Chicken Keeping Secrets

“I’ve heard the term “egg mobile”, could you tell me more about the concept? Sincerely” ~ Dave in Wichita, Kansas

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the question.

I wanted to answer both yours and Elinore’s question this week because some people confuse the two ideas.

An “egg mobile” is a concept touted (and it think developed) by Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm in Virginia, USA.

Mr. Salatin raises both cattle and chickens, among other things.

He is a firm believer in letting animals do what God made them to do – in other words, he would not support the idea of battery houses for chickens and feed lots for cattle.

His cattle are grass fed on rotated pasture and he sends the chickens behind the cattle (within 4 days) to scratch the cow paddies. The chickens spread the manure and eat any fly larvae or parasites.

In this way, worming the cattle has become a non-issue and the cow pies are incorporated into the soil very thoroughly. (more…)

“I thoroughly enjoy your newsletters, please keep them coming! I live in Kwa-Zulu Natal in South Africa. I keep a variety of chickens and ducks – in my backyard – I call them my living lawn ornaments. There appears to be a shortage of good breeding stock of Buff Orpingtons, Rhode Island reds, Faverolles, Turkens etc locally. The people who do have them seem loathe to part with them.

I have seen many overseas websites that offer fertile eggs or day olds sent to people across country by post. In my case fertile eggs would be the only option as I don’t expect anything to make it over alive! How long would fertile eggs remain fertile to hatch in an incubator, and are there laws that prohibit this kind of overseas transaction? I look forward to your answer.” ~ Regards, Samantha

Thanks so much for the question Samantha,

I’ll start with the answer that I don’t know – I don’t know if there are any laws that would prohibit fertile eggs being sent across borders. I would imagine that the laws would vary from country to country so this is something you’ll have to check into with your local magistrate.

Assuming it is legal, there are some things to keep in mind when considering shipping fertile eggs across long distances.

Let’s look at the ideal conditions in which you would store fertile eggs if you were collecting them from your own hens, and then we’ll compare those conditions to those you might find if the eggs were sent a long distance by post.

You would choose only clean (meaning not manured), medium sized, uniformly shaped eggs. You would collect 3 to 4 times a day until you had assembled enough eggs to set. (more…)

“I just hatched out my first batch of eggs from an incubator. I have only had chickens for about a year, so I’ve been reading your newsletter to find out how to take care of them.

The incubator instructions said to discard eggs after 25 days, so on day 26 I started to throw out the last egg – that’s when I heard chirping coming from inside the egg. I put it back in the incubator. After 3 more days of watching it try to peck its way out and seeming to get weaker & weaker, I decided to “help it out” – I figured it was going to die anyway.

The chick had what appeared to be a dried yolk or something on it. I rinsed it under warm water and dried it with a hair dryer (very carefully). It is now 4 days old and seems to be as healthy as the other chicks that hatched by themselves. Do you know if it is OK to keep the chick with the other new chicks? It is eating and drinking just like they are. Is there any way to tell if it is defective?” ~ Marisakay, Texas

Marisakay,

I’m glad you wrote.

The first time you hatch your own eggs, it’s terribly exciting.

Actually, I think it’s always exciting but the first time is also filled with uncertainties which seem to heighten the experience.

As a general rule, your chicks should hatch by the 24th day but your sweet little chick seems to have had its own schedule.

It could be that the egg didn’t stay quite warm enough and therefore took longer than the others. This can sometimes happen in a more basic model incubator if it does not circulate the air uniformly.

The other thing that I wonder pertains to the remark you made about the chick having “dried yolk or something on it”.

The last thing your chick does before hatching is to draw the remainder of the yolk into its abdomen. It has been getting food and water from the yolk through the chicken equivalent of an umbilical cord. The chick needs to pull the yolk sac into its lower abdomen through the umbilical opening and grow the opening closed.

Simultaneously it will swallow the remainder of the egg “whites”.

I wonder if this step presented some type of a problem for your chick and could be the reason for the delayed hatch.

Regardless of the reason for the delay in hatching, I don’t think there is any reason your chick cannot be with the other chicks. (more…)

“First of all I would like to say how much I like the newsletter. I look forward to receiving it. I have about eight chickens in my garden, the coop will have a covered run of eighteen feet long by six feet wide and six foot six high.

The problem I have is that near to my garden is a massive oak tree which drops a lot of acorns. I know the coop and run will be covered, but have I got to make sure no acorns get into the run? I hope to hear from you soon.” ~ Graham in Essex England.

Hi Graham,

I’m glad you wrote and you are right to be concerned about the oak tree.

You would absolutely need to make sure your chickens do not eat any dropped acorns.

Oak leaves as well as acorns can be toxic to chickens and as chickens are very curious eaters, you can’t assume that they will know to keep away from them.

Chickens will eat most anything!

This would include screws, Styrofoam, most anything so everyone LISTEN – make sure your chickens have an area that is completely free from anything they should not ingest.

When it comes to plants though, I know that personally I tend to not be quite as vigilant.

Especially if it is a plant that I’ve planted in my garden. (more…)

“I am a suburbanite and although chickens are legal I have limited space for my coop. Therefore, I am curious about bantam breeds and wonder if any have been breed for egg production (quantity and/or size), or do we just assume that their production will mirror the larger breed for which they represent in miniature? Thanks,” ~ Dave w.

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the question.

In general, a bantam’s egg production will indeed mirror their standard size counterpart. Depending on the breed, a bantam’s egg will be ¼ to ½ the size of a regular egg. In contrast, the ratio of yolk to albumen is larger in a bantam egg. No egg white omelets here.

In considering your question for this week’s issue, I realized that we have never discussed bantams in any detail so I thought this might be a good time to pass on some general information to those readers who are considering raising bantam chickens.

For those who are unfamiliar, bantams are small chickens ranging in size from 1 to 3 pounds when fully grown.

They originated in the Bantam region of Java but any small variety of fowl became known as “bantam” after they were introduced in Europe.

The term “bantam” includes both miniature versions of standard breeds as well as true bantams which are breeds that have no standard size counterpart. (more…)