Chicken/egg question

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Arcticdude said:
My silly wife does the same thing. She'll sit in the meat chicken coop with the meat chicks, then she'll sit on the deck at the chicken house too. A couple days ago we put all of the new chick's in with the older hens. They all get along fine.
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My young ones hang out in the main coop until dark and then the old ones run them off so they go to the apartment. There definitely is a pecking order.
 
We are having some wood replaced on the chicken house here shortly. It is going to be a pain because the hens won’t be able to stay in there. Planning on putting them in their run during the day and then making a place for them in the barn for night time. It will mean more cleanup and work moving them 🐔🐤 morning and night, but their house has to have quite a few side boards replaced. The original builders of it didn‘t use treated wood nor seal the bottom of the boards on two sides of the house…and then put dirt right up to them. The result has been rotting wood. 😣
 
Cindyd said:
Sorry to hear that Robin...always disappointing to find one injured, sick, bullied or dead. I found one laying dead inside the floor of roost area cple weeks ago. Not a mark on her. No idea what happened.
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That's sure signs of vaccine shedding......or tool shedding. Not sure without further post mordem analysis
 
Not sure if this was good idea or not, but last week I was seeing quite a few mice in chicken area in their feeders. We have the hanging feeders. We Raised feeders up higher off the ground and I put out One Bite (rat poison) Several feet away around outside perimeters on back side of chicken fenced area...put on gloves, hammered it up in chunks, scattered it around with chicken food back into woods. Have not seen a mouse in the feed since but yesterday I smelled something dead and found a dead mouse laying inside the pen. Not sure if chickens killed it or if died from poison. Didn't have a mark on it and the chickens weren't messing with it.
 
Our 3 ladies had a pause but started laying again this week. We have decided to give them and the rooster to our adopted son and his wife as a starter kit.
We are going to borrow an incubater from some friends and get about 16 eggs into it by the end of the month so we can get a new start on chicks. We will keep the best and a rooster and sell or butcher the rest. Helena decides on how many...around 6-8 should be enough I think (and hope). Too much food for them and too many eggs will not help the situation here also. We have had a good balance of 3+1 and not needed too much food for them.
On the good side, the dent corn is about to be harvested around our place and we will get another 500 lbs of free food from what is broken down, knocked over, run over or otherwise not correctly harvested and left to rot. We are still using the corn and wheat from last year and could last another 4-5 months without getting new.
 
A few times a year I bring out feed can and put corn and such on top in the evening. Our local owl always, without fail, kills the mice who crawl on top! Evidence is seen every morning with small drips of dried blood.


EDIT TO ADD…

My son in Ohio gets tons of corn and wheat leftover in the fields and also thrown onto the ground during harvest. The farmers encourage him to get it!
 
GaRp58 said:
Our 3 ladies had a pause but started laying again this week. We have decided to give them and the rooster to our adopted son and his wife as a starter kit.
We are going to borrow an incubater from some friends and get about 16 eggs into it by the end of the month so we can get a new start on chicks. We will keep the best and a rooster and sell or butcher the rest. Helena decides on how many...around 6-8 should be enough I think (and hope). Too much food for them and too many eggs will not help the situation here also. We have had a good balance of 3+1 and not needed too much food for them.
On the good side, the dent corn is about to be harvested around our place and we will get another 500 lbs of free food from what is broken down, knocked over, run over or otherwise not correctly harvested and left to rot. We are still using the corn and wheat from last year and could last another 4-5 months without getting new.
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I'm down to 8 layers, 3 are pretty old and I'm averaging 4 eggs per day.
 
Personally, I would start with ISA Browns, Golden Comets or Rhode Island Reds. If raising chickens for eggs only. The first two named give you FAR more large eggs per feed ratio than any other hens. They lay sooner too. If raising meat birds that are known for great foraging, I would get either Barred Rocks or Black Australorps. There are so many options that personal preferences will vary greatly! LOL. 😁
 
GeorgiaPeachie said:
Personally, I would start with ISA Browns, Golden Comets or Rhode Island Reds. If raising chickens for eggs only. The first two named give you FAR more large eggs per feed ratio than any other hens. They lay sooner too. If raising meat birds that are known for great foraging, I would get either Barred Rocks or Black Australorps. There are so many options that personal preferences will vary greatly! LOL. 😁
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I like the Darkstars I got to replace the RIreds. About the same, better foragers though.
 
rachaelk said:
Ok crazy question here. My husband let mt chickens out and accidentally fed them some ant poison. How many days should i wait before consuming the eggs? Or is it just fine?
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How much poison did they eat?
DrHenley said:
When we move to BOL2, my wife wants chickens or ducks so she can get fresh eggs. She really wants ducks, but I'd have to build a pond for them.
If we get chickens (mainly for our own egg supply) where should we start? She also likes free range chicken meat.
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I'll make some unsolicited comments on the ducks-

They're sweet but a pain in the tookus. They're filthy. They take twice as much work and protection as chickens. They're essentially a meal on legs to almost every predator. And their eggs are almost always covered in poop. Oh, and that's if you can even find them. They drop them wherever convenient, so if you let them free range (which helps considerably on feed and cleanliness but makes you lose them frequently) - you'll probably hit rotten eggs with the lawn mower more times than you'd like.


