Homesteading Chicken Coop Build, Chickens, Pond, Garden & Projects

Good only for soup or stew

 

We got into the chicken game last year, started with 12 and quickly made it to 50 birds and three coops. Getting an incubator was cool, but it quickly doubled the amount of chickens we had, the kids had a great time with it. This guy is my favorite one, he was born on my kitchen counter.

 

That was a quick increase! I assume you also got plenty of eggs to feed the family too, which is great. I have been buying eggs from local backyard farmers since the egg prices in the stores hit $7/doz. The local people are selling them for $5/doz, and the freshness is known. A few weeks ago my favorite stand was out of chicken eggs but they had duck eggs for $6/doz so I picked those up. Man those are big eggs - I can't even imagine how big goose eggs would be (I haven't seen them available, but really haven't looked).

 

Have you ever seen an ostrich egg? Makes about a dozen chicken eggs...

 

Friend of family; has ducks geese and Guinea hens they don’t sell eggs to public. But those eggs are different from chicken!

 

I have had Emus and Cassuary, ( Emu with colored face and bone plume) they are big but quite dangerous to gather

 

I think ostrich is just as bad, if not worse. A friend had a couple of them, took get the eggs, he would get his buddy and dog to go to opposite side of pasture from the eggs, they would distract the pair and he would crawl under fence and nab the eggs...usually...
Said he had a few close calls...

 

Probably, Cassuary kill most people, but live in most populated areas. All the animals have long sharp talons (kangaroos also) and I think are inspiration of Freddy Kruger

 

Yes we are very well stocked with eggs, and that works out great for me! I find myself adding eggs to almost everything, I love them. I even tried putting eggs on a pizza recently, that one didn’t work out as well as I had hoped, but I love over easy eggs so I was fine with it. Next time I will try that in the pizza oven and see if that does the trick.
We have sold a few but not many, we have given many away also. We are not quite up to a level where we can sell consistently yet. Maybe once I get tired of eating them all the time we will have enough to sell.

 

Great setup, that auto door is an absolute game changer! I miss my chickens..........

 

I have an idea of how big they are, but never seen one in person. I'm sure one egg will feed several people and/or make several meals. I wouldn't want to try since I'm only feeding myself

I guess the thing that surprised me about the duck eggs is I think of chickens and ducks being roughly the same size, so I wasn't expecting the difference in size and weight.

I would think that scrambled eggs would work well on a Mexican style pizza. Although maybe not, being previously cooked they may not do well with a second cooking. Then again, if they were under the sauce instead of on top of the sauce, that might work. Hmmm, maybe even being under cheese would help protect them. You need to try and report back on that - LOL.

 

Boogeyman My wife found a recipe for a potato hotdish that called for sliced hard boiled eggs. Delicious

 

I’m definitely a fan of potato’s and eggs so it had to be good!

 

My chicks are on strike. No eggs going on 3 weeks. Doesnt help 4 are older OCs (original chicks), a couple are first year, 1 is molting, the other 3 say we need more light.
Had to buy store bought eggs. What a difference between our "farm eggs."

Im thinking I need more chicks!