Suddenly We Are Wealthy

[JimT]

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Our chickens are laying between 9 and 11 eggs a day! The Goose that laid the golden egg didn't do that every day!

[COSteve]

Our commie governor got a 'cage free' chicken past the commie legislature here in Colorado that went into effect on Jan 1. So now 18 eggs are $9.69 instead of $5.49 the day before. Yep, they're looking out for all of us, aren't they!!

[jeepnik]

One of the ways to control a population is to control food supplies. Just sayin'.

[Steve in MO]

Our chicks give us 4-5 eggs a day, down from the 11 a day they were giving us over the summer. We had to buy a new fridge just for the eggs!

[JimT]

The egg-laying drops off during overcast and darker days. Those who are supposed to know say that egg production is stimulated by sunshine. I know we have less eggs during the winter than in the summer. We were getting 16 to 18 a day until some of our chickens became breakfast for coyotes and racoon. But I been taking a few of those now and then and they don't come around as much as they used to ... at least for awhile.

[Pisgah]

I hope you've upped your coop security...

[JimT]

I hope you've upped your coop security...

We have a solar door that opens in the morning and closes at dark. What got the majority of the hens that were taken was a coyote coming in just after they came out of the coop or a hawk during the day. The coons mostly ate our chicken feed from the automatic feeder until we electrified it with 110. The power comes on after dark and shuts off at daylight. That and traps. I have shot 8 or 10 that got into our traps. It has sorta discouraged them.

coon trap

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[Griff]

There's a significant difference between wholesale and retail prices... But, not having to pay retail for something that you grow yourself is huge! If I were retired I might have to have a few chickens just for my own needs. But... never having any leaves me a bit under-educated on the care & upkeep needed. I just had a similar epiphany over the cost of a new clothes washer. The old one, (faithful service for ~30 years), gave up the ghost 2 nites ago. A quick look under the hood revealed it was a plastic/rubber coupling between the motor and transmission. $12 (including a spare), later and an hour or so of labor to remove and replace the part plus a couple of hours to clean up the area around/under the washing machine and I'm back in the convenience of a home laundry. Less than the cost of a couple of loads at the local laundr-o-mat.

[Streetstar]

i bet the commodity grade "poor peoples eggs" on the bottom rack are 1/3 to 1/2 the price of the cage free, organic, vitamin fortified eggs on the top racks

Even so -- my mom was complaining about the price of eggs when she was paying $6 a dozen. When i asked her how long it takes her to go through a dozen she admitted -- probably 2 weeks

and as for me , i'll have 3 eggs at breakfast every other day or so --- $1.50 plus a couple of bacon strips is still a pretty cheap breakfast

[AJMD429]

Our commie governor got a 'cage free' chicken past the commie legislature here in Colorado that went into effect on Jan 1. So now 18 eggs are $9.69 instead of $5.49 the day before. Yep, they're looking out for all of us, aren't they!!

Yeah, and if you read most of the rules, the 'cage free' stuff is mostly bogus anyway - some places all they have to do is have 'access' to a 3 ft by 3 ft area for an hour out of the day. So the sliding partition scoots the live ones out of the barn once a day for an hour while the skid-steer comes in to shovel out the manure and dead bodies...

The egg-laying drops off during overcast and darker days. Those who are supposed to know say that egg production is stimulated by sunshine. I know we have less eggs during the winter than in the summer. We were getting 16 to 18 a day until some of our chickens became breakfast for coyotes and racoon. But I been taking a few of those now and then and they don't come around as much as they used to ... at least for awhile.

So far my 'Coop Mansion' has been great - zero need to lock it up at night or anything - the birds go in nightly because I only put their water, and some layer pellet feed, in the 'dining hall' section of the coop. The only thing is when there's young babies they can't jump/fly into it, so I keep them in one of the two 'wings' that I can close, and just feed them there until they get big enough to roam in and out.



http://www.levergunscommunity.org/viewtopic.php?t=90659

I do need to upgrade next year and add running water - it has electric so the water bowl stays thawed and the light is on a timer to keep them laying, and there is a porcelain fixture for heat lamps if there are young babies in the winter - but I realize it is a pain in the butt (for a lazy dude like me) to have to haul five gallon buckets of water to their watering bowls every couple days. The question is whether trenching for and hooking up a line 60 feet or so is more work in the long run....plus it would have to have an actual 'yard hydrant' end fixture so the valve was shutting off water below the frost-line.