Chicken run VS predators

[tomplum]

The weasel thing scares me. Our neighbor had them years back so they must be around. We have some large holes in the same area of the coop. They were there before the chickens. So I put our game camera out above the main hole and I got a pic of a nose which was pointed like a weasel, but maybe it is just a rat. I keep telling myself that but the dang holes can be tennis ball sized. Still, no loss from a weasel. Does DE help w/ your mites or do you need to go bigger ?

 

[Jstpssng]

My wife is selling them for $4 a dozen. Her hair dresser sells a variety of stuff at her shop, along with ten to 12 dozen of our eggs. We give her all our loose feathers that we find from the birds, that she makes into something crafty that she sells, so she sells our eggs in return for the feathers. Then we sell another 6 to 10 dozen eggs a week to friends and at work. This more then pays for feed for chickens, ducks, guineas, goats, horses and our pig, but it also has enough left over for gas or just pocket money. Seems that the variety of colors is what people get the most excited about!!!

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It looks like she's got some "Easter Eggers" in the mix. They come out pre colored. :Thumbsup:

I knew a woman who would raise them for eggs all summer, then go to Florida for the winter. She gave her hens to a handicapped neighbor.
The next time she talked to him he told her he was getting some ridiculous amount for the eggs, I think she said 5 bucks per egg. Apparently they were some uncommon breed, and in high demand to build up the flock.

She said "To think that I was just eating them!!!" :laughing:

 

[bigtiller]

My wife is selling them for $4 a dozen. Her hair dresser sells a variety of stuff at her shop, along with ten to 12 dozen of our eggs. We give her all our loose feathers that we find from the birds, that she makes into something crafty that she sells, so she sells our eggs in return for the feathers. Then we sell another 6 to 10 dozen eggs a week to friends and at work. This more then pays for feed for chickens, ducks, guineas, goats, horses and our pig, but it also has enough left over for gas or just pocket money. Seems that the variety of colors is what people get the most excited about!!!

That's 16 to 22 dozen a week. Do you have a special method for washing them? That's the part I hated the most as a kid on an acreage. Scraping all the poo off in the sink with warm water was nasty.

 

[ning]

Typically my eggs are visually clean or have minimal "stuff" on them, due to keeping the coop and run clean. Winter time things get messier because the hens come in to the coop with icky feet...

 

[EddieWalker]

My wife is selling them for $4 a dozen. Her hair dresser sells a variety of stuff at her shop, along with ten to 12 dozen of our eggs. We give her all our loose feathers that we find from the birds, that she makes into something crafty that she sells, so she sells our eggs in return for the feathers. Then we sell another 6 to 10 dozen eggs a week to friends and at work. This more then pays for feed for chickens, ducks, guineas, goats, horses and our pig, but it also has enough left over for gas or just pocket money. Seems that the variety of colors is what people get the most excited about!!!

That's 16 to 22 dozen a week. Do you have a special method for washing them? That's the part I hated the most as a kid on an acreage. Scraping all the poo off in the sink with warm water was nasty.

Nothing special, she just washes them in the sink almost every night. I know she did 4 dozen last night. Just wash and leave them on a towel to dry like in the picture.

The challenge right now is to let some of the broody hens sit and hatch a bunch more, or buy some olive eggers and easter eggers online and not waste the time hatching them.

 

[ning]

A key thing is to wash the eggs in water that's warmer than they are; otherwise as the contents contract from the temperature changes they could draw stuff from outside the shell to the inside.

TBH I only wash eggs that I sell; those for family use are only washed if visibly dirty; same for 28 years.

Did you all know it's illegal to sell washed eggs in the UK & EU? That's right. Keep your birds clean and they'll lay clean eggs.

 

[kenmac]

I told my wife we should sell them, but she just continues to give them to people she works with.
I only have 8 hens so I don't get but 7-8 per day. Still enough to sell and pay for some feed
I bought 200# of layer feed today.

On the issue of washing. I read several chicken sites that said not to wash them. Said that the chickens produce some sort of protective film on the egg for protection against bacteria entering the egg shell.

 

[aczlan]

We have had problems with a hawk coming into the coop.
Anyone try "tunnel" entrance where the chickens have to go through a tunnel and around a corner to get in? Would that dissuade a hawk?

Aaron Z

 

[Jstpssng]

I had a crow rookery across the road one year and had problems with them stealing the eggs. I think they may even have killed one of my layers; all that I found was a pile of feathers and my dog-who usually can find them no matter where they go- was confused, he'd go to the pile of feathers, circle around then go back to the feathers again as if to say "which way did she go, which way did she go?", so obviously it was some bird of prey.

 

[kenmac]

We have had problems with a hawk coming into the coop.
Anyone try "tunnel" entrance where the chickens have to go through a tunnel and around a corner to get in? Would that dissuade a hawk?

Aaron Z

they can't get in my pen. It's 25'x25' 8' tall covered with wire. I see them circle above looking though