Egypt4u

How is the very first egg to be remembered? Hard boiled? Fried? Scrambled? ???

No its definately the Welsommer I think you were looking at the stock images of the birds I posted yesterday as an example of the breeds we purchased because I had none of our own. In this photo taken today you can see OUR Blue Ranger on the left and the Rhode Rock on the right and at the back is our Welsommer with a nice big red comb.
The Blue Ranger is getting there, but not quite yet

LovelyLadyLux wrote:How is the very first egg to be remembered? Hard boiled? Fried? Scrambled? ???

Boiled for breakfast with buttered toast soldiers

What type of bedding are you going to use on the concrete H? I always used straw (but I was also only on top of dirt) but my gf swore by compressed paper pellets (she used them in her garden & it was huge)?

Horus wrote:No its definately the Welsommer I think you were looking at the stock images of the birds I posted yesterday as an example of the breeds we purchased because I had none of our own. In this photo taken today you can see OUR Blue Ranger on the left and the Rhode Rock on the right and at the back is our Welsommer with a nice big red comb.
The Blue Ranger is getting there, but not quite yet

Oops I thought they were your photos.

LovelyLadyLux wrote:How is the very first egg to be remembered? Hard boiled? Fried? Scrambled? ???

Hatched

LovelyLadyLux wrote:What type of bedding are you going to use on the concrete H? I always used straw (but I was also only on top of dirt) but my gf swore by compressed paper pellets (she used them in her garden & it was huge)?

Nothing at the moment LLL, the idea was to try and avoid a section of garden from becoming a dust bowl. Hopefully my daughter can just hose off the flagged area of the run and below the coop to keep it clean, so far that seems to work. I do have plans to create a circular or rectangular area around the trunk of the cherry tree you can see to the left of the small run so they can have a scratching and dust bath area, but I am awaiting the arrival of the mesh off my son. We do use straw in the nest boxes and a wood chip type bedding on the floor of the coop itself, but what is not really visible in the photographs is that I have made two trays in the floor of the coop area that can be slide out from just below the nest boxes, these will allow for easy cleaning of the coop floor as each tray can be removed, cleaned off, more chips added and then replaced without having to open the coop, so thorough cleaning can be reduced to about a weekly event.

As it was laid by a Dutch hen I decided to have it for breakfast in a Delf ware egg cup
Here it is with my toast soldiers, it was lovely, but as it was small I overcooked it a tad, I like them soft but not runny

Thanks Horus! I can't remember the last time I had boiled egg and soldiers, but I shall have them for my breakfast tomorrow. Yummy.

Looks a super attractive collection of hens H/

I thought originally you were talking about 4 hens for the coop, or did I get that wrong? When they all start laying, isn't your daughter going to be inundated with eggs or does she plan a little roadside fresh egg business?

The egg looks lovely.

Trivia - your "toast soldiers" here are referred to as "Dunkers" (cause you're dunking them into the soft yolk)

Grandad wrote:Looks a super attractive collection of hens H/

I thought originally you were talking about 4 hens for the coop, or did I get that wrong? When they all start laying, isn't your daughter going to be inundated with eggs or does she plan a little roadside fresh egg business?

No she did say she wanted about 4, but when I told her the coop would easily house 8 she wanted 8
There is unlikely to be more than about three and a half dozen eggs even when they are going full bore, many of the breeds only lay an average of about 240/280 per year so you are maybe looking at 6 eggs per day on average, maybe a little less. They will of course tail off as they get older and when they are moulting and other daylight factors come into it, so that figure is a bit finger in the air. As to over supply, well there is my half dozen per week, same for my son, no doubt her father in law will want the same and she goes through about a dozen per week herself. The idea of having the blue egg layers is that they are usually popular and demand a premium price from pillocks who think they are a novelty, so you could easily whack them out at £2 per half dozen which will help offset the feed bill. I think people will always buy free range eggs especially if they are the same price as Tesco's.

Latest: As I was doing a couple of mods today the Welsommer laid another lovely egg ..................... I didn't get that one

My last three ladies were Red Star and known as production birds. They started to lay at am amazing 14 weeks of age and I got 3 eggs every single day for 2 yrs. I couldn't believe that these egg laying machines never took a single day off but the eggs were lovely!

This photo amused me, it is typical of how intrigued Annie is by chickens, she will watch them for hours.

"Now tell me again how you actually lay an egg"

I can imagine that Annie would have GREAT fun with all the chickens if they were out!

Definitely seriously studying them.

She only seems to try and annoy the white Araucanas if they come out of the coop, the others she just watches, perhaps with them being smaller and white she thinks that they are pidgeons, she hates pidgeons

My daughter was complaining about the 'freeloaders' who just keep eating food and giving no eggs in return, so I told her "cut out the treats and make them eat the layer pellets". It seems to have spurred them on a bit and in the last couple of days a new chook has started laying and she has had 2 from that particular one so far this week. But she is really chuffed as today she has had a blue egg off one of the Araucanas hybrids.

I have never done it but I think keeping a few chickens must be great fun and rewarding. I do quite envy your daughter H but don't worry, I don't have the space so no order for Cluckingham Palace mark 2, is likely to come your way any time soon.

I have room for a Cluckingham II here. Gonna have to figure out how to import H to build it!

LovelyLadyLux wrote:I have room for a Cluckingham II here. Gonna have to figure out how to import H to build it!

Perhaps treat me to a holiday for 2 months but only during the warmer weather