Category Archives: Chickens

This page contains information about my experience of keeping chickens.

Chicken Run 2

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2016-07-12 20.14.25

This year I have put three of the hens in a pen in the bottom field. The idea was that this would be their final resting area but I’ve since changed my mind. Two of the hens are from the eggs that I incubated by crossing our hens with the neighbour’s rooster and I’ve become attached to them so they’ve been granted a wildcard to old age.

The white posts mark the borders of the pen and you can see two of the black hens together. The lines of vegetables to the right of the tractor are potatoes.

In their summer residence, they are protected by an electric fence surrounding a walnut tree and have free range of the first hen house that John built for them. Although they were reluctant to venture in at first, they are now happy to lay their eggs in one of the partitions. They tend to sleep, however, on some of the branches of the tree above it. This is good news and makes me happy. The other day on our morning walk to Marchalejo, we saw a pack of three foxes and then a single fox so it is good that we have the three types of fox-protection: electrocution, canine and flight.

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Peeling hard-boiled eggs

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Peeling hard-boiled eggs using ice

peeling hard-boiled eggs using ice

Peeling hard-boiled eggs in ice

 

An eggshell is permeable to air and water. A newly laid egg is covered by a natural coating called the bloom. This prevents loss of moisture from the egg and bacteria getting in. In my opinion, it is better to take advantage of this and not wash the eggs. The eggs are protected naturally and so do not need to be kept in the fridge. You can then wash the eggs just before you use them.

There are two membranes inside the shell: the outer shell membrane which adheres to the eggshell and the inner shell membrane surrounding the egg white and yolk. As time goes by, air enters the egg through the pores and fills the gap between the two membranes and the egg cell expands. It is this gap between the two membranes which affects how easy it is to peel a hard-boiled egg.

I’ve read that in order to peel very fresh eggs, it helps to immerse them in cold water and ice cubes so I thought I would give it a try to see if it helps. For the purpose of the “eggsperiment” I used 15 eggs of varying sizes and laid between 0 and 3 days ago (0 being a couple of hours previously).

The eggs were cooked in boiling water for 10 minutes. Cold water was then run over them and they were they plunged into the iced cold water. I left them for 45 minutes.

I found that eggs laid the same or the previous day were very difficult to peel. Eggs that were two days old were OK. Eggs which were three days old or more were good. I also found that putting the eggs in ice made no difference whatsoever and is not worth doing.

 

Breaking broody hens

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Breaking broody hens

breaking broody hens

Breaking broody hens

For the first time ever, one of the hens has gone broody. She is one of the two remaining hens that I incubated from eggs so she is now just over two years old. She was spending all the time in one of the laying boxes and as the number of eggs laid by the other hens had gone right down, I thought it best to get her out. I checked on Internet and various solutions are offered for breaking broody hens and these include hosing her with cold water or putting a bag of frozen peas in the nest box. Before using the cage, I first tried taking her out of the laying box and putting her outside a couple of days running but she would always go back .

Basically, hens go broody when they think they have a clutch of eggs to incubate and hatch. A broody hen will flatten herself out to cover the eggs and fluff out her feathers. She might also peck at you if you go near her or screech or she can even break eggs that other hens have lain.

Some breeds of chickens are more prone to going broody than others and if you want to hatch your own eggs then this is a distinct advantage. However, as I have the hens for eggs, I want to discourage this if at all possible.

The best way to break a broody hen is to place her in a wire cage. Broodiness is associated with a higher body temperature so it is important that the cage is raised off the floor so that cooler air can circulate around her. A dog crate or rabbit hutch is a good idea. You should supply her with food and water. Three days in the cage should be enough to break the broody cycle.

Chicken toy

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home-made chicken toy

Chickens and chicken toy

To give the chickens something to play with and some sort of mental stimulus, I decided to make them a toy. I’d seen one on Amazon and thought it shouldn’t be that hard to copy. I got an old plastic bottle and punched about 10 square holes with the tip of a sharp knife. Obviously it is important not to make them too big. I then filled it with wheat and waited to see what they made of it.

It didn’t take them long to figure out what to do and the next day they were managing to roll it with their feet.

 

chicken-toy1

Egg update

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seven eggs

A full house

On two days now the 7 hens have each laid an egg. The first time was 24th March 2014 and then they did it again on 26th March 2014.

7-eggs1

They adapted well to life in the new chicken coop. Although there were four eggs boxes attached to their sleeping quarters, they always laid their eggs in the same one diagonally opposite the door.

I was really pleased with the chicken coop I bought when we were back in the UK last November from EGGSHELL. The only modification I will make to it for next year is to attach some pieces of plastic to each section of the run. What’s been happening is that the hens kick out the straw and pigeons come and eat it. I’ve bought the plastic from IKEA (PRÖJS desk pad) and I’ll punch some holes in them and then attach them with cable ties to the inside.

7-eggs2

On 27th March, one of the older hens laid my first double yolker ever.