Impatient for eggs? Raise the Golden Comet chicken

I have mentioned a time or two how much I loved rising the chicken breed Golden Comet. Since they are such a great breed, I decided it's time they get their own post! These hens are well known for their ability to start laying at around 4 months and lay an egg almost every day for several years! Plus they are widely available now and a friendly addition to any flock!

I bought my first comet at a feed store and the only reason I picked her was because I wanted a colorful chicken. I had hatched a bunch of black copper Marans and they all looked like little ravens. I couldn't tell them apart yet and I wanted something different. Golden comets are buff colored chicks that become a gold or a cinnamon colored adult with some variation of lighter feathers in the tail. 

Actually, I have seen pictures of golden comets with a few black feathers in the tail, but none of mine ever had that.

Comets fall into a category called 'production' egg layers. Over the years they have been selectively bred to lay more often and be less broody. They were originally created for factory farms but have moved into backyard chicken keeping in the last 15 years or so. They lay better in winter than most other breeds I've raised!

They are a sex-link breed which means the males and females are easily distinguishable at hatch. This makes them a favorite with hatcheries as many people only buy pullets.

How to become a crazy chicken lady

Chicken keeping has exploded in popularity lately It seems like everybody knows somebody who's raising backyard chickens for eggs! Most people are content to just have a few chickens, enjoy their eggs and that's it. Of course there's those of us that take it to extreme. Enter the crazy chicken lady! 

You would think to become a crazy chicken lady all you would have to do is raise a few chickens...but there's so much more to it than that! Just being a chicken lady isn't enough, you have to make sure everyone else knows it too! 

Kind of like the crazy cat lady of the chicken world. We go above and beyond in our chicken keeping obsession, but you too can become a crazy chicken lady in just six easy steps!

How to : Freezing raw eggs

I finally started taking all the eggs off my silkie hens at least twice a day! You cannot leave an egg in with silkies because it takes about 6 hours before one of them decides she's broody and she's gonna hatch that egg! *rolls eyes* I mean, sometimes a silkie hen will even decide to try to hatch the floor, but it's less likely for her to go broody if there are no eggs sitting in the coop.

Quite frankly I have had it with chicks this year! I just took the last 20 to auction and I do not want anymore. So I decided to start taking their eggs everyday and very quickly found myself with several dozen little silkie eggs.

Related reading: How often should you collect eggs?

I currently have nine silkie hens, so the eggs add up fast! I also have six Marans hens, so I really don't need this many eggs. At least not right now. I decided I better preserve some and what easier way to preserve fresh chicken eggs then by freezing them?

Easy to raise poultry (besides chickens)

I've been raising poultry since 2009 and through the years I have raised lots of different types of poultry. Some of these worked out really well and others not so much! When choosing other poultry to raise it's important to note how many eggs they will actually lay, because they're not all the same!

For instance most people think that a goose is a lot like a duck. I mean they're not wrong in certain aspects but if you're looking at egg laying, a goose only lays about 30 - 50 eggs each year whereas a duck can lay 300! That's a big difference, especially if you're raising them for eating eggs! 

Related reading: Comparing size and nutrition of different types of poultry eggs! Ducks, chickens, turkeys and more!

Now if you're raising them to hatch those eggs and sell the babies, then many goslings demand a higher price than ducklings so the goose might actually be a better choice.

Can you raise a chicken alone?

I've received several emails from readers lately asking if it's okay to raise a chicken by itself? Some of these chickens are being raised in the house as pets, but others are being raised outside in a coop by themselves. I have had a chicken inside my house form time to time and I have to say, it depends on the situation.

By nature chickens are flock animals. They do best in a group. When somebody asks me what the ideal flock size is I always say to have a minimum of five chickens in a flock. This is with or without a rooster.

Also when choosing flock size you'll want to look at how many eggs you need, but that doesn't really matter because they'll lay more in the summer and less in the winter and you'll never really get exactly what you need! Lol