Feeding Chickens Eggs - Nutrition Part 1

Chickens Eating Eggs?

Yes! Chickens love to eat eggs, it is one of their favorite treats and it is good for them!

Now some people might be a little weirded out by the thought of feeding chickens eggs, and I'd guess anyone would feel weird feeding chickens their own eggs - until you really think about it. We aren't turning our chickens in to little cannibals, the eggs we feed are unfertilized. When a baby chick is growing in an egg they feed off of the yolk. The contents of the egg are what baby chick grow from! What better source of nutrition can you ask for?

Benefits

• Poopy Butt - It has been a while since we've had to worry about poopy butt! Baby chicks have a hard time adjusting to new environments and to eating chicken starter. The first few weeks of their lives are stressful. We ordered our chicks online, which means they were shipped to us. I can only imagine how stressful that was for them. One of the great benefits of feeding your chickens eggs is it helps with this transition. It keeps them from getting their digestive system plugged up. We hard boiled eggs and crumbled the yolk up and put it in their chick starter. Their poopy butt was gone within a day!
• Easy and affordable treat - If you're raising laying hens then you will have plenty of eggs to go around. Save a few to cook up for your hens. This makes for a very affordable treat. We often just give our breakfast scraps to the hens. They love it!
• Tons of nutrition - great source of protein, beta carotene, vitamin A and vitamin E. Making feathers and laying eggs are nutrient sucking activities that our hens are always actively doing. They need the extra protein.

Cook them up first!

I've always fed my chickens cooked eggs. Usually I give them just the yolk of a hard boiled egg. They also love the left overs of a scrambled egg. I've read that if you give them raw eggs they will develop the habit of cracking open eggs before you collect them. I don't want my hens learning that bad behavior so I am sticking to cooked eggs only. If you only feed them cooked and outside of the shell they won't associate this lovely treat with the eggs they lay.

Egg Shells

Some people add oyster shells to their chicken feed to increase calcium intake for their laying hens. I save my egg shells! When I realized I can give the egg shells to the hens I started saving them in a bowl to go toss in the coop. They eat them up! It is way to easy to resist. I love any chance I can get to be self sufficient and use what I have. Every time I toss the shells to the chickens instead of in the garbage I feel a sense of accomplishment! Tip: If you're worried about developing an egg eating habit, ground up the shells to make a power to sprinkle on their feed.

Please share your thoughts or photos of your chickens enjoying eggs!

100 Days Old! Update

Happy 100th Day of Life! 

Our precious girls are so grown up. We are eagerly checking for eggs each day. They are living in their new chicken tractor that they love and have developed a great routine. Each morning before work I let down the ramp at around 7am they all slide down the ramp and check for any new snack I may have brought them. I check their water and leave them for the day. When I get home for work they are all out sunbathing. The other day Bromley was actually laying on her side with her legs kicked straight out. They have started digging up the dirt and creating little dust bathes to roll around in. 

Bedtime

They've created their own bedtime. At around 7pm every night they all one by one make their way up into the coop. I'd say within a few minutes they are all tucked in for the night. I just have to wait for them to get up in the coop on their roost and then close up the ramp for them. We added a hook on the ramp so that they can't stand on it and open it themselves in the morning. They figured out how to do that really quick!

They Love Their Roost

I've noticed that their roost is very important to them. At first 9 of the 10 girls we had in there would roost and they would kick poor Mara off. She would stand and look at the roost longingly. Eventually they made room for her. It worked out perfectly that then 10 hens fit snug on the roost. They all sleep on the roost, facing the wall. They will not jump off the roost for ANYTHING once they jump up their for the night. I even tried tempting them with worms. I've pushed one off to see how it would react and she was not happy. They really take their roosting seriously. Another thing I have noticed is they roost in the same exact order almost EVERYTIME they all get up there. Weird huh?

Anatomy

Something that has always been interesting to me is seeing how our different breeds grow and develop differently. They each have different features. Our Leghorns have huge combs and the Orpington's are huge. The Easter Eggers have different ears. What I have begin to notice now is differences between chickens of the SAME breed. Some of them have more prominent features than others. For example, our Golden Laced Wyandottes have different combs and different red colors in their feathers. I am a little concerned they might be different genders.  I will be posting side by side photos of some chicken anatomy with my next big update post. My next few posts however, will be about chicken feeding guidelines.

Chicken Feeding

After 100 days of feeding chickens I have learned a lot about what they can and cannot eat. I am still researching all the time though. This is my first time having chickens but I have had many pets and I know all animals have different nutritional needs and tolerances to foods. It might be okay for our bunnies and toxic to our chickens - so I double check everything. My next few posts will be about Chicken Feeding. I hope you enjoy - please feel free to comment on my posts with any of your favorite chicken treats or warnings on foods you know aren't so great for our girls!
My first post of the feeding series is about feeding your hens eggs.