So, if you can't tell by my comments... I don't highly recommend ducks. I really loved ours but they were exhausting. I will probably never have them again.
 
rachaelk said:
Ok crazy question here. My husband let mt chickens out and accidentally fed them some ant poison. How many days should i wait before consuming the eggs? Or is it just fine?
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They will likely be ok. Put 25ppm CDS in there water. Or 1 lb Epsom Salt per 5 gallons water for 1 day or about 5 ounces of mollases per gallon of water.
 
Survivor_316 said:
How much poison did they eat?

I'll make some unsolicited comments on the ducks-

They're sweet but a pain in the tookus. They're filthy. They take twice as much work and protection as chickens. They're essentially a meal on legs to almost every predator. And their eggs are almost always covered in poop. Oh, and that's if you can even find them. They drop them wherever convenient, so if you let them free range (which helps considerably on feed and cleanliness but makes you lose them frequently) - you'll probably hit rotten eggs with the lawn mower more times than you'd like.


So, if you can't tell by my comments... I don't highly recommend ducks. I really loved ours but they were exhausting. I will probably never have them again.
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Same here in my experience. We have a pond and I think they dropped every egg they laid once we gave them access, in the pond. I love duck eggs and they are best for baking (so I hear). We lost ours to critters from one to several at a time (had 20). I haven't replaced them for that reason and they are too nasty to keep pinned up for my energy.
 
We currently don't have any ducks . The only way I will keep them is run loose during the day and pinned up at night . Raccoons will kill them if they are not put up at night and they are to messy to keep penned all the time . We free range our chickens during the day and they put themselves up at night . We just close the door around dark .
 
rachaelk said:
Maybe a few ant hills worth of poison. They act fine and it has been a few days. Hard to tell how much they ate vs just scattered around. I just am not sure if it is safe to eat their eggs for a while. But if it didnt kill the chickens it probably wouldn't hurt me either.
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Maybe don't eat the eggs for a few days to a week.
 
Survivor_316 said:
How much poison did they eat?

I'll make some unsolicited comments on the ducks-

They're sweet but a pain in the tookus. They're filthy. They take twice as much work and protection as chickens. They're essentially a meal on legs to almost every predator. And their eggs are almost always covered in poop. Oh, and that's if you can even find them. They drop them wherever convenient, so if you let them free range (which helps considerably on feed and cleanliness but makes you lose them frequently) - you'll probably hit rotten eggs with the lawn mower more times than you'd like.


So, if you can't tell by my comments... I don't highly recommend ducks. I really loved ours but they were exhausting. I will probably never have them again.
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You couldn’t pay me to raise more ducks. Agree wholeheartedly with everything you said!

Dont touch those eggs for 7 days for your own safety.
 
rachaelk said:
Maybe a few ant hills worth of poison. They act fine and it has been a few days. Hard to tell how much they ate vs just scattered around. I just am not sure if it is safe to eat their eggs for a while. But if it didnt kill the chickens it probably wouldn't hurt me either.
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Do you know if it contained bromadiolone?

The problem with poisons is two fold. 1. They are carcinogenic, so their effects when below the efficacy dose may still be detrimental but not seen immediately. 2. They can have a REALLY long half life.

If it contained bromadiolone, it has a half life of close to 200 days.

The whites are edible before the yolks for a couple of reasons. The whites form right before the egg is laid and their structure doesn't absorb poisons the same. However, there are certainly drugs (like seven dust, blukote, etc.) which are recommended to have a lifetime withdrawal.

It would really be a personal choice. If it were me (cancer survivor) I'd probably be a lot more cautious than a healthy person. My advice would be to look up the active ingredient and the half life, then calculate how long it would take for it to be out of the chickens' systems. Then add the amount of time it takes for an egg to develop. I think the yolk takes a maximum 12 days to develop, but you'd need to double check that.
 
Another thing I just thought I should probably mention is that avian digestion is much less "complete" than mammalian digestion. That is important because poisons may not always affect birds the same way but also because they may not have even absorbed it. (Meaning it wouldn't necessarily be passed on to their eggs if they didn't.)

So all that information just to say I don't know. 😆
 
Big rat problem! Went back to lock up hens tonight...they were all in roost...stuck my head in nest areas to see if larry got sll eggs. To the left upon upper roost area...4 RATS! ..I slammed my hand on side of roost area..they didn't scurry as fast as I would expect....they will be dead and gone 1-2 next days!
 
I have had a rat problem this year, no chickens. Fortunately my barn cat has keep me apprised of his control.
No rats after i got rid of the chickens. Less field mouse. But the rats being back in concerning to me.
 
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