Keeping hens and ducks chat.

edwink

StarShapedPeg wrote: »

Hi Edwink and all,
A little update on my hens! Our little blind hen died in August. You might remember, we suspected she might have had a stroke which caused her to go blind but she survived for over a year. We were hand feeding her and sitting her over a shallow water dish so she could drink. She had a nice summer and we used to put her in the shade with the others so she could bathe in the dust and used to scratch around with the others.
I went out on a Saturday morning and she wouldn’t get up from her perch so I placed her in the nest box, so at least she could lie down. The other two were hovering around her constantly. We gave her some water via a syringe but she was very tired and really just slept. By the afternoon she’d died.
We were devastated. After looking after her for so long suddenly we’re were left with two fully functional hens. They went around in a stuper for days calling her, looking for her but gradually got used to being just in a two. It was very sad. She was an amazing chicken. She was incredibly clever and resilient, she used to run the length of the garden for sunflower seeds. Sweet tempered, knew exactly what she wanted, and used to sit on our laps just to be closer to us. I miss her terribly, gardening is boring without her, the other two are content watching me from the sidelines but she was always fussing around us. She used to follow DH when he mowed the lawn literally walked behind him up and down the garden, like a shadow. Anyway, Autumn is rolling in and winter wouldn’t have been much fun for her and I know it was time to say goodbye.
Hope everyone else’s flock is well.:A

Awww bless her little heart. I know you did all you could for her and she a had a wonderful life despite her blindness disability. So lovely of you as a caring hen owner to spend extra time with her to help her along in life. The thought of her being put in the shade with the other two so she could dust bathe with them brought a little tear to my eye. RIP little sweet hen.

What a lovely caring hen owner you are :j x x x

Edwink

edwink

jac99 wrote: »

So sorry for your loss StarShapedPeg, however it sounds that you gave her an amazing quality of life.
So, eggs...I have always kept mine in the fridge but recently have discovered this is a little contentious and many people don't refrigerate eggs. What do you consider is the "shelf life" of freshly laid eggs?
While we quite easily eat all that our little flock produces, either simply as eggs and used in baking, I have been trying ways to preserve them for longer. Pickling seems to be a hit but salt curing hasn't been so popular. Does anyone do anything else to extend the life of their eggs?

I have always understood that the shelf life of a freshly laid egg is around 6 weeks. We never keep ours in the fridge but just put them straight in boxes as they are laid to keep them in a freshness order before they are wanted by friends/neighbours etc. If a box is still remaining we will use those ourselves but always test them by putting them in a bowl of water to see if they stay at the bottom. If they float they are off.

We only have 3 hens now but before this we used to make egg and tomato curry which is absolutely lovely and so cheap to make. You can easily freeze it but when reheated the eggs have a slightly harder texture but it is sill lovely. Shall miss that this winter now we don't have as many eggs going spare.

Not sure what else you can do with them to be honest. Maybe some others on here might have a few useful ideas for you.

Edwink

StarShapedPeg

Thank you jac99 and Edwink.

Cheery_Daff

Evening chicken friends! :hello:

So sorry to read about your loss StarhapedPeg. How very sad But you gave her a good life xxx

Jac99, I know nothing about preserving eggs! I know a friend used to freeze hers cracked into ice cube trays - obviously you can't boil or fry them afterwards, but they go into cakes We haven't had enough to do anything else with yet!

SO windy here at the minute. We've propped boards up round the girls' run as they were just getting buffetted about yesterday so much, it was ridiculous. It's quite calm in there now thank goodness. I let them out last night and they didn't seem too impressed by the wind :rotfl: Three stayed close but Hermione wandered off into one of the fields and just refused to be caught :eek: None of them have ever run away from me that much, took me ages to get her back in! It was after 6.30 by the time I caught her - the others were inside the hen house going to bed! Pesky creature. Don't know whether she was spooked by the wind or just being a madam because I've been at work all week so they've only been out for about half an hour or so each evening before it goes dark...

Today I let them out for a good two or three hours while I was pottering around outside - again though it was really windy and none of them went very far. After a while I came back and they were all sheltering inside the run anyway so I shut them back in so I could stop worrying about them :rotfl:

Might go and give them another hour outside now before it goes dark.

