All About Silkies, Nigerian Dwarf Goats & More
Can you freeze eggs? You might be asking yourself this if you have backyard chickens who are laying more eggs than you can eat. Or, if you have found a banging sale on eggs and you know that building a stockpile is one way to save boatloads of money.
You can freeze LOTS of different foods to help preserve them for later use. Some examples are: freezing sweet potatoes, freezing mashed potatoes, freezing peppers and freezing milk.
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If you have decided to start with backyard chickens, you are probably trying to learn all that you can about your new animals! Most people keep chickens for eggs, so you might be wondering – how long do chickens lay eggs?
When we got our first chickens, we did research on the different chicken breeds and we learned what to look for when our chickens would start to lay. However, at the start of our chicken keeping adventure, we did not ask how many eggs does a chicken lay.
You may also wonder do roosters lay eggs?
After having our chickens for a little while, one Spring we found that we had much less in the way of eggs than we had in previous years. We knew how often chickens typically lay eggs and we just weren’t getting that many.
Hmm, we started to wonder why we had a decrease in egg production.
As we started to go through the list of decreases, we realized that it was not a matter of health or environmental components. Rather, it was the pure age of our layers.
When looking to find out the answer to how long do chickens lay eggs, the real question is how many eggs does a chicken lay. You see, chickens are born (or hatched) with a set number of eggs.
This means that a chicken can only lay up to the amount they they are hatched with. Many times other factors – health, predators etc – prevent them from laying all of their eggs.
Good egg production chickens will lay between 200 and 300 eggs for their first two years. After their first two years they will start to drastically decrease the amount of eggs that they lay.
A chicken doesn’t just stop laying eggs, but there are signs to look for to see if your hen has either stopped production or is close to stopping production. So, once your hen hits the two year mark she may still lay some, but it will not be as steady as her prime years.
No, there is not absolutely precise answer to the question of how long do chickens lay eggs. You can make the assumption that after age two, egg production is likely to dramatically decrease.
Figuring out how long your chickens will lay eggs, you should also take into account the breed. Breeds that are mass producers tend to lay much heavier in the beginning of their lives and therefore have much more dramatic slow downs as they get older.
Breeds that are a more moderate producer may continue to be a low to moderate producer a bit after the two year mark because they have not completely depleted their egg reserve in the first two years. They will definitely slow down their laying at two years though.
One of the variables that effects the average numbers when talking about the question of how long do chickens lay eggs is that most commercial egg producers cull their layers around age 2.
As we have discussed, there is a production drop off at that age and for commercial producers that makes it not economical to keep those hens around.
In terms of backyard chickens, many backyard chicken keepers will keep hens around whether or not they are pumping out the eggs. Also, backyard chicken keepers sometimes have heavy producing breeds like sex links and leghorns, but often times have dual purpose breeds and other more moderate producers.
As we discussed above, these more moderate producers will produce longer since they are not laying all their eggs by age two. We have some older girls in our layer flock – aged about 5 – who still give us an occasional egg.
So, exactly how long do chickens lay eggs? They lay really well from point of lay until around age 2. But moderate layers can continue to produce decently until older ages 4 or 5.
Make sure to take these facts into account when deciding which chicken breeds you want to get. Do you want mass producers that will dry up around age 2? If so, will you cull them and get new birds then?
Do you want moderate producers that may lay less eggs overall, but will lay longer and will lessen the need to cull and replace as often?
What do goats eat?
“Anything!”, I can hear you yell at your screen.
Tin cans, newspapers, old license plates…they’re basically nature’s garbage disposal. Right?
This is a common misconception about goats. Unfortunately, it is also a dangerous misconception as many people believe this way which can lead to serious injury or even death for some goats.
You want your goats to be happy and healthy. So if they aren’t a biological dumpster, what can goats eat? I’m glad you asked.
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I don’t know about you, but I looooove Mexican food. In fact, I would say I eat some form of Mexican cuisine almost every day of the week. One of my absolute favorite things to eat is a Chipotle burrito bowl.
