15 grams! There's probably more shell than egg....it's the smallest egg we have gotten to date....
Posted on 02/28/2011 7:00:12 PM PST by Bean Counter
February is done and I have tallied numbers for my backyard coop egg production for the month.
I recorded my 2010 egg production on a different thread here...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2618506/posts
JAN 2011 128 Eggs 4.129/Day A.E.: 62.37 G 7983 G. Total 281.592 Oz. 17.6 lbs.
Feb 2011 133 eggs 4.75/Day A.E.: 62.21 G 8274 G. Total 291.857 Oz. 18.24 lbs.
NOTES:
* A.E.= Average Egg (Weight in Grams)
* 1 Oz.= 28.3495 Grams
“That is amazing. An egg per day would have to take a toll on her body. Just think of all the protein, fats, and nutrients that go into each egg. How do hens keep that up? Do they lay eggs all their lives or only during part of the year?”
There are probably people on this thread way more expert than me. I have had chickens in the past. They usually lay an egg a day for about 2-3 years I think. In the winter not as much. You need to make sure you feed them oyster shell for protein and laying mash.
Lots of great questions....let me try and answer them all...
* 2 Rhode Island Reds (LaVerne and Maxine), 2 Golden Sex Links (Nicole and Paris), 2 Black Jersey Giants (Tyra and Oprah).
* We are still crunching numbers on coop construction costs versus eggs produced. We have been at it less than a year, and we need a year’s production to be able to have good data. We need to amortize the coop costs over 5-7 years, but we did pay cash and spent about $1200 for construction.
* We feed the flock more in the winter than any other time, because they free range in the yard in good weather and that cuts down the costs. Their metabolism is geared to produce eggs, but if they use too much metabolism staying warm, they stop laying.
* The coop cleanout door is directly across from my compost bin, and the bin is quite large. I compost the chicken manure with leaves, kitchen scraps and yard clippings, then use all of the compost in my garden beds. I also have a spot in the chicken yard where I let them scratch and I pile up the dirty straw there and let them till it into compost for me. I shovel some out when I need to.
* The “.75” is of course an average number. I take all eggs produced during the month to date and divide by the current day of the month to come up with an average number of eggs produced per day. Same goes with the Average Egg weight. Divide total weight of the eggs that day in Grams, and divide by the number of eggs laid that day.
* A hen is an egg machine, and her metabolism is geared for producing an egg roughly every 24 hours. They will produce eggs and lay every day whether the hen has been fertilized by a rooster or not. If a roo does fertilize her, the hen will lay a “clutch” of anywhere from 12-30+ eggs over a period of time, and attempt to brood them.
* Our City has an “Urban Livestock” Ordinance that allows residents 5 hens (no roosters). We have 1 more than allowed because we have 3 pair of hens of different breeds. Our neighbors have no problem because they get plenty of free eggs, and I share the produce from my garden. Half a dozen fresh eggs is a potent friend maker...
* For feeding I have 3 20 gallon galvanized trash cans that I keep filled with commercial layer ration, scratch grains, and whole horse oats (everything sells for about $11/50 pound bag). They also get vegetable scraps and on weekends my wife brings home the remains of the Costco fruit tray a vendor brings in, so the girls get fruit too. I supplement the layer rations with crushed oyster shells so they get extra calcium. I harvest rainwater off the roof of the coop, store it in a plastic barrel with a standard poultry watering dish, so they never run out of water.
* Chickens are incredibly efficient at gardening. If you protect the roots of your plants so they can’t scratch them up, chickens will make sure you have no weeds, will fertilize your garden as they go, and you will never find a bug on your veggies again. I use 2” x 3” “hogwire” to protect the vegggie roots, but the chickens can easily reach their scrawny necks through to clip weeds.
Certainly chickens are not for everyone, but they are a lot of fun, are easy to raise, and they reward you with lots and lots of fresh eggs. If you have never eaten an egg cooked while it is still warm from the chicken, then you have not yet tasted the best egg you will ever have. Once you start eating fresh eggs, having a couple of chickens in the yard makes a lot of sense.
Do you just lay that on the ground?
Not exactly.
For example, chickens love tomatoes, and more importantly, tomato hornworms. I make a round cage out of hogwire and put it over the tomato plant or plants, so the chicks cannot scratch up the roots, but can easily stick their head in to snip weeds and get critters. The wire also serves to trellis the tomatoes very nicely. The chicks also get any tomatoes they can reach, but that’s a small sacrifice for the services provided, and they turn that into more eggs and even more valuable fertilizer.
