RD & Gwyn's In-Town Homestead

[junior125]

What are you doing with all of the eggs, Gwyn?

Are you sharing some with your nextdoor neighbors?



Tex

Im building a launcher and flinging them at cars

[Gwynmael]

LMAO jr.

I have two standing orders of 6 eggs each, weekly. That's earning me $3/wk to go towards feed costs.
We're eating a bunch, Papa, friends, some to RD's Grandma, 32 went to RD's manager at work, 15 to In-Laws (should have been 18 but forgot to check the carton before we left the house). We've offered to neighbors on both sides - one says they don't eat many eggs, other one has requested a dozen on Monday or Tuesday.
Will probably send a dozen with junior to share with his Aunt and cousins.

I have plans to start freezing some and to try dehydrating some.

[Gwynmael]

Well dang, junior got out the door with neither of us remembering the eggs.

[Gwynmael]

7/4 - 8
7/5 - 7
7/6 - 9
7/7 - 9

Well, crap! I'm pretty sure I have an egg eater. Gathering eggs yesterday there was still wet yolk in several places in the laying box. I only found one little piece of shell. I'm hoping it might have been a one-off due to the hens ALL using the same nesting box yesterday, which with 9 (& in reality 10) eggs it was pretty crowded. However, I'm doubtful.

I'm concerned that I caused this when I sprinkled smashed shells on top of the remains of the cheesecake (not moldy or anything, just several weeks old and it was getting pretty dried out) I gave them as a treat. (pics below) I'm thinking the shells were not crushed to small enough pieces.

I had also just cleaned out the coop and boxes of bedding material and replaced with fresh on Monday. I don't know if that might have caused the issue as I forgot to come up with a temporary nesting box for them to use while the coop aired out from the vinegar/water solution I used as a cleaner. Pulled all material from that box and sprayed it down with vinegar solution again. RD said to leave that box empty to encourage them to use the other three.

We had a storm system roll in late Monday afternoon (very heavy rains with a small F-1 touchdown just east of town) and it's been raining off and on ever since. We're still in a flash flood watch until 7pm tonight. It's supposed to clear later today, so I'll spend most of tomorrow monitoring the laying and using zip ties to temporarily leg band the hens in an attempt to determine which one is the culprit.

If I can conclusively determine which hen it is, and it continues --- she'll get an early express trip to freezer camp.





The remains I removed from the pen that night.


Cleaning out the coop

[Gwynmael]

Garden pics

Checked the squash ahead of the storm on Monday, and this is what I found and harvested









That huge one, I chopped up and had C feed it to the chickens. The skin was so tough I had trouble cutting it.

Harvested some carrots last Friday (pureed them up for Little Miss) and this one made me laugh --- "I need to go potty!"

[Tex]

Gwyn, I have got into several online debates about feeding crushed eggshell to chickens for the calcium benefits. People are either in or out on this issue and I am firmly in the "OUT" camp. Don't do it, is how I feel. One argument that people use is that it is a cheap calcium supplement. If a person is so broke they can't afford a proper supplement, how the hell are they feeding the chickens all the other stuff they eat? Some may never have any trouble feeding crushed eggshell, but I figure, why tempt fate. Chickens can and will eat eggs under different circumstances. There is no point in helping them to learn that eggs are another food source.

JMHO.

Now, on to the egg eater. Hardboil an egg or two and let them cool. Catch one hen at a time and put into a small pen. Place the hardboiled eggs in the pen with the hen and be sure to not put any feed in there. It isn't always easy, but the eggeater should go after the eggs if there is no other food around. This method doesn't always work, but is about the best means of catching the guilty party next to seeing them in the act. The hardboiled eggs allow you to use the same eggs for more than one chicken. Be sure to check them all and don't stop looking just because you found one eggeater.



Tex

[Gwynmael]

8 eggs today, no visible yolk debris. There was a hen sitting, but she got startled then indignant when I opened the door. LOL
She ended up walking out without laying, so I'll check back later.

None of the hens used the "empty" box, but of the three remaining boxes they all used the same one again. Hmmmm. Previously they were splitting between two boxes.

With the eggshells, my first thought wasn't cheap but rather self-sustaining. Though cheap doesn't hurt either. For now I'll use the heavy mortar and pestle on them rather than just smashing them. With that thing I can turn shells into powder (I do that for tomato plant amendment). I don't think I need to go THAT fine with it, but we'll see.

