View Full Version : Nothing to do with banana's...
djmb74
08-14-2009, 08:32 PM
But what the heck thought I would share!
We got our first egg today! We have 8 hens and 2 of them we got around easter all the rest are staggered in age since then.
Kids got all excited, we don't even have the coop properly set up yet. She layed the egg in a huge pile of peat moss I have with my 16 month old standing next to her trying to pet her. lol
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=21193&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=21193)
john_ny
08-14-2009, 11:33 PM
That is really neat. I wish I cold do that here but, of course, in New York City, owning a chicken would be considered dangerous. We have a neighbor who had one, and a couple of ducks (all illegal). One day, the chicken got loose, came in our yard, and I, fearing for it's safety, as we had an outdoor cat at the time, (all our cats stay inside, now) I scooped the bird up, and it just snuggled in; it loved to be picked up!
It's got to be a good feeling to get your first egg from a home raised bird. Congrats:woohoonaner:
djmb74
08-15-2009, 04:40 PM
Got another egg today... hmm is she going to lay one everyday? lol
djmb74
08-17-2009, 10:11 AM
wow 4th day in a row same chicken laying an egg!
Patty in Wisc
08-19-2009, 05:16 PM
Lucky you!! I always wanted chickens. There are some areas (not in this city) that allow hens but no rooster.
I just found out that hens have a whole string of eggs in them from tiny to large & when they lay one, the next moves up in it's place. They are giving you food for the family & food for the garden :) Congrats!
djmb74
08-19-2009, 05:24 PM
thanks... there are now 6 eggs in the fridge! :03:
john_ny
08-19-2009, 05:56 PM
Better start eatin' 'em!
djmb74
08-19-2009, 06:53 PM
oh yah I will be making an omelet in the morning!
oh yah I will be making an omelet in the morning!
Congrats on the egg laying. An omelet with onions, peppers, chesse, and ham would have been my choice.
Patty in Wisc
08-19-2009, 07:54 PM
Do you feed the chickens marigolds? They are s'posed to love them & it makes the yolks a brite orange color (what Martha Stuart does).
djmb74
08-19-2009, 08:16 PM
Nope no marigolds...
They did have a lot of collard greens and my 16 month old made sure they got to eat most of our tomatoes before I had a chance to pic them. My son is fast for a toddler and he would run and pull the tomatoes off and run to the chickens with them...
Congratulations! Looks a lot like a Banty egg. My uncle's got white Leghorns & feeds them corn but has a few Banties too. Checked your gallery. Would sure like to get a look at your hens, sometime :). BTW, hens will normally lay at least an egg a day but best keep any roosters away from them, that makes for bad eggs.
Oh, almost forgot, if ya ever have trouble with shells that break Too easy (like in the nest), chickens eat calcium rich stuff like ground oyster shell which makes for a tougher shell & prevents that.
djmb74
08-30-2009, 02:59 PM
its from my Golden Comet she started laying on the 14th and has not stopped and on Saturday she layed 2 eggs!!!!
added pics in my photo gallery
Thanx for the great pics :) !! That Golden Comet's awesome!! How are the eggs, well, compared to the commercial ones? Do they make good fryers? Guess I've been around White Leghorns & Banties so long, I forgot to check & see if any other kinds even existed!
Guess it was that way with nanners, too, till I joined this form. Till then, I thought there were only three kinds, Bananas, Plantains, & (for some strange reason) Blue Javas.
Think I'll check out some of these new (well, new to me) species of hens. Luv chicken & Luv eggs :).
Congrats on 2 in a day! Sometimes uncle Bobby gets 2 and sometimes even double yolkers! Luv those!
djmb74
08-30-2009, 04:20 PM
the golden comet eggs are little smaller then the store bought. The Rhode Island white should lay the larger variety.
All of our varieties are egg layers. Not gonna raise them to cook them. If we decide to raise some of meat varieties those I won't let the kids make them as pets...
LilRaverBoi
08-30-2009, 06:14 PM
Yeah, ground oyster shells are an absolute MUST with laying hens. Also, if you do not feed your hens corn, they will have eggs with pale yolks, so definitely feed them some corn. Beyond that, enjoy your eggs!
Oh, and FYI, cornish rocks (most common and best produce for meat production) are VERY fat and ugly...not even tempting to name and have as a pet. Once they get to a certain age, they are so fat they sit all the time and reside between the food and water dishes....only going back and forth as necessary to fulfill their hunger/thirst. I used to call them 'fat boys.' LOL.
djmb74
08-30-2009, 06:25 PM
yah they have had ground oyster available to them for a while now. The feed they are given has corn in it...
