Eggs

[INresponse]

My thinking- chickens unlike many homestead critters can basically feed themselves scratching around for ticks and other bugs as well eating plants . Many critters need feed , hay and such . I do indeed feed my chickens and feed them well , way beyond what most chickens get for food . However this going to a feed store to get critter food may " soon " be a thing in history . This thinking is why I got rid of my milk goats as I didn't have enough food for them , without going to a feed store and buying food for their survival . I think in the terms of life after S.H.T.F. such as the aftermath and subsequent years of life without fuel for fetching feed from stores or for that matter even there being a store to obtain food for critters - or to a grocery store for my household consumption . I have prepared for a pre -fossil fuel , medieval type of lifestyle .

I diced and cooked up another 4 pounds of beef liver for our birds today. I have done this 4 times now over the past couple months. This adds a lot of extra protein to their diet and will hopefully boost their egg production during this cold spell. When we get our beef from the butcher we ask for any and all extras. The butcher is awesome and knows we feed the extras to our birds so she slices the liver and packages it into smaller packs to make it easier for us. Same with the heart and other helpful parts.
Should feed become unavailable or over priced (it is already expensive compared to a few years ago) I will expand their already large fenced in area offer them more areas to scratch. We could also heard them out across the road to the forest service land an hour or two a day and let them have at all the free range goodies out there, but it would take a few of us to keep them out there or they would just run back home. They know there home and even if they escape their fenced in area they wont wander far from their fence.

When I had chickens, we use to add egg shells into their diets, but it was just much easier to add store bought calcium. We were told to never offer them any egg byproduct (omelets, fried eggs) because they would associate it and begin eating their own eggs. I don't think my people really knew, but just guessed.

We scramble up eggs all the time for our birds, many times crunching up the shells into the mix. We also add in garlic powder and oregano as both of them are very healthy for the birds to eat. We have never had a bird mess with any eggs. We heard those claims, but we never had a problem.

 

[Cisco85]

I'd love to let my 6 hens run free but there's too many hawks here. Thru the years I've paid attention to the hawks patterns and have noticed that one hour early in the am..around 7:30 am and one hour before sunset there are no hawks here at those times so they run free with me following. My dad and I built their coop and it's 8 ft wide by 14 ft long with an upper level so at least they have room.
I'll scramble eggs for my hens and my 2 dogs and never gotten a complaint. And I do give the girls their egg shells.

 

[DrHenley]

Egg shelves at the supermarket TODAY:

 

[Amish Heart]

There were eggs at both Walmart and Aldi today. The five dz pack at Walmart were $21.99. Aldi dz (limit 2) were $4.89

 

[DrHenley]

I'll try Aldi tomorrow. No eggs for breakfast in the meantime.

 

[Tim Horton]

When we had chickens in the far frozen north, I had a lot of trouble keeping predators out of them.. Every size predator you could think of up to and including black bears.. The most we lost to predators was to ermine.. I trapped a dozen or more of them in the vestibule of the chicken house.. It is amazing how vicious, blood thirsty, destructive a weasel with a body size of a banana can be..

In winter I kept a light on a timer in the building to maintain about 12 hours of light a day.. We also fed a warm gruel of home canned cooked apples, hen scratch grain, rose hips, and kitchen scraps.. We included scrambled eggs in the gruel now and then.. The dog and cat also enjoyed scrambled eggs.. I always provided the hens grit and oyster shell.. This kept our motley flock producing well all winter.. We NEVER fed egg shells as we had trouble with egg eaters once and believe me you DO NOT ever want that.. Egg shells did get crushed fine and mixed in garden compost..

 

[DrHenley]

I'll try Aldi tomorrow. No eggs for breakfast in the meantime.

Aldi had one dozen free range eggs today, and now they have none because I bought them. They had a fair amount of the regular white eggs, but nowhere near even halfway stocked.

 

[havasu]

I went to Costco for 2 things today.

1) Eggs
2) Water

Costco was out of both!

 

[Magus]

Time to share this again.

 

[Mountain trapper]

Time to share this again.

That's what we do with our excess eggs.

 

[Amish Heart]

I freeze them, or barter them, or little granddaughter sells them. No overabundance right now...think I have 4 dz and I haven't pick up yet this morning. Weather like this, I have to gather twice a day or they'll freeze.

 

[havasu]

Went to two markets yesterday and there were no eggs to sell. The workers said not to expect eggs to be sold anywhere in So Cal for at least 3-4 months.

 

[Mountain trapper]

We bought some new hens last year that do good at laying in the winter. We've been getting 4 to 6 eggs a day all winter. Some eggs we give away while most of our eggs we boil and feed back to the chickens. With these new hens laying during winter we no longer have to preserve any eggs.

 

[poltiregist]

We bought some new hens last year that do good at laying in the winter. We've been getting 4 to 6 eggs a day all winter. Some eggs we give away while most of our eggs we boil and feed back to the chickens. With these new hens laying during winter we no longer have to preserve any eggs.

Same here - I went all the way to a hatchery last summer to get my new chicks 100+ miles . Every chick I picked up is still alive and well . We have all the fresh eggs we need and give some away to folks that didn't have the instinct to get ready for the egg shortage . Actually it was my plan to overbuy chicks last summer anticipating some other families would not receive the message from the higher being as to what to prepare for . I prepare for more than just self and people in my immediate household .

 

[poltiregist]

I remember on my return trip last summer with my new chicks , watching the miles click down as I drive back to my survival retreat . As I was thinking and calculating the likelihood of me reaching back to my destination before S.H.T.F. . As Then as now consider those chickens a vital piece of my survival strategy . Though I knew my higher being had told me to get those chicks , at that time did not fully understand what was coming . Still I don't believe the egg shortage is anything near to what we are about to see in the not so distant future . " prepare "

 

[Hooch]

The little local store here is selling a dozen eggs just over 9 bucks..the dollar general has them just over 7.
Seems alot of folks that have chickens and extra are still selling locally for around 3 to 350 a dozen. I know a local church that brings in eggs for free for its folks. I barter some of my extras for garden compost from my friends livestock poop piles. She doesn't have poultry so it's a good trade.
I have a few dozen in the freezer for me that I need to use. My new hens have been keeping me in eggs this winter so I'm good.
I love collecting my eggs..

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

I am getting a dozen a day. Every two weeks or so, 100 go into the freeze dryer. Sooner or later some government nit wit will stumble across a backyard flock and try to eliminate every bird this side of the Degoba system. My flock will be going stealth this summer. I don't buy feed locally and use cash for it.