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Thread: Lying Chickens

  1. #1
    Boolit Buddy shaper's Avatar
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    Lying Chickens

    We have 7 hens. started with 16 but the opossums killed a few. Through the winter we would get at least one egg per day. As the temp got higher we would get more. It would be one or it would be 4, but we would always get at least one. Today i went out to gather the eggs and there was none, nothing. So I started to looking for another opossum. The chicken house is in a wet area so I had dug a trench through the coupe, lined it with concrete blocks so any water would flow through the coupe and put 2x6 boards on top so the chickens could keep their feet dry. This is also where the opossums came in the kill the chickens. I did shoot 4 of them. Feeling the worse I pulled up the boards today and found 37 eggs. Tomorrow I will have a talk with the girls.
    I have come to believe honey bees are more important to this world than I am.

  2. #2
    Boolit Buddy DoubleAdobe's Avatar
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    Put those eggs in a bucket, the ones that float, save for throwing at someone that deserves it. The sinkers are the good ones.
    "Them that don't know him won't like him and them that do sometimes won't know how to take him, he ain't wrong he's just different and his pride won't let him do things to make you think he's right"
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  3. #3
    Boolit Master
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    Had chickens for years (miss them and wish we still had them), and let me tell you that is probably NOT the only hidden nest. In point of fact if possums can get in, I would be you a dollar to a dog biscuit that those hens have a second hidden nest outside the pen somewhere.

    Agreed, float them and see.

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    GoodOlBoy
    Yes I can be long winded. Yes I follow rabbit trails. Yes I admit when I am wrong. Your mileage may vary.

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  4. #4
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    Texas by God's Avatar
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    My brother; who keeps a few chickens, has always referred to them as "upright single cell organisms" lol. My wife has finally won; I'm building a metal chicken house/feed room/ calf pen resort lately.

  5. #5
    Boolit Master


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    Hidden nests and sudden stops in production are part of the game! During the two most brutal winters we ever had here in MI they still layed this winter very mild and not an egg for 2 months, we had a late hatch last fall and 6 of the 8 were roosters and until I got them the. The freezer the chicken coop was in open revolt, younger flock this year so we are hoping for high egg production but anything can upset their feeble brains!

  6. #6
    Boolit Master Walkingwolf's Avatar
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    Chickens are known for hiding eggs, they really do not like it when we take them. Empty a nest, and they may abandon it in search of a new one.

    Plaster of paris eggs will keep them laying in the same nest, and the plaster will kill snakes.

  7. #7
    Boolit Man
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    I use golf balls in my nest boxes. With longer daylight, my girls are cranking out the eggs.

  8. #8
    Boolit Grand Master
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    Just curious. Has anyone run the numbers to determine if raising chickens makes sense?

    I buy chicken leg quarters for $.39/lb and eggs for $1.50 a doz. It does not seem to be worth the effort to me.
    Don Verna


  9. #9
    Boolit Master
    2ndAmendmentNut's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by dverna View Post
    Just curious. Has anyone run the numbers to determine if raising chickens makes sense?

    I buy chicken leg quarters for $.39/lb and eggs for $1.50 a doz. It does not seem to be worth the effort to me.
    To compare apples to apples you really need to check out the prices of organic free range.

    If you crunch the numbers it will really depends. If you live rurally and have stock you don't hardly have to feed the silly things. Chickens just really need a secure coop at night and free range during the day. Oh, and they need to be kept dry. Chickens can handle extreme cold and extreme heat, but if they get wet for extended periods of time they get sick and die. Chickens also have benefits other than just eggs. They really keep the bug and mouse population down for me. They also scratch through the horse manure for the passed through grain and bug larva.

    In the end it probably is a lot like casting and reloading. Might not save a dime, but the end result is a product better than can be bought.
    Last edited by 2ndAmendmentNut; 03-07-2017 at 12:00 PM.
    "I don't want men who miss." -Capt. Leander H. McNelly

  10. #10
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    don't be too hard on "the girls" they may have been secretly tryin' to make you a proud "grampaw".

  11. #11
    Boolit Master
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    Just way chickens are, mine like to lay theirs behind the trash cans in the gravel for whatever reason.