One reason I can eat it so often is because it is super cheap, easy to make, and quick to cook in the Instant Pot. Want to learn how you too can eat a delicious, cheap, and healthy meal as often as you like? Keep on reading!
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We are so excited to welcome a guest post this week! Goat milk soap is a great product that you can easily make at home. Below, you will find an awesome recipe so that you can make your own. But first, a little about our guest poster.
Kelly is the creator of SimpleLifeMom.com and author of The Natural Soap Making Book for Beginners. She’s been making homemade bath and beauty products for almost 15 years (find them in her shop) and regularly shares recipes to replace unhealthy and overly processed foods and home products with handmade and healthy items that anyone can make.
I’m so excited to share with you a recipe from my new book, The Natural Soapmaking Book for Beginners. I’ve put together over 55 recipes, as well as soap tutorials and charts for coloring and decorating soap naturally with herbs and nourishing ingredients.
This recipe is for a goat milk and honey soap. Both goat milk and honey are wonderful ingredients for soap making because they make a bubbly bar that moisturizes as it cleanses.
Goat milk is high in vitamins, minerals, and is naturally anti-bacterial. It also has a lot of alpha-hydroxy acids that naturally break down bonds between live and dead skin, helping to cleanse your skin beautifully and help your skin look stronger and healthier.
Honey is another wonderful ingredient. It makes great bubbles in a bar and is a natural humectant. A humectant can actually absorb moisture from the air and help it to cling to your skin in a light, nourishing way.
I tried to design all of my recipes with ingredients that are easy to come by (like lard and olive oil) and, of course, good for you. I hope you really enjoy this gentle, moisturizing goat milk and honey soap recipe.
Yield: 3 pounds or twelve 4-ounce bars
Lye Discount: 15%
Label: Moisturizing,
Start to Finish Time: 2 hours, 24 hours in mold, 4 to 6 weeks to cure
Scent: Orange
Though a Castile bar was the first soap recipe I made, I dreamed of making a Goat Milk and Honey Soap bar. Well, here it is. Using milk and honey in a recipe means you need to be aware of a few more things, but it’s pretty easy once you get the hang of it. Enjoy the many nourishing benefits of this soap!
Equipment list:
Large stainless steel pot
large spoon
scale
bowls for measuring ingredients
thermometer
stick blender
small zip top bag
glass or plastic bowl for lye water
mold
parchment paper
rubber spatula
measuring spoons
Ingredients:
Safety First!
Remember to wear your safety equipment and mix the lye water outside.
Tell everyone you live with that where you’re working is off limits.
Give yourself enough time to complete the recipe.
Prep Ahead: Combine the water and milk in a large glass, plastic, or stainless steel container. Place milk-water into the freezer for 1 to 2 hours. It is okay if a slush forms, as long as it doesn’t freeze. The colder your milk-water, the lighter your soap will be after adding the lye.
Instructions:
Tips: Milk can scald when lye is added. Placing the milk-water in the freezer until it’s very cold helps prevent this. Be sure to add lye slowly. It is okay to really take your time, coming back every 20 minutes to add a little more. Adding milk can also make your batch get hotter than usual, so just insulate a milk recipe lightly with a towel if you’re concerned about getting a good gel for color. Honey can also make soap come to trace faster, so add it and blend really well right before pouring soap into the mold.
For a limited time, when you preorder my book, The Natural Soapmaking Book for Beginners, you can also get a Collection of Free Soap Making Bonuses. Within this bonus collection is:
You can learn more and get these Bonuses by going HERE.
We were SO excited when our friend Kelly at Simple Life Mom gave us the opportunity to review her new book – Natural Soapmaking for Beginners. We have dabbled some in soapmaking, but there is SO much to learn and it can be hard to find the exact information that you are looking for!
If you think you may want to learn about soapmaking, if you definitely want to get started making soap or even if you are already a soapmaker and want to further your learning, Natural Soapmaking for Beginners is a great resource….
