Topic: Eggs galore !

[B7jac]

I just wanted to write an update about my new hens !

All the things I was worried about at the start sorted themselves out ! like getting them used to me, what to feed, when they would lay.

I bought them from a friends uncle who keeps around 50 free rangers for selling eggs.  They were about 16 weeks old apparently RIR, however my girls laid their first egg just over a week ago (which would make them 18 weeks !!) maybe the age was wrong, and although kind of small I have now had 16 eggs in their first week !! (3 were larger and turned out to be double yolkers !!)  The person I bought them from thought I was 'winding' him up as none of his have laid yet !!

They are all really tame from hand feeding & stroking etc., and I love em !

A bit worried about over feeding tho, as they love left overs but started to leave the layers pellets & grain, so I had  to cut down on leftovers (although I always feed good stuff !) and wait until the end of the day so they ate the pellets more, is this right? as they now seem 'starving' when I do take leftovers down, but surely they should have the pellets first ?

Anyway eggs are regular and getting bigger ! Thanks to all prev advice

[Trixiebelle]

Well if they're laying well on left-overs I'd cut down on the pellets! Could save you a fortune! My supplier has just put the prices up due to global price hikes.

It's lovely finding eggs isn't it  ;D Like nuggets of gold!

[teresa]

Nothing wrong with leftovers as long as they dont contain to much sugar and salt. Balance is the key from bread to greens latter best raw.
Price of pellets/mash are going up.
I copied this from a breeders site might be of some interest?

You will need one shallow plastic container, high layers mash or pellets, multi-vitamin tablets, cod liver oil, malt extract and skimmed milk/warm water.
Take a plastic carton sufficent to hold a scoop of high layers mash or pellets. Add your pellets to just under fill the container.
Crush one muti-vitamin (adult vitamins) and add it to the dry pellets stir in well.
Add one small spoon full of cod liver oil and the same quantity of malt extract and stir well.
Pour on enough warm water and skimmed milk to cover the mixture stir well and allow to cool ideally overnight.
In the morning stir the mixture well and give to your breeding stock they will love the texture and a trio will eat the lot. By midday any left overs can be disposed of i fed mine to the free range hens they love it and we get lots of super fresh eggs.

[Jitterbug]

I am so pleased that your ladies are settlign down nicely to the egg laying business.  I read somewhere that double yokers are just eggs that were not formed right (the chicken is still sorting things out) and then the yolk just joins the next egg coming out -hence two yolks.

Isn't nature just amazing  ;D ;D

Jitterbug