I just got 7 new laying hens last night (back to 9 birds). We rarely give eggs away.

family of 4.
2 eggs for my lunch every day.
kids breakfast

Dinners:
egg tacos
frittatas
quiche
bibimbap
pad thai
...

banana custard (real custard)
ice cream

5/30/2017 9:38:22 PM

I've got 12 rhode island reds. We're doing plenty of hard boiled eggs and quiches for storage, but they keep accumulating. I'd like to find a food group to trade eggs for lettuce or other food possibly. I can always give them away to coworkers in the meantime.

5/31/2017 12:04:03 AM

production will go down when it gets super hot outside and the hens get some age on them

5/31/2017 1:24:54 AM

I'm in Morrisville, and have 11 hens, 1 rooster, and 1 Egg Laying duck that thinks it is a chicken (hatched by a hen).

They stay in a 10x10 open covered shed that I converted to a coop by surrounding in poultry wire.

We regularly give eggs away to family, friends, teachers and as thank you's when relevant, and still have plenty to eat for ourselves.

I have a 2 egg and cheese toast sandwich every morning - SOOO GOOOD. We make German Pancakes regularly (using the duck eggs). Other baked goods all utilize the duck eggs (apparently they are the best eggs for baking because of higher protein level).

No permits needed in morrisville, just need to be out of an HOA, LOL. They free range around the property and only eat about $1 worth of food a day total, and all of our kitchen scraps. They also eat all the roaches around the house, other bugs, ticks, etc. Great productive pets

If you ever are driving south on Davis drive in morrisville, you may see them on the right searching for bugs in our yard (our property has about 500ft of davis drive frontage).

[Edited on May 31, 2017 at 10:18 AM. Reason : .]

5/31/2017 10:16:43 AM

I'm in North Raleigh near Glenwood/Crabtree. Down to 4 chickens now, (3 pullets and 1 very resilient but slightly assholish hen). The hen murdered 3 pullets that we introduced at the beginning of the spring so we've had to separate her and she's in "solitary" in the small coop which is basically a repurposed dog house with a run attached (it's actually quite nice). The hawks have been murdering what the hen hasn't so we're keeping the birds in the coops for the most part except for the times that we're hanging out in the back yard. The dog does manage to scare some predators away, but he's only effective when he's out there, and he's not an exclusively outside dog.

5/31/2017 10:39:26 AM

A mature flock will be less prone to hawk attacks. I try to keep young birds separated and caged, but visible to the mature birds, until they are old enough to know how to avoid hawks. I will let them out when it's almost time for them to go back in and I am working in the yard, so that they can get some free range foraging time too.

I also keep a fake owl on a post in the backyard. And the rooster always looks out for hawks and sounds the alarm.

5/31/2017 11:33:09 AM

Mine escaped and ate my whole .15 acre garden. Going to murder them

6/2/2017 4:47:50 PM