer hunting: field dress and hang then take to the butcher...mad props to those who do more tho.
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