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Okay, so I bought some chickies and now they are grown and now they are laying eggs. I originally bought them for yard decorations and the early morrning crow of the 2 roosters. But now the 2 hens are laying eggs. How fast do I have to harvest them for omlettes etc. 1 day old? 3 days old? The lady who sold me the chickens said the eggs are very good to eat.
-------------------- Signs by Alicia Jennings (Mudflap Girl) Tacoma, WA Since 1987 Have Lipstick, will travel. Posts: 3814 | From: Tacoma, WA. U.S.A. | Registered: Dec 1999
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Collect the eggs daily- our chooks are giving us about nine a day.
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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Agree with picking up daily. You'll notice when you crack them into a skillet they don't spread out like store bought. That's just because they're fresh. Store bought can be a month old.
-------------------- Dennis Goddard
Gibsonton Fl Posts: 1050 | From: Tampa Fl USA | Registered: Apr 2000
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Cool!! I love hearing other people have chickens. Our chickens are just starting to lay too! I have 18 hens & two roosters - all different breeds. Our shop is at our house, so I hear when there is an egg ready. I put the eggs in the fridge that day.
-------------------- Jen Goodwin Goodwin Glass & Graphics Hampden, Maine 04444 Posts: 44 | From: Hampden, Maine | Registered: Mar 2003
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Here in the sunny southland of 100 degree temperature, I sometimes miss two or three days gathering the eggs. I've never had a problem with them going bad. In the cooler climate of Washington state, once per week should work.
-------------------- Frisby Signs, Inc. El Dorado, Arkansas Posts: 902 | From: El Dorado, Arkansas, USA | Registered: Apr 1999
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Best if done every day. I once had a job on an egg farm, an old fashioned 3 story coop with 25,000 white leghorns. We had auto waterers, but fed 2.5 tons of feed a day by hand from a tub on an overhead trolley that got filled from the roof bins. 2.5 scoops of the pail per feeder. Me and the farmer picked 100,000 eggs a week by hand.
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Alicia, a woman who raises chickens once told me that the ones that peel easy when hard boiled are the ones that are around a week old. Thought that was interesting.
-------------------- The Word in Signs Bobbie Rochow Jamestown, PA 16134
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thewordinsigns@alltel.net Posts: 3485 | From: Jamestown, PA 16134 | Registered: Oct 2002
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We found that if the eggs were not gathered daily, there was always one hen developing the bad habit of becoming an egg eater. Eggs that are two days old are very edible. Alicia, you need a cow in your yard.
-------------------- The SignShop Mendocino, California
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. — Charles Mingus Posts: 6714 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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We have lots of chickens here, gather every day, nothing like a still warm egg to crack into a pan with real sizzling butter!!
Home grown eggs where the hens have freedom to roam around the yard are lower cholestoral and higher in omega threes..
We give ours all sorts of kitchen scraps (except meat) they come running and flapping thier wings when I come out the back door with a bowl. It's cute. A:)
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We just put the eggs in the pantry, in a rack with lots of holes in it- never bothered with the fridge- but we quickly pencil the date on them, so we know to take the oldest first when using them up.
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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If the hens are running loose in the yard, beware of secret laying places you don't find for awhile. It's quite a surprise to find a dozen eggs all in one spot simply because you didn't know a chicken was laying there.
I also highly endorse veggie scraps. My neighbour that worked at a deli had scraps daily that she'd simply dump over the coop fence from the road. The chickens took after them like lottery winnings. The coop was also in the same field as a compost pile. I have yet to taste eggs as good as those.
And collect daily! Especially with roosters on site!
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You'l also notice that your free-chicken eggs will have much deeper yellow in the yolk; more like deep chrome yellow to nearly orange. Commercial eggs are a paler, washed-out color.
Plus your other animals won't get as many ticks or fleas - what did you think those hens are eating when they peck all over the yard?
I'd love to have chickens, but we have a strict zoning law against any and all "farm animals".
-------------------- "A wise man concerns himself with the truth, not with what people believe." - Aristotle
Cam Bortz Finest Kind Signs Pondside Iron works 256 S. Broad St. Pawcatuck, Ct. 06379 "Award winning Signs since 1988" Posts: 3051 | From: Pawcatuck,Connecticut USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I love hearing other people have chickens.
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