Livestock Wala'au

Ep. 11 Backyard Poultry: Raising Laying Hens

February 07, 2022 Melelani Oshiro & Shannon Sand Season 1 Episode 11
Livestock Wala'au
Ep. 11 Backyard Poultry: Raising Laying Hens
Show Notes Transcript

In this episode we’re going to talk about backyard poultry. Listen in as the hosts talk all about things to consider, how to get started and some other tips on raising laying hens in your backyard. If your just getting started or thinking about it then this episode is for you! Mahalo for listening & hope you will participate in providing feedback about our podcast!

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Shannon Sand:

Today's episode is brought to you by the Western extension Risk Management Education Center, USDA NIFA, and the University of Hawaii College of Tropical ag and human resources and livestock extension.

Melelani Oshiro:

Aloha welcome everyone to the livestock Walaau podcast aim to provide educational support information, guidance and outreach to our livestock stakeholders in Hawaii. We are your hosts Mele Osh

Shannon Sand:

Shannon sand.

Melelani Oshiro:

And today I'm going to talk about backyard poultry. Kind of a bit. Yeah, more specifically. Yeah, raising Lane pullets for backyard. And

Shannon Sand:

so do you want to go into like, I don't know which counties allow it which don't? Are their cities, different districts, things like that.

Melelani Oshiro:

That's I think the biggest thing when you start to think about raising pullets, or layers or any any type of livestock really in your backyard, I think that's your first question is one, how much space do I have to Am I allowed to have it here, because every single county is going to be different. Like even if you go from town to town, it could be different. And pretty much the one kind of similar thing across most counties is that if you're in a residential area, you are almost not allowed to have some type of agriculture production as far as animals or livestock, you really have to check your area. So the first step really is if you want to have animals in that are livestock in your backyard. Poultry, specifically, what we're talking about today is check with your county planning department. And, you know, get the information from there, you can get some of the Hawaii County does have a sort of general list of like your if you know your zoning area. And what it is, if it's, you know, ag five or all that stuff, you can kind of go through this one list, and it does give you some general information. But I would follow that up with an email or call to their to your county department and make sure based on your tax map key, what you're what you're allowed. And

Shannon Sand:

you can have hens but not roosters. I said there's a lot of nuances to it as my understanding.

Melelani Oshiro:

Yeah, and I think even some areas like it's going to depend on how big of your area if it's an egg lot how much you can have to write. And then if you're in an egg area, you say you're on ag lot, but you have an HOA homeowners association, that's another thing to consider. And that's a whole nother ballpark, that's going to be completely dependent on your HOA. So those are kind of your first steps, right? How much area do you have? And what are you allowed to have in the area that you're at? And you know, so say, You're sweet, you're good, you're allowed to have hands roosters, whatever you want, then you can start to kind of think about, Okay, how much space? Do I want to dedicate to them? Exactly what you want for that space that you have? And the other thing to kind of think about too? No, go ahead. What is that?

Shannon Sand:

Oh, I forgot to ask about spacing. So like How much space does like one hand need?

Melelani Oshiro:

Yeah, you know, it kind of depends on the breed that you get, because some are heavier breeds will need a little bit more space. And it's going to depend, if you're going to keep them completely confined are you're going to have a area for them to have a run in confined areas, you need to have at least two to three square foot feet, per bird, maybe a little bit more, if you have some of the heavier, you know, dual purpose breeds like your buff Orpingtons. All those heavier breeds sometimes will need a little bit more space. If you and if you're going to have them in a run saying you're not really doing like a confined feeding operation, then you need a lot more space, you know, you're looking at somewhere between probably, you know, eight to 10 square feet per bird, because they're in sort of a pastured poultry situation, right. And those kinds of things are all going to adjust because some people have yards like,

Shannon Sand:

forgot so that was my other question is is what about like, like, I just have a yard but I know we can have chicken? I also Yeah, I have a lot of questions about this. So keep going.