And I MUST order some food! I ordered a load of stuff a couple of weeks ago but it transpires that FOOD wasn't actually in there... There's enough for another week or two so no great rush but I must do it today. What do you feed your girls? I've got corn for evening treats, but for food they've been having layers pellets from the British Hen Welfare Trust. Might just reorder those and figure out a more local place later. I want them delivered - it's miles to anywhere from here so I'm increasingly being in favour of home delivery! :rotfl:

Pyxis

edwink wrote: »

Talking of hens combs. In the really cold weather and I mean freezing weather you can coat their combs in Vaseline as this will help them to retain heat. Think of it like us wearing a hat on a cold day keeping us warmer. Heat is lost through the combs so coating in Vaseline will help to keep your girls warm. Not always easy catching them and as a rule a 2 person job but always worth doing if it is bitter cold outside.

Edwink

Of course, you could always knit them a little hat............

Pyxis

Re. freezing eggs......I always thought you had to separate the whites and yolks before freezing, but a couple of sources say you can just break the whole egg into a container and freeze it.

Some say to beat the egg before freezing and one place just froze the egg without beating it.

Once defrosted, they can be used for omelettes or scrambled.


You can also freeze hard-boiled yolks.......... (to use crumbled as garnishes) .......


"You can freeze hard-boiled egg yolks to use later for toppings or garnishes. Carefully place the yolks in a single layer in a saucepan and add enough water to come at least 1 inch above the yolks. Cover and quickly bring just to boiling. Remove the pan from the heat and let the yolks stand, covered, in the hot water about 12 minutes. Remove the yolks with a slotted spoon, drain them well and package them for freezing. It’s best not to freeze hard-boiled whole eggs and hard-boiled whites because they become tough and watery when frozen."

More info here.......
https://www.incredibleegg.org/eggcyclopedia/f/freezing-eggs/





I'm wondering if you can scramble eggs and cook them and then freeze them?
Or make omelettes and freeze them?
Dunno......... perhaps someone could experiment and report back? (I rarely eat eggs, so don't look at me! )

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, love the idea of freezing yolks to crumble onto things! If we ever end up with more than we can eat I'll do that :j

At the minute we have 9, and I had four in an omelette for lunch Just about to use a few making some kind of vegetable bake type thing :j

Had another hour and a half outside with the ladies this evening, blowing about. Sadly my plastic greenhouse had flipped over in the wind so I spent most of the time dismantling that for the winter (it's not too damaged) and collecting all the plastic pots to throw them in the garage :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

Evening chicken friends :hello: hope you and your ladies are all getting along nicely :j

All good here. Far from going off lay, our girls seem to be having a productivity boom! Four eggs Friday, four Saturday, three yesterday and another four today from just four hens! No idea what's going on. They've only been out of the stable for about three or four weeks so maybe for them it's just the increased daylight??

Nearly lost Hermione this evening :eek: if any of them get eaten it's going to be her :eek: the other three stick together and don't go far but if you turn your back for a few minutes she's usually wandered off to the far side of a field :eek: fortunately we found and retrieved her but I might have to be more vigilant in future. I worry about her not being able to find her way back

Other than that all good. My mum was here at the weekend and we gave them a proper clear out, house scrubbed, bedding/hay/muck turfed out of the run, feeder ad water bowl scrubbed, food store emptied, washed and refilled, mite powder restocked.

We're meant to be in for a cold spell at the weekend - do you do anything special for your girls when it's cold?

Pyxis

Hallo, Cheery! I was just wondering how people were doing! You must be psychic!
Plus I've been a way for a bit, and am going away again soon!

jac99

Good evening, we also had a big clean out at the weekend, brush and scrub up. My little frizzle was not happy with the change and refused to go back in the coop by herself so had to be carried in.

I have been giving them some porridge in the morning as suggested by Edwink and they seem to enjoy that. I have also hung a tarpaulin on one side of the coop to keep out the worst of the rain, not exactly waterproof but hopefully will provide them with a dry area. I can also roll it up on brighter days.

We tried the egg and tomato curry Edwink, definitely something we will try again but the children said they preferred me to use the eggs for cakes!