Hens – One Year On
Posted: Mon 17 November, 2008 Filed under: Animals, Domestic 6 Comments »It’s amazing to think that it’s already a year since we got our hens – and I still haven’t actually put up any photos of them, as promised in that linked post. And in fact, it’s a year today that we got the first eggs from them – and since then, we’ve averaged at least two eggs a day for the entire time.
In fact, the only reason we haven’t averaged three eggs a day is because Gladys has gone broody three times this year. We knew when we bought them that the Light Sussex was prone to going broody, so it’s not really been an issue anyway, but it’s just impressive (to me, anyway) that the main thing that has stopped any of the hens from laying has been a natural biological imperative.
All the books we got when we first started thinking about chickens warned that the birds would moult every year (and thus not lay for anywhere from 1 to 4 weeks) so we were expecting that, and it’s never happened. We actually expected far less egg-laying than has actually happened, what with expectations of moults, all hens going broody, laying seasons and the like.
We’ve been really pleased with having the hens – and as we’re now looking at upgrading the hen house, it looks like we’ll be getting more hens in the new year. That should be fun – so long as we can sell the increased numbers of eggs somewhere, we’ll be fine.
I can’t beleive it’s a year either! If you can’t sell the increased egg numbers from the door (eg honesty box outside) – I don’t know what passing traffic you have or whether lots of others people around you have hens – could you sell them at work?
Yeah, it’s possible – there are a number of options, including roadside stall + honesty box, or possibly even getting the local shop to take them. Don’t know yet, and it’ll be a few weeks yet before we decide…
Just don’t sell them too cheaply! Look at the price of free range in the shops and price accordingly… I get really cross with people round here who sell a dozen for £1 as the hens cost more than that to feed, before you take account of replacement housing, bedding etc over time.
We’re currently selling ours for £1.30 a half dozen (but I do feed organic layers pellets).
I don’t think you can sell through shops these days unless you register and meet stupid standards.
Officially, now, you can’t say ‘free range, organic’ on your labels or signs unless you are officially registered, but one can get round it by saying, eg “Eggs from hens kept in a free-range system, and fed a diet of organic food’.
If you do sell from an honesty box, I’d suggest keeping relevant receipts (eg for feed etc) in case the tax man ever pays a visit and you need to prove that costs > sales and as such don’t require to have been declared.
I suspect we’d do them for about the same price.
As for organic feed, we use Marriages’ Layer’s Mash , which I *think* is organic, but I’m not certain. I can always look on the Marriages site, I suppose…
Ah, the answer is “Yes”, they are organic. Thought they were, but wasn’t sure.
Why do you feed mash rather than pellets? (but yes, I agree it’s the best on the market)
Well, two reasons really.
1) The Girls prefer it – we’ve tried them with pellets, but they don’t seem to want to eat pellets.
2) One of the books I got pre-Girls recommended mash, as you don’t necessarily know what’s being used as a binding agent for the pellets.
But primarily 1, rather than 2.