Melelani Oshiro:

Yeah, and we'll try to you know, I'll try to answer the questions as I go stairs, a little bit of the steps, but pretty much getting started. That's where you want to be. And then you kind of think about your poultry. Right? So we're talking more layer hens, right? pullets pullets in your backyard. So we're talking about it's a lot easier than anything else to Yeah, and it's kind of what a lot of folks are raising in their backyard, sort of pet that is producing food for your family. You know, how much do you want, right? How many eggs do you want per week or whatnot and what you know, how many hens Do you want to be feeding if you're raising them chicks to get to the point where they're laying, you know, each bird you're probably going to go through about 1212 to 14 pounds of feed, per bird per check well, and

Shannon Sand:

it takes six to eight months from chicks is

Melelani Oshiro:

exactly yeah, from chick to lay, you know, eight months old. Yeah. So you're not gonna you're gonna have a long period in between there. So that's the other thing is one decide how many eggs do you want, you know, the initial cost is about 12 pounds of feed per check, before they get their first lay. So, you know, you're you got to think about that, if you're, you know, calculate that across however many you want. And then the equipment to raise those chicks in a brooder. You know, you can go simple, a lot of people use swimming pools, you know, those hard plastic swimming pools have a cover over, you need to make sure you have a light source in there have some type of bedding water and feed right for them. Or, you know, if you're, you can buy some other there's a lot of other commercial birders that you can buy online. So there's a lot of

Shannon Sand:

just that a plastic tub. Or like, Tom had the heat lamp and like exactly, newspapers. So you could Yeah, it could change it out every day. Yeah. So

Melelani Oshiro:

it really depends on how many chicks you're gonna get on how you're going to establish the brooder? Or if you're not going to even get chicks and you want to buy pullets that are not quite laid, but they're, you know, six to eight weeks out? Oh,

Shannon Sand:

you don't know you can buy that? I did? Yeah, that was an option. Yeah. So you can

Melelani Oshiro:

buy pullets it's a little bit, they're a little bit more expensive than buying a chick because, of course, there you have, you know, yeah, but then you're ready, they're ready to go outdoors, they don't need a heat source, you know, they can be in your run and whatever you have set up or ready or ready for them, when they become late when they start laying. Um, so that's those are the kinds of things I think you need to think about. And then, of course, you know, what type of breed do you want, you know, there's so many different ones, there's the commercial breeds or strains of animals that are typically like hybrid. So they're basically bred and their genetics is for egg production, you know, so they'll definitely be producing eggs for a longer period of time. So if you're looking at raising pullets, for essentially your homes, you know, you might be wanting to look at a hybrid option, because you're gonna get more eggs for a longer period of time. I mean, they come into play a lot quicker than more heritage type breed like your buff Orpingtons, or your Rhode Island reds. Americana is all those different those other heritage breeds do take a little bit more time to come into play, or start lane.

Shannon Sand:

Okay, so kind of to go backwards a little bit in terms of like before time, but just breeding breeds to pick from, if you were someone that had like a smaller space, and like you said, just basically kind of has like a backyard, I have a situation like a small one, you know, I don't know what a small one is smaller backyard, you know, maybe a couple 100 square feet or something, I'm assuming you'd be better off getting something like one of those breeds. It's like smaller, though. So

Melelani Oshiro:

if you have, I mean, there are smaller heritage type breeds that you can look at, you know, the bus buff, Orpingtons are kind of on like that bigger N Right. And all those are like a little bit on the bigger, bigger end, but there are smaller Rhode Island reds, there's some other true greens and whatnot that you can that you can choose. So they're smaller type on the heritage breeds that you can still get. And it's really going to be preference, right? Because, like I said, it's gonna be down to what you prefer. Are you having you know, is this going to be just straight production food for the family? Or for your homestead or whatnot? Or is this going to be okay, something that we can also consider a pet in the yard. But it's also providing food, you know, so you want something pretty in your yard? You know?