    And no there is little economic value in raising chickens. I have a neighbor selling a dozen free range eggs for a $1 a dozen. I can get a whole broiler in a bag at the store for $4, it costs $2 for a chick, plus feeding it for several months. And whatever ones are eaten by animals at night.

  12. #12
    Boolit Grand Master
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    Thank you for the reply 2nd.

    BTW, my neighbors are poor and they raise chickens. I buy most of my eggs from them at $3.00/doz to help them out a bit. I actually prefer store bought eggs as they are easier peel after hard boiling them. They have had me over for chicken dinner and it does taste better than the commercial stuff I buy but not that much better.

    When I was a kid we raised chickens so I have some idea of the work involved. I guess I am lazy. But I like your comparison to reloading and casting. I have little love or either activity and only do it to save money.
    Don Verna


  13. #13
    Boolit Master

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    We have probably 150-200 chicken houses around my neck of the woods. They only make money because it is on a huge scale 80,000 birds in one building for meats. Layers are a different number and not included in the above house number but they run mayBe half as many birds in the building. I figure the farmer gets about 1¢ per egg. Per day. The grower gets his cut then the shipper and the store. All mark ups. The hobby farmer is a niche market and done more for fun.

    just food for thought.

  14. #14
    In Remembrance
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    Dverna, you are probably the only one I ever heard of that preffered store bought eggs.

    I do not know we ever saved any money, but growing up we always had both laying hens and raised meat chickens too. It was probably just a self sufficient thing, but we would butcher somewhere around 50 fryers at a time to fill the freezer. For several years we also had a large incubator and raised our own chicks, but ordered them through the mail a lot too.
    We always butchered a couple of hogs a year and for several years raised rabbits too, when we decided to quit raising rabbits, we sold all we could and still put over 200 in the freezer.

  15. #15
    Boolit Buddy Bo1's Avatar
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    When our 14 hens slowed down on production (2 to 3 eggs a day), my wife read where cracked red pepper sprinkled out with their morning scratch every now and then will increase production. 4 days after trying the pepper, we are now averaging 10 to 12 eggs a day.
    Bo
    "Those who hammer their guns into plows, will plow for those who do not"
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  16. #16
    Boolit Master


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    Quote Originally Posted by dverna View Post
    Just curious. Has anyone run the numbers to determine if raising chickens makes sense?
    Untill you eat one of your own flocks eggs. Store bought gag a maggot IMHO.

    Our girls pay their own way, all the eggs we want and the rest sell and buy the feed for the year.

  17. #17
    Boolit Master Walkingwolf's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bo1 View Post
    When our 14 hens slowed down on production (2 to 3 eggs a day), my wife read where cracked red pepper sprinkled out with their morning scratch every now and then will increase production. 4 days after trying the pepper, we are now averaging 10 to 12 eggs a day.
    Bo
    I have been told that cracked pepper kills worms in the chickens, which probably would increase production.

  18. #18
    Boolit Master
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    Closest I've ever come to a fresh egg is the what we buy from Costco. They're okay, but I know they're one to two weeks old by the time we get them.

    My mother was born in the South in the early 1900s and didn't leave there until after WW II. She said, back in the '20s, '30s and '40s most everybody had their own chickens and she didn't eat a store bought egg until the later half of the '40s. She said comparing a fresh egg to a store bought is like comparing freshly churned butter to margarine. The store bought egg tastes like a cheap copy of the real thing.
    A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms *shall not be infringed*.

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  19. #19
    In Remembrance
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    Pretty much the same with most food,
    Milk, isn't even a real copy of genuine milk.
    Meat, not even in the same ballpark as home grown or even from a good butcher shop.
    Can goods, nothing like fresh or even home canned.

    I have read about old timers here in Alaska calling eggs boat eggs. I guess when they used to have to come up on slow barges they were downright terrible and nicknamed boat eggs.

  20. #20
    Boolit Master
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    Dverna the reason your neighbors eggs don't peel easily is because they are fresh. Fresh boiled eggs don't peel for anything. Older (store bought) boiled eggs peel easy because they are older. Suggest you buy eggs for boiling and use neighbor's eggs for everything else. Remember brown eggs are better than white eggs.

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