The month of April ended with a tremendous effort on the part of the Pure Water Hollow hens! Never before has so much been given by so few, and we are indebted to them for their heroic performance.
Our 27 hens gave us 22 eggs yesterday, and that was with three of them still broody and setting. Most probably the setting hens did not lay so that leaves only 24 hens to produce the 22 eggs. This set the daily record for number of eggs laid, and I believe it will remain the mark for some time to come.
These hens are not necessarily bred for a high yield of eggs, and I had been figuring that they each average laying one egg every two days. Our flock consists of some game hens and a mixed breed that came from game hens and a barred rooster. They have great mothering abilities and foraging skills, but the egg production is just a bonus, so we are very pleased with how that is going now.
We sold some eggs last night to a neighbor and I sold another dozen eggs at work today. We are now sold out and I have orders for three more dozen as soon as we get them, so right now the demand is greater than the supply! That usually means a price increase in a capitalistic economy, but we are not planning on raising our prices yet. Perhaps we started the price too low at $1.50/dozen, but I think it is too early in our business to raise it now. Actually, I am amazed that so many people want to buy them. Pleasantly surprised may be the better way to put it.
I am curious to see how many eggs we get today. Since nearly all of the hens must have laid yesterday, I am not anticipating very many eggs today. We shall see. It is also fun for me to keep track of the egg records. Maybe that is a strange hobby, but I enjoy watching the numbers. We have 32 now for the first two days of this week, which is a 16 egg a day average. If they keep up a pace close to that they will break the single week record of 91 set the first week of April. Again, we shall see…
I am still planning to show some pictures in the near future that my mom took when they visited. I just have to get them uploaded, which can take some time. I keep finding so many other things to do.
Have a blessed May, everyone!
5 comments
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sheryl on May 1, 2007 at 10:18 am
Ok, now I am very interested in the egg selling adventure. I hope to get to the point where I can start selling eggs. Are you going to put a sign out to advertise them? Right now, I only have 5 laying hens and 2 bantam hens laying. I get about 7 eggs a day. I was planning on selling them at a $1.25 dz. or a $1dz, not sure. I know brown eggs sell about $1.75 in the store. I would also like to start selling pullets and roosters. That will be a long way down the road. I have about 4dz eggs in the incubator. Hopefully in less than 21 days they will be hatched out. I can`t wait to hear more about you selling them and how well you are doing. Good luck. sheryl
I was going to ask you, what all do you feed your hens.
~~Purewater's reply:
7 eggs a day from 7 hens sounds wonderful! You should be able to start selling some soon if you wish.
As for the sign, we are not doing that yet. I did make up some fliers to put up at our post office and a couple of the little country stores close to home, but we decided that we better wait to even do that. We don't want to advertise any more at all right now as long as all of our eggs are selling the way it is. All I have done was to put up a flier on the bulletin board at my work and folks are buying all the eggs I bring in.
We feed our chickens regular cracked corn in the mornings and then they free range for several hours each evening. They love to scratch up for themselves bugs and worms and they eat whatever plants and greens that appeal to them. (They do seem to like my wife's bleeding heart flowers, unfortunately.)
Edited by Purewater on Tuesday, May 1, 2007 at 1:20 PM
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Ashley on May 1, 2007 at 1:12 pm
I would be really suprised if it were physically possible for your hens to lay more than one egg a day….
When a hen goes broody, she would, in nature, continue to lay eggs until she had a good clutch of I don't know how many eggs, probably as many as would fit comfortably under her.
Of course, if you are taking the eggs out of under them each night, the broody hens might keep laying until her internal clock tells her to stop and set on her complete, invisible clutch.
Or, if you are letting them set on eggs . . . . a few of the hens might still be laying…. *shrugs*
Anyways, it's obvious I don't know the whole story, so take my words with a grain of salt. Sounds like you have some really superb laying hens, though. We get eggs around here (KS) for $1 a dz, and they go FAST! I was reading something the other day about commercial hatcheries feeding the chickens compounds to make the yolks different colors. The compounds did not sound like vitamins! Bleck!
The first thing I will get upon our return to the country is: chickens. Boy, I sure miss 'em!
Ashley
~~Purewater's reply:
Thanks for the thoughtful comment.
I'm sorry if I gave the impression that we were getting more than one egg a day per hen. When I wrote about the 13 egg-a-day average or 16 egg-a-day average I was talking about the average for the entire flock of 26 or 27 layers, not just one hen. We had been averaging about 1 egg per hen every other day, but the average may be increasing to perhaps 3 eggs per hen every 5 days.
You are correct about the broody hens likely laying an egg a day to collect the clutch she wants. We have found that to be about 10 to 12 eggs, but after they get set, they will not lay anymore for up to a month while their instinct is telling them to hatch and raise their chicks.
We have been able to break them up off their nest by continually taking their eggs and throwing them off the nest. It takes about a week of doing this several times a day for them to realize that they no longer have any reason to set, and then they get back to the normal routine of laying.
Some of our hens have raised two clutches during one season and I think they may be capable of doing it three times if allowed to! This seems to be quite unusual from what I've read. I think it is due to their game hen background.
Thanks again for sharing, and good luck getting back to the country!
Edited by Purewater on Tuesday, May 1, 2007 at 3:03 PM
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Chas on May 1, 2007 at 9:03 pm
How Wonderful! We have 5 chickens now and are averaging about 3-4 eggs a day. I am very happy. I hope to get several more chickens and then work up to selling our eggs. I am happy for you. Your homestead seems to run so nicely. I love your end of the month reports too. Good work!!
Blessings,
Chas
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Meme on May 7, 2007 at 8:27 pm
Wow !! All those eggs and I thought my whopping "3" were alot..Oh course it is alot since I only have three hens…lol…. Before I had these Misses I would buy yard eggs when ever I could find them. They have such a richer taste, and to think some folks do not eat yard eggs…yummy !!!!! Hopefully when the heat sets in they do not stop laying, (on this end they do stop for the summer months)..Debbie
Meme on May 7, 2007 at 8:30 pm
By the way my dad used to mark the laid eggs that the hen would set on and check daily for those new fresh eggs.. I think that is why he would mark them…lol….Deb
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