Too many eggs!!!!!

[Glutton4...]

Send 'em my way - even with my new 'Laydees' I can't keep up with orders, as my original 'Laydees' appear to have gone on strike due to the cold weather.

I love the snow, but I think the animals are beginning to suffer. I won't moan though, because when it thaws everywhere will be a right old mess. I dread to think how many burst pipes we've got to deal with!

[pipscariad]

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr ... has no eggs lol ... damned corner shops sold out.... and some of us are chickenless

Getting eggs is a lottery each week as we are 20 miles from the shops!

Seems like you have the answer to your problem here Snadger - Eggs By Post !

And here's me, overjoyed this morning as for the first time in ??? months I had TWO eggs! I bought 2 new POL girls just before Christmas, and one of them has been duly laying pretty much one a day since (other not ready yet, still got a tiny comb bless her), then today my lovely Sussex, Snowdrop, has chosen the icy, snowy conditions to start laying her lovely cream eggs again, Yay!

Just can't win, can ya! I go with what some others have said though, if you really want to ease down the egg production, give them corn rather than layers pellets, although there must be umpteen folk around who would be truly glad of some of your excess eggs, you just have to find them...

[Scottishnewbie]

i have same problem as snadge and cant give them all away as in our village quite a few people have eggs/chickens. so it looks like i might freeze some - is it a simple case of separate the egg and yolk and then open freeze does anyone know?

[Snadger]

So why aren't our local provider's chickens laying? Getting eggs is a lottery each week as we are 20 miles from the shops! I thought they stopped laying at this time of year anyway?

My plan to have a mixed flock of varying ages to give a continuation of egg production just worked too well!

[Snadger]

I quite like the corn idea (along with grit) as I already feed them some on a night and they love it.
Funnily enough, an allotment ex chook keeper I know, who gave up with chooks because he was getting no eggs....fed them on mixed corn only!

[its hilly]

Snadger just be thankful its only your ears theyre coming out of.

[hodge911]

lucky bugger haven,t hadan egg for three weeks now don,t really know why bu i,m putting it down to the weather conditios as nothing else has changed

[MaureenHall]

i have same problem as snadge and cant give them all away as in our village quite a few people have eggs/chickens. so it looks like i might freeze some - is it a simple case of separate the egg and yolk and then open freeze does anyone know?

This is my first attempt at freezing eggs, though Jennie (Bramble Poultry) does it quite often I think. As far as I know, separate the yolks and the whites, put a little water over the yolks (to stop them drying and forming a crust). I've put the whites 3 to a small container to freeze. I haven't done the yolks yet, I've made custard and ice cream with them but I think the time has come to get some done. I'll let them defrost naturally and get back to room temperature when I'm ready to try them out in cakes

[Snadger]

Zillionth daft question, but how do you make dried egg that I've heard was used during wartime?
I have a proppa drier but wouldn't know where to start!

[RichmondHens]

I think I've bitten off more than I can chew as my thirty chooks are going through 2 1/2 bags of fed per week .......

Snadge, 2.5 bags a week sounds a lot for 30 hens. I have 60 + and they don't get through that much. Do you think the rats are helping themselves during the day?

Birds never pay for themselves in the winter. Maybe you will have to hold back on the hatching this year .............. or start selling hens as well as eggs!

[Snadger]

Snadge, 2.5 bags a week sounds a lot for 30 hens. I have 60 + and they don't get through that much. Do you think the rats are helping themselves during the day?

Birds never pay for themselves in the winter. Maybe you will have to hold back on the hatching this year .............. or start selling hens as well as eggs!

I've had a big purge on rats and I'm pretty sure I've got on top of them.
The punter next to me has a massive pile of horse manure right next to the greenhouse I have some chooks billeted in.
They are living in the manure and burrowing through. I got sick of going each morning and filling in a recent hole with a brick. I started dropping a poison pellet down the hole then putting a brick in. This happened for about a week and no more rat holes have appeared!
I've shot them , trapped them also.

Feed containers are all indoors and suspended at about 1 foot high. Even the chooks struggle to get thee necks in.
A lot of chook kepers on the allotment only feed a fixed ration per day...........and then wonder why they aren't getting any eggs.
My food containers always have food in them.

[Flummery]

Wel,, addictive as they are - this is why I've stuck at 4. We had 4 eggs yesterday and today. In fact we've had 3 or 4 each day over the winter. When I get a small glut I give them away to family and neighbours. I think you can freeze them beaten - whites and yolks together. If you do it in 2s or 3s or 4s you can use them in cake recipes requiring those quantities of egg.

[Jeanied]

Try this link Snadger - it would be a lot easier than dehydrating them to make powdered egg, I think.

preserving eggs without refrigeration - Google Search

[Brengirl]

During the second world war we kept chickens in the garden. I remember well the large sweet jar stored under the stairs that contained eggs floating in a solution of sorts.

[Jeanied]

That was preserving them in icinglass, Brengirl - I'm sure I've posted about this before but forget where. The link is all about it.