[Oliveview]

I thought the young hens (5 of them) were too young to lay eggs, I´ve had them for about 6 weeks now.  The older hens (5) have been laying for around 11 months.  This morning hubby went and fetched the 2 eggs laid first thing, he´s just been down to check and there are another 4 eggs- 2 of which are quite small.  So maybe the younger hens are laying after all   I´ve seen no sign of them in the nesting box so if they are they are quick workers.  
Pamela

[Jellyhead]

I thinks a hen lays an egg every 23 hours That was a nice surprise on Easter Sunday  

[NormandyMary]

Out of my 12 girls, 3 of which are fairly old now, Im getting between 7 and 8 eggs a day, and I wish I had more friends to sell them to! Heaven only knows how many Ill get when the summer comes. Pickled egg anyone?

[Oliveview]

I know how you feel Normandy Mary- I´ve got 21 eggs in the fridge at the moment.  When the neighbour had her hens she managed to sell eggs to locals- I think they had no choice but to buy from her  she kind of  ´told´ them she had eggs for them to buy
Pamela  (on another break!!)

[Viv]

Can you sell them from your gate with an honesty box? I do give a lot of mine to neighbours - feel that it stops any complaints due to my Rooster in the bud. In the summer when I have a lot more I am going to sell at my gate

[poultrygeist]

We were going to sell a few but I'm loathe to draw too much attention in case people either take umbrage or it attracts human vermin ( :? ) who may want to get a closer look.

Our neigbours have refused any, the other side we avoid because he is paranoid about rats and would see them as an excuse to complain.

My parents have half a dozen every now and then but otherwise poor Julie is cooking anything she can think of with eggs in. Every omelette has to have at least 3 in it !!

Rob

[Viv]

Its really difficult when neighbours are so anti. There are rats everywhere, in fact this year there is a rat explosion, yes, they will come where there is food, but its not just our beloved hens that can attract vermin, what about the bins behind houses and also behind food shops and restaurants. The only way to deter vermin is to set poison down and keep replenishing.
We are lucky in one respect that due to the horse population with stables around us there are rats. We make a point of letting people know that we bait if they ask about rats. There are some,  and I refer to the ignorant about country life brigade that would have a seizure if they saw a rat, however walking up the road the other day I saw a rat run from behind our local pub chased by a mob of angry birds. They have rat traps down which every one can see, but no one bats an eyelid, but, if as I said, some  of these uninformed about country life saw one on our field they would say  it was us. Yet, in my opinion we are showing a duty of care to rid our land of the vermin and to have healthy hens and I have yet to see a live rat on the field.  We followed all the advice on the forum and so far so good.

Could you make cakes and sell to a local shop/ cafe/ reatauant as locally produced food?

[Brambles]

Sadly I do not have the same problem (overloaded with eggs), my 2 little silkies only lay one egg a day between them, they are not very large eggs so 3 eggs are about the same as 2 in a cake!   Often have to wait a while till the egg mountain gets big enough to bake.   But I do love my little ladies Alice and Lily, also their fella Barry.