RD & Gwyn's In-Town Homestead

[junior125]

yea help herself to a snack

[dangerdan]

We have a light in the coop to give the hens 12-14 hours of light .(timer)
on in the morning for 2 hours ,and on in the evening for 3 hours .

When they see the light come on in the evening ,they go to roost .

The eggs get cracked when the hens move the eggs around to fit under them.
Add oyster shell to the feed to give more calcium in their diet .
Added calcium makes harder shells .

DD

[Gwynmael]

Only way those birds are getting a light is if it's solar. Not running electric out to the furthest point of the yard.

The one egg that was cracked - I put more hay in the nesting box as they had nestled it all around and down and the egg was directly on the wood. I'm hoping that's what happened versus being pecked. We did go ahead and crack that egg to have a looksee, had a difficult time tearing the membrane. It was VERY thick. The shell itself did not seem thin at all.

[Dode]

Let your hens out at the crack of dawn; they'll get plenty of light. This is why farmers get up at 4-5am, so they can tend to the animals at 6am. All animals are ready to start the day at that time. Even the birds start singing at 4 am. Letting them out at 6am is ok.

[Gwynmael]

Let them out at 7:45 this morning (yesterday we let them out at 6:40, just after it was light enough to see).

Zero eggs this morning.

Guess they're used to laying throughout the day. Any ideas on how to encourage them so I can gather most in the morning? Or is this normal and the reason we're "expecting" to see a bunch of eggs in the morning is because farmers only gather once a day, so they've accumulated throughout the rest of the day? With the heat we're experiencing, I'm a little concerned with leaving them to accumulate. Or is that okay too?

Still lots to learn.

[Dode]

Go ahead and gather 2x a day... you have to check on the hens anyhow.

[Dode]

Why don't you put a thermometer in the coop and check the heat throughout the night so you know how much heat is in there during the night? Getting the screen on the clean out door is priority and you won't need to check the temp or worry about them over heating.

[doublel]

I collect mine in the afternoon. My hens lay throughout the day. About a light in the coop. I don't know how short your days get, but here I have to put a light in the coop or my hens quit laying during the winter, they are very sensitive to light.

[Gwynmael]

So I held myself back and didn't check for eggs until after I picked up C and we went out so he could throw some feed to them. There were 6 in one of the top boxes. Went to check the bottom boxes and had to wait for a hen to finish, so got 7. lol
I think that's a good schedule for me - check in the morning when I let them out of the coop and then again in the afternoon as part of C's activity.



Besides the cracked one from yesterday, we sacrificed another to take a pic comparing it to a store bought egg (still have about 8 of those left). Ours on the left, store bought on the right


re: tk's comment about saving egg cartons. We've been doing that for quite a while now. So much so that we've given some away. Here's what is stored on the top shelf of the second pantry (for reference, my first finger is 3" long). I have an additional stack in the kitchen that is nearly as tall.



Had kind of a "two is one, one is none" thing happen today. We got one of the drip nipple waterer buckets hung and filled last night, but I was still also using a fount type as I wasn't sure how to get them to notice the bucket one. Well, went to fill it early this afternoon and as I was removing the fount for rinsing and refilling --- it cracked and a big plastic chunk from the bottom (top when flipped and attached) flew off! That rendered it pretty much useless. Well, I guess I could have reattached it and filled through the missing chunk hole; but it sure would have been a PITA to carry it back there without getting soaked.

I put the red bottom piece on top of the bucket waterer to try and attract their attention to it more. Guess that worked because when C and I went out, they were drinking from it. Yay!

[Dode]

Wow... just great! Sure enough, the fresh egg is nice and tight, while the store bought is spread out.

Last year, I tried storing eggs without refridgeration. They did keep for quite a few weeks. I'd like to try a Zeer pot next time. I bought the clay flower pots last year and used them, but without the wet sand. I'm sure it would have been better with the wet sand. Here's an image from the internet. I'll see if I can find my pics from last year.

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[Dode]

Here's my Zeer Pot. I used a 14" clay flower pot and a 12" pot. My smaller pot should have been a 10". I set the smaller pot inside the larger one. Added some eggs, inserted a salad plate so the additional eggs wouldn't crush the ones on bottom, added more eggs and another plate or basket, added the last batch of eggs. Put a cork lid on it or a clay pot saucer.

ZeerPot.jpg

ZeerPot1.jpg

ZeerPot2.jpg

ZeerPot3.jpg

ZeerPot4.jpg

ZeerPot5.jpg

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ZeerPot7.jpg

[Gwynmael]

Happy Dance! Happy Dance!

ALL of the hens went in to the coop on their own tonight!! The last one was out by herself for nearly 10 minutes. I figured I was going to have to catch her as she was more interested in chasing bugs than noticing she was by herself. RD said to give her a few more minutes to catch bugs as she looked like she's the smallest one. Sure enough, two more minutes and she headed up the ramp.

A group going to town with the new waterer





I removed the fount bottom from the bucket lid and they kept going back to the bucket for drinks.

[Gwynmael]

dl - I take back what I typed about these birds being quiet. LOL

This morning, RD let them out very early before a round of rain hit. He said there were about six or seven all bunched up against the ramp door and they nearly came rolling out. lol Because of the inbound rain, he broadcast some feed but left the cap on the pvc tube feeder. 1 egg retrieved. The rain was done by the time I got back from taking C to Day Svcs (about 9:15), so I went out to take the cap off. You'd have thought they hadn't been fed in DAYS with the indignant squawking going on. I could hear them all the way in the garage. LOL

Around Noon, I went back to check on the water level in the bucket waterer. It was getting low, but there was still enough that they could drink for a bit. As I'm filling it up, they're all cackling at me and swarming the bucket. I'm thinking "There was plenty, what's the problem?" It's hung with a bungee and with the lower water level/weight, the bucket had risen and the smaller/shorter birds were having to really stretch to reach it. It was a temporary install to see if they would even use it, so we'll have to address that issue and not use a bungee.

C's activity - broadcast some feed and then broadcast some salad fixings that were beginning to wilt. He got a kick out of them going bonkers for the lettuce and spinach. 3 eggs retrieved.

1 egg cracked, 1 sacrificed for pic, 7 used in recipe, even dozen remaining. 22 eggs/3 days = averaging just over 7 eggs a day. So far.



I moved them into a dozen egg carton and will deliver those to our friend Juan and his family in the morning.

[doublel]

Lol, I had heard barred rocks could be talkative. Right now I have black australorps. They are much louder than I would like. Before that I had Ameraucanas and they were so quiet, and good layers. But since you are allowed to have chickens who cares if they are loud!!

[Gwynmael]

Tonight we had a nasty storm rolling by to our WNW just after 8pm. I went out to check on the hens, just in case the storm turned and headed for us. (weather radio had gone off due to the cell producing 70mph winds and golf ball size hail) Thankfully it did not. But the cloud cover made it dark early. All the hens had gone in the coop by 8:30, so I closed it up. About 15 minutes later the storm passed by and the cloud cover cleared just in time for sunset. So they went to bed about an hour earlier tonight than last night. LOL

Oh well, they did get let out almost two hours earlier this morning than yesterday.