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[Dan_Shade]

chickens are light sensative, they slow down during the winter when days are shorter.

my mom made egg noodles with egg, flour, water, and salt.  that's all I know, and all I want to know!

[Furby]

Ours stopped laying a month or two back.
I set their light back up on the timer, but I'm figuring they probly won't lay again until spring.

[Dan_Shade]

are they molting, furby?

they also slow down after they get a little older.

[Norm]

Tammy I make my own egg noodles and it's very easy. A small batch is 5 fresh eggs and a tablespoon of good olive oil beaten with a whisk to mix thoroughly. Whisk in flour, I use bread flour but a/p works fine, until you get a smooth dough that is almost too thick to use the whisk on. At that point I pour it onto a floured surface and work more flour in until I get a dough that is about like what a normal bread dough is like. I then cover it with saran wrap and let it set an hour or so or it can go in the fridge for a day to be used latter. After sitting I take it and work enough flour in to be able to roll it out to whatever thickness you like your noodles to be. I use a pizza cutter to cut into strips that are approximately 1/2" wide by 2-3 "s long. They can be used immediately or frozen for up to a month. I've gotten to where I never buy prepared egg noodles any more as these are just so much better and after you make a few batches they are pretty easy to turn out.

Ours have almost stopped laying with the cold weather and shorter days. We keep a light on but they do not like the really cold nasty weather we've had lately. Can't say as I blame them.

[Tamiam]

this not laying in the cold weather might be a problem.  See during the winter I can give away a lot of eggs - the whole boys gymnastics team that my son is on.  But during the summer when you say my chickens will be producing we don't have as many people to give them to.

The boys will have to set up a fresh egg stand at the bottom of the driveway.

I can't wait to get 5 eggs to try the noddles.  Thanks for the recipe Norm

Tammy

[Furby]

are they molting, furby?

they also slow down after they get a little older.

They were, but I think they are done.
They were slow all summer, and normly slow way down in the winter.
They are getting a little age on them now as well.
We have lost two in the last year, leaving us with four chickens and the duck.

[scsmith42]

Norm, thanks for sharing that recipe!  I'll have to try it out next week.

Tammy, welcome to the neighborhood of having your own fresh eggs!  Once you get used to having fresh eggs, the store-bought ones really pale by comparison.

Lots of good advice already shared by others; I'll add a couple of comments.

First, when it comes to free-ranging, expect to lose a percentage of your hens to fox, hawks, stray dogs, etc. during the day.  If you lock them up at night you can prevent losses to raccoons, more foxes, and owls.  One benefit of keeping a rooster or two around is that you can raise some of your own chicks to help take the place of those layers lost, but you really don't need more than one (unless you have a LOT of hens).  McMurray's is a great place to buy chicks as well.

We keep food out for ours, but let them free-range as well.  In our opinion, you get a more natural egg that way.  Certain feeds and lighting will help encourage egg production, but we've found that it drops off by 65% or more in the wintertime.  The Doc likes to feed them a mixture of Purina Scratch Grains, Layena, and occasionally some Show Chow.  We have some parasite problems here, so every few months they will get a weeks' regimen of medicated feed to keep them healthy.

We save our egg shells and toss them out into the yard for the hens - it's a good source of nutrients for them.

It is interesting to note that on the first day that you got the chickens they were laying at about 100%, and then it tapered off.  If you talk to the person that you got them from, I'd be curious as to what they were feeding them and also if they were in a heated house, special lighting, etc.

This past spring I built a farm stand out by the road, with a small building that we call "the egg shack" on it.  We have a refrigerator inside, and sell eggs on the honor system there.  Within 45 days of opening we were selling out every week, and still do.  Production varies between 2 - 4 dozen per day, depending on the time of year and the foxes.

In the spring expect your production to increase to 80% or more (meaning getting 8 eggs for every 10 chickens). 

Here's a photo of our egg stand:

Scott

 

[ely]

scott, it is good to hear of someone who lives in a place like that. congrats

if i tried that here someone would take the eggs and the fridge.... probably burn the shack too.

[flip]

We get our chicks at Mcmurrays also.  I think Martha Stewart buys from them too. My last batch of birds is about 2 months old, guess I have to wait til march for more eggs.

[neslrite]

Scott,

We took her chicken stall apart and rebuilt it in our barn.  We took her nesting buckets, heat lamps, feeders everything.  so everything is the same.  Her barn was insulated and ours is not so it might have been warmer.  Two days after we got them the temperature dropped here considerably.  the hens won't go outside at all.

they are consistantly laying 8 eggs a day that means only 50% are laying everyday. 

My chicks are giant already.  they almost look like the hens.

Tammy

[Tom]

...........or that they are all laying 1/2 of an egg a day. 










If a chicken and half layed a egg and a half in a day in a half, how many would one lay in a week?

[Furby]

I actually found a fresh egg yesterday.
They are all feathered, but at least one is still molting.
In the summer, we normally will get 50% of them laying on any given day.
Sometimes they all lay, but more times then not, we are getting less.

[Tamiam]

I've been doing some reading and it says it takes 25 - 26 hours for a chicken to produce one egg.  That means it is impossible to get 1 egg a day from every hen.

The article also explained how to get a fertilized egg.  My poor rooster could no way keep up with the 16 hens.   So much for complete eggs.

The last few days one of my hens has been laying little mini eggs.  I haven't cracked one of the minis to see what is in it, but I figure if I mix it with one of the oversized eggs I keep getting it will average out to be 2 medium eggs.

After all this time I think they are getting used to me.

Tammy

[Dan_Shade]

i'm sure that rooster will keep up just fine with 16 hens...

the small eggs are pullet eggs from pullets just starting to lay.  they're fine to eat, sometimes there will be a small blood spot or "meat spot" in there, you can pick it out, or just cook it up and eat it. 

[Norm]

i'm sure that rooster will keep up just fine with 16 hens...

I wish him all the luck in the world.

After the pullets get a little older you'll also get double yolkers from them occasionally.

[Furby]

In a 24 hour period, we've gotten one or two eggs MORE then the birds we have.

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

In a 24 hour period, we've gotten one or two eggs MORE then the birds we have.

Furby, I suspect your chickens have not read the article that Tammy mentioned 

[Furby]

You might be right, think I should let them