Here's some pics of the process that I didn't get uploaded in May.











That's the end result of about 2 1/2 dozen egg shells. I do spend time before crushing to get as much of the membranes removed as possible and then let them dry.

[W.Lynn]

Gwynn, cook shells before crushing & mixing them into anything the hens will eat. Changes the smell & taste of them so they won't think of eggs as food.

Now you need to check beaks for dried yolk, and make soup out of it before the rest learn.

Tex, good info. I heard about cooking them from someone who, I will hazard a guess, has been through it.

[Gwynmael]

Lynn - how would I cook just the shells? Bake them on a sheet? I don't want to boil them as that would just leach a lot of the calcium out.

I did check beaks yesterday, nothing. I have noticed that they will wipe their beaks, on whatever, after eating things that are "wet" or pecking in mud going after bugs.

I'm going to try and make a mini-pen in the run tomorrow and try the hard-boiled egg thing.

[Tex]

Gwyn, this is something you want to nip in the bud pretty quick. Eating eggs is something chickens will learn from each other.



Tex

[Dode]

Maybe you have a snake squeezing into the hen house at night. Maybe that's why they aren't using the other nest box. The snake might actually hide in the hay, waiting for the open door the next day, in order to be able to leave. Just a thought.

Oh, btw, I used to keep pet birds and I recall that they weren't supposed to eat anything with milk products in it, as it could sour their crop. Cheesecake might not be good idea. Then again, I might be recalling it wrong.

[W.Lynn]

I only recall giving my aunt's chickens grain and bread scraps and the like. But I was 5 or 6, so I had no clue what else they would get.

[airdrop]

I've feed cut spagitti squash , squash ,watermelon , cabbage & lettece cut up and old bread they love that . On my egg eater I got lucky and caught her lol . I put oyster shell in a bowel by the feeder for them and it seems to work fine .

[Gwynmael]

Milk products are fine as long as you monitor for diarrhea. It's best if they're somehow cooked, clabbered, or fermented in some way (from raw milk is best). The girls love the water thinned (plain) yogurt I occasionally give them.

So far, in addition to the layer crumbles/grit/oyster & egg shell they've been given or had access to --- all kinds of bugs, worms, mulberries, peas, lettuce, dandelions, grass (including various types of crabgrass), lambs quarter, purslane, clover, wild grape leaves, burdock, mint, oregano, basil, spiny amaranth (known as pigweed here), sand (for grit), sprouts (occurring naturally, so I have no idea what kind, in the wood pile as we move it around for them to get to the bugs), straight neck squash (they got that big one that I pulled the other day), left over pasta, left over homemade potato salad, thinned plain yogurt, and of course the cheesecake. They pretty much left the graham cracker/ butter crust alone on that. Currently the lambs quarter and dandelion greens are their favorite, but only because the peas and lettuce are done.

In their run that they've left alone - several types of volunteer tree saplings and thistle. I pull those every couple of days when I see them. When I'm weeding other places I make sure to have two buckets. One for the stuff I know they like, or at least won't hurt them, and another for trash and whatnot. I try to make sure to put the morning glory (bindweed) into the trash bucket, along with any thistle or jimson weed. They probably wouldn't mess with it, but I'd rather not take a chance as it's toxic to them. I also don't want them to get tangled up in it. I also avoid giving them onions, garlic, or peppers, as that's supposed to taint the flavor of their eggs.

I know this probably seems like a lot to y'all, but these birds are a major step for us and they also represent a significant investment in money, time, and labor. And honestly, they're fun to watch. C and I found a big caterpillar yesterday on our way out for C to "take care" of the chickens. I scooped it up and tossed it in the run. They ran around for 20 minutes after it or the hen who currently had it. It was hilarious.

[Gwynmael]

Forgot they've also gotten the pulp scraps from my neighbor who juices. That's had varying degrees of apples, carrots, brocolli, and cucumber in it.

Dode - I don't think it's a snake, at least I sure hope not! The coop is elevated and it would have to navigate the cleated ramp to get in there.
There seems to have been a pecking order shakeup recently and I think they're all using the same box to show they're following the new head hen.