Our first egg!

[notmilk]

Our little maran left us our first egg today! It's a lovely speckled brown colour. Strangely I don't feel inclined to want to eat it at all - i mean it just came from Willow's vent! I've offered it to my Dad so he's having the first one.
Just so you know, we didn't get the chooks for egg production anyway more as pets really. But i thought the aggs would be a bonus - now i'm not really so sure...
Anybody else keep chooks but don't eat the eggs?

[gawdambugs]

Congrats on yor first egg

I am thinking about keeping chickens... The plot next to mine has chickens!!! Am currently researching hwo to keep them and what is involved!!! What is the best type to keep? And how many will I need to produce a decent amount of eggs

[notmilk]

sorry i can't answer your question as i am completely new to this too!!
i chose bantams as they are small and i only have a small garden.
i'm sure you'll get better answers from the old hands on here!

[nick the grief]

Eat them Notmik, they taste superb & you know they are fresh!!!

GDB, how many eggs do you want? Thats the first question then do you prefer pure breeds or Hybrids.

Hybrids like Black Rock look OK & you'll get 250 eggs per year per bird roughly. Here is a link to all the producers of proper Black rocks.

http://www.theblackrock.co.uk/agents.htm.

Another that you could try is the Speckldey Hen (honest !) It is based on a Maran & lays a dark brown egg..

If you want pure breds, there are loads to choose from, The "bars" are colourful & reasonable layers (welbars lay dk brown eggs & cream Legbars lay blue eggs, then you have Rhodebars, Cambars & wybars laying different shades of brown). There used to be a guy(mr Clem Shaw) who lived in shropshire (morville heath I think it was) who had a flock of commercial white wyandottes I don't know if he's still around (or his son or Grandson!),

Here's a link to the utility poultry club

http://www.utilitypoultry.co.uk/upba.shtml

Hope this helps I'm sure Poultrychat will be able to offer more uptodate advice. In fact try their website!

[cotton54321]

I know what you mean about eating it but the reality is all eggs are made in the same way so if you are going to eat supermarket eggs, you may as well eat your own. Once I got over the initial squeamishness I was pleasantly suprised. Although small (we have bantams too) they are absolutely delicious!

Enjoy the chickens!
Mel

[Alice]

Hello GDB, no expert here but chidhood memory says you'll need 1 hen for every person in the house to give you roughly the number of eggs you'll need. Hope that of some help.

[gawdambugs]

Thanks for the advice Alice.... am not going to get them just yet as I have so much work to do at the moment and I want to make sure I have fully researched before I go getting any.

[poultrychat]

Our little maran left us our first egg today! It's a lovely speckled brown colour. Strangely I don't feel inclined to want to eat it at all - i mean it just came from Willow's vent! I've offered it to my Dad so he's having the first one.
Just so you know, we didn't get the chooks for egg production anyway more as pets really. But i thought the aggs would be a bonus - now i'm not really so sure...
Anybody else keep chooks but don't eat the eggs?

Why don't you just use them for cooking first and see how it goes?

[poultrychat]

gawdambugs - why don't you get yourself a few issues of the Practical Poultry mag. it might help you make your mind up

[notmilk]

well, i ate it. Sunny side up on a piece of toast - it was delicious!
The yolk was incredibly yellow and it fitted just fine on one slice of toast - yum.
She has laid 2 more which we've given to my Dad and stepmum to try. (The other 2 are not laying yet).
Yes good idea about putting them in cooking - maybe a cake is due!

[Sunbeam]

we always eat ours - it's one of the perks of keeping chickens! That self-satisfied knowledge that all those 100's and 1000's of eggs sitting on the supermarket shelves are not a scratch on your own! Just make sure you say thank you to the chicken who laid it! (well I alway do anyway!!) We have 3 battery rescue chickens who now live on a diet of corn, oystershell & what ever they scratch up from the garden & their eggs & those of our other two are so creamy... Scrambled Eggs for breakfast is now a Sunday ritual!

GDB - we have 5 chickens - 3 ex battery, 1 banty & a very large beautiful brown one with long yellow legs and we average 3 eggs a day - certainly more than we can eat - we tend to end up giving some to friends & neighbours! Don'r know if that's of any help!

[gawdambugs]

Thanks for the advice.... can I get the mag from any shop or does it have to be ordered? Sorry of that is a silly question!!!!

[gawdambugs]

Am looking into getting one of those egloos for my chickens..... there is a man on the plot next to me who keeps them in his shed - I dont think he lets them out as everytime I have been up there, they are always locked away!! I cant keep the chickens in my back garden because of my landlord - NO PETS ALLOWED!! Oopps - I have 3 cats, 3 rabbits, 2 cockateils, and fish!!!

[poultrychat]

GDB it's not a silly question at all, it should be readily available in newsagents although probably the larger ones.

[cotton54321]

gawdambugs - we have an eglu and managed to get it off ebay £100 cheaper than 'new' even though ours has never even had chickens in it!
Keep an eye out - I can recommend them - they are very easy to clean out and our chooks seem happy!
Mel