lol! do they use the same 1-3 potties?
How to buy chicken eggs for eating?
Chicken Rancher, I have to differ on the enzyme, unless you are advocating an embyo starting to grow at the microscopic level as better than an unfertilized egg. I find that hens lay better without roosters bothering them and ruining the feathers on their backs by mounting them. Unless you plan on fertilizing eggs for hatching, I wouldn't keep roosters with laying hens. And the reason they lay in the same box is that the sight of an egg makes a hen want to build that number of eggs up to an amout to brood on. It's an instinct thing. That's why they use fake eggs, to train a young hen to lay there instead of under a bush.
And chickens evolved from the same ancestors as dinosaurs. So, the egg, outside the body, with shell was around millions of years before the animals inside evolved enough to be called a "bird" and that long to be evolved into a chicken, still. Pretty simple, huh?
Double yolkers are caused by a hen starting to set and form the shell, stop, get up and next time she sets down to lay the egg another yolk has pushed up behind the first and she forms a shell around both. If you have seen a hen's insides, you will see a succession of yolks, ranging from the size you know to smaller and smaller to a string of little ones like fish eggs. Usually one yolk moves to the canal that forms the shell every day at the same time and if disturbed during that time, a double yolker may be the result of that disruption.
Carol
Carol
Very interesting, Carol--I never really thought about what must be going on inside of the chicken to form the egg!
I'm not saying they are better to be fertilized I am just saying that I heard there is an enzyme in fertilized eggs. As for the hens not liking a roo around my 14 hens don't seem to mind my roo and hes not aggressively mounting them. None of my hens are missing feathers,and I like to listen to my roo cockledoo so hes not going anywhere. Many people don't want or like roos. My neighbor for instance had a (mean cur) RIR roo and asked if we would take care of him for her.
It makes sense about the use of fewer nest boxes especially since when I go to collect the eggs I have to move a broody hen off the eggs and they won't sit on the nest box with only 1 or 2 eggs its always 4+ eggs.
I was told younger chickens will tend to lay the double yolkers because they haven't quite figured it out yet. Is this true???
Chicken Rancher,
It is true that the younger hens that just start laying well are the ones that usually have the double yolkers, something about hormones and just starting out and being full of youth and life and vigor. And, hehehehe, we can't speak for the hens liking or not liking the roosters attention, it's all instinct. You see the way she submits and holds her tail up when he grabs some neck feathers in his beak? All instinct, right down to her ruffling her feathers to shake them back into place afterwards. And, yes, it is up to the owner to decide to keep roos or not. I just like my hens to be fully feathered and have had my share of the "doodle-dooing." Only if I were intentionally breeding my hens would I keep a rooster for the purpose and I would order at least 9 straight run to pick out the best roo for breeding. Of course I only order chicks, so that's my only option. My favorite hatchery deals with many independent breeders to keep their many varieties available. Can you imagine the size if they did all those breeds themselves? Anyway, I count on that to keep the breed lines from being so closely related. If I were really into a breed I would order some pullets from one hatchery and cockerels from another to further separate the bloodlines. I for one would love to see my birds running all over a green field or lawn, it's been a dream for many years. But I have to realize they are only protected by me and I keep them behind a dogrun chainlink fence, with netting over the top. I let them out, supervised, guarded by my Shar pei dogs to pick bugs, get greens and have a good time. You're right about greens and foraging being better for their eggs. I consider chickweed a crop! LOL At least that's what I tell everyone that sees unweeded beds! I do collect it every day for them if they don't get out, though.
Carol
I wish I could let my chickens run but I have 2 Chesapeake Bay Retrievers and since they are bird dogs well ... you get the picture. I do let them out once in a while an hour before dark with the dogs safely locked in the house. They all know to go to bed in their coop. I give them all kinds of treats and you should see them standing at the fence when I'm in the garden. They know I will find some tasty bug, grub or cricket for them.
Tasty being, of course, in the beak of the beholder... :)
But of course! You'd never catch me eating one of their tasty treats. :)
What a delightful thread! Someone told me that folks didn't refridgerate
eggs until the 70's.
I have a funny (to me anyway) story about eggs gone bad. I had a hen
that wanted babies very badly (ok - she was broody). I let her sit on that
single egg for a few days and noticed another one. And over the course
of a month or more, there were a huge pile of eggs. I couldn't tell which
were new and which were old. I just let her sit on them. I didn't keep track
so I waited 'til I knew there was no way those eggs were viable. I kicked
her off the pile and threw the eggs in the compost. Well - a couple of
them EXPLODED. I was so glad I threw them from a few feet away. PiYew!
And on the quality of eggs - I found that I don't even like the taste of a
friends organic eggs as much as i do my own. Mine free range and hers
are kept in a much smaller run - much less grass/greens than mine get.
Tam
I'm glad to hear you moved her off the eggs, and the eggs out of the nest box prior to the exploding egg trick. Cause that would not have been a treat.
Tammy,
I did the same thing first. Then I wised up and dotted with a magic marker a bunch of fresh ones that I just let stay there while I picked all the rest, she hatched out 3 of five. I did finally make my own 'candler' by cutting an egg shape in dark cardboard to lay the egg in while I held a flashlight under to see any growth. Flashlight is not strong enough, a bulb would be better. I did date the eggs when I left them under her so I could count to exactly 21 days for hatching, wrote right on the eggs. You have to be carefull about having too many eggs under her build up. Some can be pushed to the outside and cool too much if you forget to collect and she can't cover them all. Live and learn, I guess.
Carol
I've had a few hens hide the eggs 'til they hatched. The first year it was in the middle
of Dec and snow was on the ground. I walked into the barn and heard that peep peep peep
and looked around. There was one on the ground! I kept looking and found her with her
babies in a box up high on a shelf. Then the next time I found the chicks the morning
after a racoon got in the barn the night before. He cleaned out all the hens. But the babies
survived! It was just the best sight of my life! I was devastated to lose them all and it was
like a sign to see the babies the next day. Last time this happened, the hen nested in a
small nook created between the barn & some hay bales. She had two babies. Here's
a picture of the happy family.
Tammy, I'm sorry to hear you lost all your hens but so glad that rotten coon waited til the chicks were hatched. That would have been worse to find the eggs later and find they were within days of hatching. I wonder why mom wasn't with the babies? Maybe its better that she wasn't. Well at least you have a silver lining!
What a nice silver lining! I had a duck go broody and the hens kept chasing her off and laying eggs in her nest. Silly me, i kept removing them till i caught on. Out of five chicken eggs Olive hatched out one little Buckeye. When we went to check the other eggs, one exploded, and SHE ATE IT! My dh had to leave the coop immediately LOL
The boiled egg spinning thing is actually correct. When you spin a raw egg, the centifugal force throws the yold from one end to the other, causing a wobble. Once hard boiled, the yolk is in place and the egg balanced.
Mother Earth News recently did an article proving once again that free range eggs are better for you! I will find it and post a link...
tf
here is their latest article on raising a flock, likely should be posted in the other thread:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Homesteading-and-Self-Reliance/2007-12-01/Best-Chickens-for-the-Homestead.aspx
just do a search on "free range eggs" at Mother's site www.motherearthnews.com and they have a LOT of articles... the link is so long i don't think it will work here
great article Tamara!
Tam