Two lesbians are living in my garden

jrhartley

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I have two lesbian hens that have set up home together and seem to be taking it in turns to lay eggs around the garden.
My question is how long can an egg be left in the sun before it become inedible, and how can you tell if its fit for consumption, the poor things are trying to hatch them even though there is no sign of a daddy
 
Jun 18, 2007
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I have two lesbian hens that have set up home together and seem to be taking it in turns to lay eggs around the garden.
My question is how long can an egg be left in the sun before it become inedible, and how can you tell if its fit for consumption, the poor things are trying to hatch them even though there is no sign of a daddy

Have them go to a spermbank, quite a few of their sisters do;)
 
"Hens begin laying at 18 ? 20 weeks of age and a healthy chicken will
lay about one egg a day. A hen does not need a rooster to lay eggs
and eggs are produced in response to day light patterns. The eggs we
buy in the store are not fertilized (they don?t hatch). The size of
the egg is dependant on the age of the hen. Older birds lay larger
eggs."
Eggs that are left out in room temperature for more than an hour can begin bacteria growth, they should be refridgerated quickly after being laid.
 

jrhartley

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so really one needs a hen house and to check often for edible eggs, some how I didnt fancy eating them
 

Alyonka

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It is better to find a place somewhere in the shade for their nest. Maybe you can train them to lay eggs where you want them to do it. My grandma would make nests for her hens out of a basket with something soft in it and place those where she wanted. You can actually separate the hens. And it is true that hens don't need to a rooster to lay their eggs. There would be no chickens out of those eggs though. You can tell such an egg by looking at it through the light. It's middle usually of a lighter color than the one with a potential baby chick.
 
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jrhartley

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its on the top of 7 ft wall thats about 4 inches wide.....5 large eggs ans one half the size.
 

Alyonka

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Can you move it some place else and see if they go to lay their eggs there? It is not good for the eggs to be in the sun for a long time.
 

Black Dog

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May 29, 2009
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Perhaps you could move it a little bit at a time. When I was a small boy I found a crate of empty milk bottles in a field and was sure I had found a cow's nest!
 
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Fiesta Mama

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Eggs that are left out in room temperature for more than an hour can begin bacteria growth, they should be refridgerated quickly after being laid.

Well that's what I always thought until I saw that many Dominicans store their eggs out at room temperature and do not refrigerate them (and before anyone suggests that it's because they don't have a refrigerator, that is not the case). Sometimes they aren't even refrigerated at the store when you buy them! I will keep on putting mine in the fridge though... don't want to take any chances.
 

LatinoRican

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Just to keep this thread going for a bit longer...I once had two guinea hens laying together and between them they laid 35 eggs and hatched 28. I also had two ducks laying together and they hatched a bunch of ducklings. In both cases, there must have been an unseen male not too far away....
 

Black Dog

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Just to keep this thread going for a bit longer...I once had two guinea hens laying together and between them they laid 35 eggs and hatched 28. I also had two ducks laying together and they hatched a bunch of ducklings. In both cases, there must have been an unseen male not too far away....

Do you think it was the same male, you know the type, any old bird will do! LOL
 

M.A.R.

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Feb 18, 2006
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OOO so no rooster needed to lay eggs but they do need a rooster to fertilize, right? wow Everyday I saw the rooster step on the hen and I always thought it was the only way a hen would lay an egg. JHartly just make a cover right over the nest so to protect the eggs from heat, Hens don't like their nests moved, they get discouraged to lay eggs.
 

pedrochemical

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so thats why Australians call them chucks....! half chicken half duck lol


Yikes!
I never put eggs in the fridge unless I bought them from the fridge - so never here in the D.R.

Is this an old wives tale that once refrigerated they should stay refrigerated? But if they are not refrigerated they are fine that way?

Snopes does not help here.....
 

el forastero

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Oct 25, 2009
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jrhartley, just take the eggs out of the nest. It won't stop the hens from laying, and if you leave them, eventually they will go bad.

Here's what the egg people say about storage:

STORING
The refrigerator is where you should store your eggs. Fresh uncooked eggs in the shell can be kept refrigerated in their cartons for at least 4 to 5 weeks beyond the pack date. Properly handled and stored, eggs rarely "spoil". If you keep them long enough, they are more likely to simply dry up! But, don't leave eggs out. They'll age more in 1 day at room temperature than they will in 1 week in the refrigerator.

FRESHNESS
How recently an egg was laid has a bearing on its freshness but is only one of many factors. The temperature at which it is held, the humidity and the handling all play their part. These variables are so important that an egg one week old, held under ideal conditions, can be fresher than an egg left at room temperature for one day. The ideal conditions are temperatures that don't go above 40?F. (4?C.) and a relative humidity of 70 to 80%.

SALMONELLA
Although the inside of the egg was once considered almost sterile, Salmonella enteritidis (Se) has been found recently inside a small number of eggs (much less than 1%). If an egg does contain Se, the numbers in a freshly laid egg probably will be small and, if the eggs are properly refrigerated, will not multiply enough to cause illness in a healthy person.

Se will not grow at temperatures below 40?F. and is killed at 160?F., known as the danger zone, are ideal for rapid growth.
 

M.A.R.

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Feb 18, 2006
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Well my mom always left "el nidal" an egg in the nest, she claimed the hen would not lay eggs if there wasn't one there already.
 

Shiraz72

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Feb 10, 2010
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Well that's what I always thought until I saw that many Dominicans store their eggs out at room temperature and do not refrigerate them (and before anyone suggests that it's because they don't have a refrigerator, that is not the case). Sometimes they aren't even refrigerated at the store when you buy them! I will keep on putting mine in the fridge though... don't want to take any chances.

That's true, and if you go to a flea market or antique shop you find those wire baskets country folks used to keep their eggs in out on the counter...when people didn't have fridges at home.... my grandparent's house in the country didn't have indoor plumbing or electricity until the 1970s and they survived... Although now that we have choices, it's better not to take chances.
 
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