That should work. How old are your hens. Some days I have some on the floor other days all in boxes. Trying to figure it out myself.
They are going on 3 years. That's why I want to raise a few more to replace these for egg production. When would you recommend letting them start sitting?
Bought mine last year from Meyer's hatchery. Been very happy with service. Will be buying some meat chickens this spring.
Yep, I'm getting more this spring. My girls are 4 years this spring. They haven't produced a egg since Mid December...
Might be time for stewing. Hard though when we refer to them as (my girls). Wife say's I pay more attention to them then her.
Mine have just started laying again. 5 full size hens. Getting about 2 eggs a day, but I'm the only one that regularly eats eggs so it's ok.
Friend of mine gives me the extra when his family can't keep up and the difference is remarkable. Shells are thicker and flavor is better. Only problem is hard boiled they don't peel as well as the store bought eggs.
Fresh eggs are harder to peel. Let them sit for a few weeks. Then they will be old more like store bought eggs.
Bring to a boil turn off heat let sit for eighteen minutes put in ice water to cool. Should peel easier.
Both savemoney and WaddleRemodel are right. Older eggs are easier to peel, and cooling fast helps too.
Waddle, Great posting. I miss my chickens. I used to get a couple of dozen chicks each year from a hatchery in Iowa. Name escapes me now. We would keep about 6 hens each winter along with the other 6 from the winter before that. Then when the new batch started laying we would soup the oldest six. I called them my ladies 12 hens lay alot of eggs. In the winter we used to make sure the light bulb would come on about 5;00 am and go off about 8:00 am then go on again about 4:00 pm and off about 8 or 9 pm. that would make those hens keep on laying right on thru. I had the coop insulated so the ladies would keep themselves nice and warm. Then the wife, a second grade teacher, decided it would be cool to incubate eggs to show the classroom kids how chicks are hatched. One year we had over 50 chickens. I had to find a extra freezer to store all the meat when we butchered. I had a shop do them for me. $1.25 a piece to butcher. I could not do it for that and the wife didn't want any part of that. Nothing like your own eggs the yokes are orange not yellow and they taste fantastic. My kids know where their food comes from. We also raised some turkeys and ducks. And yes, I believe you should not raise turkeys and ducks with chickens. We tried that and had a bunch dying on us. We separated them and the dying stopped. The two biggest pests was the hawks and the racoons. The hawks just swoops down and carries one away... gone. The damm raccoon bites there heads off and leaves it. One night I lost 10 chickens. Next night one less raccoon in the world. The 22 ca. took care of that. Again, great posts.