I have my raspberry bed fenced off with hogwire for now to let the new canes get started. The girls love tender raspberry leaves and when I prune I toss them all the cuttings. The also get any low-lying raspberries, but that’s a small percentage of what the canes produce.
After the berries are done, I let them into the bed for a few weeks to clean it up and till the soil. They pull out weeds far more efficintly than I do and they leave nothing behind. I bed my berries in with used straw from the chicken yard in the Fall and let it compost in place over the Winter. The berries love it and we get gallons of red raspberries in the summer.
the rocks are a nicely tempered layer - not too big (4lb) - but each have layed steadily all winter despite being shedbound under a flood lamp for a couple weeks…..even with less than 12 hrs of lite, they lay daily - 4 birds is enough for my family and neigbors - though admittedly the runt tends to skip every now and them - she tends to be broody, but it is not generally a problem for the breed
they love cooked spaghetti - & canned corn (no salt added) - chickens cant tolerate salt - but their fav is corn on the cob
meds, to large - occasionally a double
TF...if its meat birds you are looking for, the Jersey Giants were bred specifically to compete with the domestic American turkey. JGs are the biggest domestic chickens out there, and they grow slower than the other girls, but they get almost twice as big. My RIRs weigh about 5-6 pounds and the BJGs weight 10-11 pounds. They are a “roaster” as opposed to a “fryer” or a “stew hen”.
Thanks for the input. I appreciate the advice.
Thanks y’all for the chicken infos.
Thanks for the ping SunkenCiv and thanks for the thread Bean Counter. I will put a link to this thread in tomorrow mornings Gardening Thread. There are quite a few Gardeners who will be interested in all the info on this thread.
I pay $2.00 a dz delivered. My egg lady was embarrassed that she had to go up in price this year. They were $1.50.
Organic and she brings them to my door every Wed.
I had ducks that were mutilated, someone’s idea of a Halloween prank, several years ago and while I miss them, the painful memory of what those evil people did to my poor flock has kept me from getting more.
I have also thought about chickens, but figure 2.00 a week to my egg lady outweighs the work and expense of keeping my own. She also has ducks and will bring me eggs for baking, no charge for those. She just knows I like them.
Stray cats used to hang out with my ducks. The older ducks were not afraid of them, but sadly baby ducks often became cat food.
I was glad when the city came out and trapped the cats at a neighbor’s request.
Did you mean a Pekin duck egg? Pekins are the most common breed, big and white with yellow orange feet and bills.
I had Khaki Campbells, very prolific egg layers.
Yes, I’m out here in Az but the best eggs for making egg drop soup are Pekin duck and they are fabulous soft boiled and dipped into the yolk with buttered toast!
There are a number of problems with cats and chickens hanging out where you can't reach them. For one thing, if you can't get to the eggs they could hatch and you'll have furry chickens with long tails running around everywhere.
I didn’t like Khaki Campbell eggs for boiling or frying, but OH MY, for baking they are wonderful. Everything rises so light and fluffy.
How many birds are in your flock? Do you track weather, breed, light, feed or any other variables?
We have 19 layers (one is real broody now) of different breeds (Barred Rock, Buffs, black Orps and Ameraucana). Unfortunately, our weather has been below zero quite a bit, but the ladies keep laying.
Our lighting schedule is 15 hours a day, but the coop has insulated windows (scrounged, of course). Anything below zero gets the heat lamp turned on. Feed is a local mash with a scratch grain supplement and a dose of kelp meal. We offer silage each week as well as any other table scraps that are suitable. This winter, we are averaging just over 14 eggs per day. The birds are just shy of a year old.
This summer, the plan is to range in paddocks to allow pasture recovery.
Thanks!
March is done and I have tallied numbers for my backyard coop egg production for the month and year to date.
I recorded my 2010 egg production on a different thread here...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2618506/posts
JAN 2011 128 Eggs 4.129/Day A.E.: 62.37 G 7983 G. Total 281.592 Oz. 17.6 lbs.
FEB 2011 133 eggs 4.75/Day A.E.: 62.21 G 8274 G. Total 291.857 Oz. 18.24 lbs.
MAR 2011 142 eggs 4.58/Day A.E.:63.43G 9007G. Total 317.713 Oz. 19.86 lbs
YEAR TO DATE
403 eggs; 33.583 Dozen; 25.264 Kilos; 55.7 Pounds (so far)
Production in the first three months of this year has exceeded half of what we produced in six months last year (765 eggs). Total numbers are up in March, but so is average egg weight with a whole bunch of 70+ gram eggs this month. As the warmer weather comes on the count and size will only increase.
Cheers!
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