Please post how those Golden Comet eggs taste :) when ya eat them! I'd Luv to have some of those hens someday, they're awesome.
Yeah, I remember something about pets, too. I made the mistake of making a pet of a rooster (when I was real young) that ended up on the dinner table. That's nothing for a kid to have to go through. That's one day I'll never forget :(.
Thanx for the cornish rocks info, Bryan :) ! Those sound totally Yum!! Luv that sense of humor, too LOL!!
djmb74
08-30-2009, 07:18 PM
oh have had scrambled eggs with the kids already and they tasted great!!!
LilRaverBoi
08-30-2009, 08:11 PM
We always raised Araucana laying hens. They lay blue/green eggs (just the shell) and it's SUPER cool! Here's a pic:
http://www.cvgs.k12.va.us/RESEARCH/PAPER/defining/Araucana_Eggs.jpg
And as for pet chickens....I've had a TON over the years when I was growing up. I had a bunch I used to have sit on my shoulder. I also had several roosters that I had named as pets....and all of them ended up getting butchered sadly. I remember once my dad told me to say goodbye to the several I had before he butchered them....so sad :(
My favorite breeds to grow were always the Polish breeds. There are quite a few color variants, but they all have very fun feathers on their heads in a big puff-ball. I showed them every year at the county fair (I was a 4-H kid) and I even won the Best of Show award my Jr. and Sr. year in HS! Good times!
http://gallery.craftech.com/d/7305-2/Animals_Chicken+_Silver+Polish+_F__.JPG
island cassie
08-30-2009, 10:42 PM
Hey Martin - congratulations! crush up the eggshells really fine and feed then back to the hens as grit and calcium - we always used to do that and it's better than throwing them away!
LilRaverBoi
08-30-2009, 11:05 PM
Oh yeah, we gave our chickens all the food scraps from our kitchen. They LOVE it...they'll eat just about anything, even moldy/rotting veggies that went bad from your fridge, etc. They don't get sick from it and they LOVE it....otherwise you could compost it, but the chickens go crazy for it, so we always just fed it to them.
Wow :) !
Thanx for the crushed eggshell tip, Island Cassie!
Bryan:
Awesome! Never seen blue eggs ever! And those Polish hens look great! Do they lay good eating eggs?
Yeah, I know about the pets thing :(. I never tried to get friendly with a chicken after that.
LilRaverBoi
08-31-2009, 06:26 PM
Well, polish chickens are more for show than anything. Technically they do lay eggs, but they're fairly small eggs. And you can eat them but they're tiny, so not much meat on em. They are very kind/docile breeds, though and are very fun to raise!
Wow! A different chicken for everything - pets, chicken, & eggs! Think I need to join a chicken forum :) !!
Martin: Thanx for the info on those eggs!! Sounds like Golden Comet is just about the perfect hen to have :) !!
djmb74
08-31-2009, 07:06 PM
Actually they get crushed up and go in the compost pile!
Hey Martin - congratulations! crush up the eggshells really fine and feed then back to the hens as grit and calcium - we always used to do that and it's better than throwing them away!
djmb74
08-31-2009, 07:08 PM
One of my chickens Zakia, the big white one is always trying to get in the house. She tries to beat you through the door when you open it. Pretty funny...
My uncle had that problem with a goat that got out of it's pen :ha: .... well, I thought it was funny but he wasn't laughing much.
BYE
Patty in Wisc
09-02-2009, 02:07 PM
This is REALLY making me want to have chickens!
Don't forget to feed some marigold flowers for bright color yolks :)
A friend had chickens that laid brown, blue & green eggs. He called them "easter eggs" LOL. Don't know what kind of chickens though.
djmb74
09-02-2009, 02:16 PM
Its not a breed called easter egg its a combination of a few different breeds. One chicken doesn't lay all of the colors each egg is one color but may be a little lighter or a little darker of the color they lay. No chicken lays different colors, My Ameraucana is one of the "easter egg" breeds.
You should defiantly get some chickens they are lots of fun!
This is REALLY making me want to have chickens!
Don't forget to feed some marigold flowers for bright color yolks :)
A friend had chickens that laid brown, blue & green eggs. He called them "easter eggs" LOL. Don't know what kind of chickens though.
vBulletin® v3.6.8, Copyright ©2000-2020, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.