who has chickens

Rose,

I was wondering how you store excess eggs?

I think of pickled eggs, then I learned you can freeze eggs:
http://www.stilltasty.com/. 

Or do you do something else?  I still want chickens and I enjoy following the fun posts on your adorable little girls.

llama momma wrote:Rose,

I was wondering how you store excess eggs?

I think of pickled eggs, then I learned you can freeze eggs:
http://www.stilltasty.com/. 

Or do you do something else?  I still want chickens and I enjoy following the fun posts on your adorable little girls.

what I have done is scramble a bunch of them and cooked them inside a canning jar ring in my pan, so that it makes a round egg patty and then I put them on a cookie sheet and allow them to freeze for about 30 mins or so and then take them off of the cookie sheet and put them into a freezer bag and back into the freezer.....this way the hot eggs wont stick together in the freezer bag....


this has worked out well for our family and makes breakfast really easy in the morning....my kids love to make egg/ham/cheese on a English muffin for breakfast, lunch or dinner

I haven't tried any other methods yet as this is our first time with fresh eggs and so far we are loving them and still getting 5-6 eggs a day from our 6 hens....

happy chicken keeping
rose

FG, What a clever idea for quick McMuffins!

Rose

I like the idea of making your own mcmuffins.  Very Cool.   
I say this every year but maybe next spring I'll finally get a couple baby feather heads and enjoy my own eggs. 
After all, how much trouble can 3 or 4 chickens be? 

Saw this at Lowes and thought of you guys:

Here is my somewhat unusual observation on the molting process. 

 http://cricketsongfarm.blogspot.com/search/label/molting

Even though its fall going into winter....our 6 girls are still giving us 4-5 eggs a day!



so far we are still able to harvest them a 5 gal bucket of greens a day from our fall/winter gardens.... along with grass and weeds.... and they love it!

happy chicken keeping!
rose

That's awesome, Rose! 

My friend Kim says that her chicks are about ready to start laying.  She's so excited!



Cricket - cute blog!  I sent it to Kim to see if she can relate!

cricket thank you so much for the link!.....I have really enjoyed reading it!

happy gardening
rose

If our place was a tad bit bigger or if hubby and I could rearrange the way we have things now.....this is what I would love to due with chickens & gardening


http://www.ecofilms.com.au/victory-garden-chicken-system/

Happy gardening
rose

twelve of which lay.  We sell our extra eggs.  People are crazy about them.  We have Plymouth Rocks and Rhode Island reds and a couple Americanas.  My grand daughter is in charge of the chickens.  Really good for learning responsibility.

It's getting close to time to build a coop instead of the tractors and get some new hens.  It is going to be questionable what we do with the old girls.  We do have one oldest who no longr lays (and one of these days, really, you'll get a picture of her eating out my grandson's hand.)

Rose - what breed is Big Bird?

kauairosina, I'm afraid if I had chickens for eggs, I would end up building a retirement coop.  Course, I could afford to support them and not everyone necessarily has the option, time, reason, life situation, etc.  

Why you should always whisper around your chickens:

Every time I start talking about old hen stew my DH talks me down.  He says they provided us with eggs for years and the least we can do is allow them to keep on scratching for bugs and wondering the yard/fields untill they die of old age.  The oldest chicken reached 14.  They do have fields to roam but grain is not cheap.  O well.
When they do die I bury them where the ground can use the nutrients.  Bury deep enough so the flies do not have a feast and put a board over for a while so the dog does not unbury

I know it is not recommended but I mix ages all the time.  I like to let a broody hen raise a clutch (usually chicks I buy at the feed store but some times they hatch their own eggs).  We have one coop and fenced run (big run 30X20 with trees and bushes in it) and seldom confine them to that.  There are presently 3 different ages in the flock I think, or 4.  In the tropics there might be more parasite load so less doable?

but I don't think we can afford to keep all our other hens after they stop laying.  Here in the islands chicken food is really pricey and we do stick with organic.  Fortunately, I don't have the last say in this so I will let you all know what happens when it does.

AtlantaMarie wrote:Rose - what breed is Big Bird?

Buff Orpington

Thanks.  Have passed this on to my friend Kim.

Do you have any that produces blue eggs?

blue eggs.  They are so pretty but the chickens are a bit flighty and hard to corral when they escape their enclosure.

My blue and green egg layers are also flighty.  But they live long and lay for many years reliably and do not go broody.

I wish I could have chickens in my neighborhood...

AtlantaMarie wrote:Thanks.  Have passed this on to my friend Kim.

Do you have any that produces blue eggs?

yes our daughters Americana lays blue eggs and she is very sweet and talks way more than the other girls....her voice is different then other girls who sound like a chicken should.......she sounds like a dinosaur rapture and we LOVE her.....

she is very busy and best friends with the top in charge hen and with the bottom of the pecking order hen....she will ask permission from the top hen before eating beside her and will listen to a yes or no.....she also protects the bottom hen from one of our girls that likes to push the bottom hen around.....we often find her sharing the nesting box for laying eggs and sleeping with the bottom hen.......she is just really kind and sweet


Here is Thunder our *top* hen in charge of the chicken coop and Zaphyr our Americana blue egg layer enjoying a prime spot for lunch ....finding lots of bugs & worms   Zaphyr actually danced around Thunder chatting in her rapture voice asking permission before you took the first bite sooo cute!  I have videos that I would love to show, but don't really want to join Utube....so im looking into other ways to post videos







happy hen raising
rose

I love your stories about the hens and their personalities. Zaphyr is the sweetie raptor? The one on the left??

And some folks STILL insist that animals don't have feelings and can't "talk" to each other...  I don't get it...

their loss.

sanderson wrote:I love your stories about the hens and their personalities.  Zaphyr is the sweetie raptor?  The one on the left??

This is Zaphyr our sweet raptor with the crazy sounding voice she is my daughters hen and the one that lays blue eggs



This is Thunder head lady of the coop (my best friend) she is my sons hen



 These are the two hens in the above posting with their fuzzy bottoms up in the air while bug hunting

Here are the two of them together again.....I would say Zaphyr is Thunders wingman....or wingwoman......LOL


Zaphyr is truly a sweet thing....when it was super freezing cold during some of our coldest weather....she would sleep with Penny in the top nesting box to keep her warm as the others would all huddle together on their roost inside their hen house at night......see....Penny is the last one in the pecking order and DumbNot one of the other hens is in 4th place of the pecking order....picks on Penny.... so I imagine DumbNot was NOT letting penny snuggle on the roost so Zaphyr invited her to sleep next to her in a nesting box....this happened thru out the winter.....just recently as the weather started to warm up....they are all back on the roost....and there is plenty of room for Penny to spread out and stay away from DumbNot.....just not during the winter when the brids all wanted to snuggle up on the roost...it was too cold for Penny to roost on her own....that's whats so special  about Zaphyr

happy hens
rose