Remember to keep an eye on our Progress Pages to see how our hens are growing:

Progress Pages:

Spider
Meeko
Ayden
Seraphina
Helen
Buff Orpingtons
Brown Leghorns
Silver Laced Wyandottes 
Golden Laced Wyandottes

Rabbits - Flemish Giants
Ducks - Rouen and Cayuga

Have a Happy Fourth of July

Small Animal Independence Day Safety

I am looking forward to spending my first fourth of July with my chickens, ducks and bunnies. I am excited to see how they respond to the sights, sounds and smells. So this got me thinking on how I should prepare my animals and make sure everything goes smoothly. Here is what I found:

1. Eating Garbage is Bad
   It might be a good idea to set up an exercise pen for your small animals as there will inevitably be tons of fun things for them to inspect, peck at and nibble on. Stray fireworks, wrapper, matches and who knows what will be left on the ground and all about. Unless you are a super crazy cleaner and think you can pick up every dangerous scrap before your chicken tries to attack the shiny on the ground - keep them confined to a debris free area.


2. Fourth of July = Smoke and Fumes
   Small animals need fresh air, oxygen, ventilation and not to be suffocated with smoke. Make sure your enclosure, pen, coop, is not down wind of your fire pit, firework show or grill.


3. Plenty of Shade
   I am praying for a hot and sunny Fourth of July so that I can play in the sun, get my tan on and enjoy grilling outside. Remember that small animals are sensitive to heat. Make sure they have plenty of shade and extra water. You don't want to have to check their water in the middle of your firework extravaganza. Also, although this might seem obvious, don't apply any sunscreen or bug repellent to any animal that is not specifically marked for that species.
    


4. Our Junk Food is Junk for Small Animals Too
   Avoid passing the left overs and scraps to your small animals. While it is cute to see them try new foods, chances are most of your holiday treats will not be good for them and might possibly be toxic. If in doubt, don't feed it to them! Remind your guests too :)


5. Fireworks are Loud
   This was my main concern when I first thought of fourth of July safety. When I was little we always brought our bunnies inside when there were fireworks or if we knew there was going to be a storm. I was always afraid of my bunnies dying of shock from the loud noises. From what I have read, most chickens don't seem to care. I am still going to keep an eye on them and make sure they don't get too freaked out. I am also going to set off a few small fireworks before anyone arrives (and a little at a time over a few days before the fourth) to get them used to the sudden pops, whistles and bangs.
   *BUNNIES* Bunnies can get very stressed in new situations, which includes loud noises. I recommend bringing your bunnies inside, in a quiet room, away from the festivities. Put on music, or the television to create constant sound. This will give them something to associate the noise with and help them relax. While fireworks and thunderstorms don't often frighten bunnies to death they can die of shock if they get really stressed. Stress can cause a heart attack or gastrointestinal stasis which is a common cause of death in rabbits.

Pictures are Mandatory 
Finally, remember to take pictures. It is necessary, for everyone's happiness, that you take many cheesy Fourth of July pictures of your little critters dressed for the occasion. Here are some of ours, please share yours!

Spider - Always the first to join the fun!

Bromley lookin proud

She loves to perch and puff out her feathers with the good old American Pride! She was great about having the necklaces on but did peck at them a bit.

She sat up on the coop patiently while I took a million pictures of her. She really is such a sweetie. It is nice to have chickens you can do absolutely anything with. She made the task of rounding up the other chickens seem much harder.

I went ahead and let her down to explore and run around with the dogs while I took pictures of the other hens. She was super calm. She investigated a little but mostly just found her way back to the coop and looked longingly through the fence to get back in. 

Bromley and the dogs.

Helen.

Helen got real scary looking when I was dressing her up. She looks almost like a vulture or something.

Road Runner

The Brown Leghorns or as we call them "Road Runners" were hard to catch as usual. They kept jumping up on the edge of the fence to the run. I wouldn't trust them to come back if I let them free in the yard. I decided it would be best to hold them for picture time.

Meeko and Ayden - Easter Eggers

Seraphina - Easter Egger

Seraphina is usually really sweet but you can see she was given me a bit of an attitude. She didn't want anything to do with my props and tried to choke herself with the necklace. I had to dig it out of her feathers and get her claws off it in order to get it off. Then she just stared at the wall, away from the camera. What a brat! She sure knows how to give a dirty look.

Have a super fun and super safe Fourth of July! We will let you know how ours turns out!