Shannon Sand:

And then also, do we want brown eggs, white eggs, blue eggs, eggs, yellow eggs, there's all currently, yeah,

Melelani Oshiro:

and you know, egg shell color is just a shell color. It doesn't matter. But if you are, you know, like me, I like to have Yeah, I like to have those, you know, for us, we you know, we do it for both for the kids for learning and for production and subsistence for our families that we share. It depends on what you want as far as breeds, but like I said, Dude, if you are looking for something for production, and you want the most eggs out of a bird, you're probably going to want to go with a commercial strain or hybrid that is bred for egg production. They're coming to lay quicker, be productive for much longer period. Yeah,

Shannon Sand:

just depends on what you're looking for. Like you said, but yeah, I mean, I don't know growing up I always picked the chickens for our like for my four H projects based on the color of eggs. Right? I know also how interesting they looked because I was like, I don't really want like a boring Oh, like, red chicken. I was like, Um, no, I'm bound like, yeah,

Melelani Oshiro:

I grew up good time. Like, you know what, if they're gonna be in my yard, and I'm gonna feed them, I'm gonna get the ones that I want to look at. But it's all on preference. And we tend to mix what we have as far as breed so that we can have kind of eggs throughout the year because there's even some breeds that will do a little bit better through maltiness delay. That's other things to consider. One of the things to think about is kind of where you know, a question I always get is where can we get chicks from? I would suggest for you to pick a hatchery, we have a local hatchery in a wahoo caught our size, but get to your local hatcheries and choose one that is certified for NPI P program, the MPI program set program that these producers have to follow these production folks have to follow to ensure biosecurity within their herds or within their flocks excuse me, oh, that's important, especially Yeah, and then looking and making sure these animals they the birds are tested for some different different strains of salmonella. And it just kind of ensures that you know, it's it, they have to follow certain protocols to ensure the health of their flocks choosing birds from there is just going to be better for you, you'll you'll know you're getting it from a very reliable source, you can check some of the hatcheries will sell older pullets not just chicks, so you can order them as older but just keep in mind that they are going to be more expensive for bird your you know, chicks cost you five to $8 Check whereas buying a pullet from a hatchery could cost you anywhere between 25 to $35. And check with your hatchery on what vaccinations they they do require or that they do at the hatchery. Here in Hawaii, you do want to have your birds vaccinated for Merricks who want to do fall pox as well. Some hatcheries do also have available the Coxy osis vaccination that you can do for the chicks. And those are all have to be done like a day one. So if you're buying it from the premier hatchery, check with them what they do. Yeah, man, ask for those if you can get it done prior to you getting them, you know, the pox vaccine, unfortunately, that you need to do a little bit later when they're a little older, because that's a different vaccination. But those are things to consider. So you know, look for those hatcheries that are in that NPP program, there's a sizes and so you can go to local feed stores as well, they'll bring in chicks, you know, and they're a great resource for information, laying setting up things and getting those feed resources from them. If you do decide, you know, the kind of the, so the chicks go through different phases of growth, right, the first four weeks of their life is pretty much where they need to get that good start, and where you're going to kind of set them up to kind of meet those other growing phases. You know, once they get to about for about six weeks or seven weeks, there'll be fully feathered, you can go ahead and start putting putting them outside. Yeah, so you can take them off the off the heat and use hearing here in Hawaii, you know, we have to kind of play the heat, but based on your area was what I've kind of found, you know, and you may not have to have that heat lamp on them for the whole entire period, you know, be cautious during the summertime, if you have them, if you have your router setup in a garage or workshop is gonna get hotter in there during the day. So you just make sure when you set up those routers, we'll talk a little I'll talk a little bit more about setting up your router. But you know, just adjusting that heat cycle. As the chicks grow, you have to lower that heat cycle. So they start to acclimate to the different temperatures and the lower temperatures that they're going to be exposed to when they go outside into a run or whatnot. Shannon is going to try and keep me on track while I talk about this stuff and pop questions in here. Because I

Shannon Sand:

think this is interesting. So I was like, Yeah, keep going. It's fine. So yeah,

Melelani Oshiro:

so that's kind of your first you know, first step. So we figured out we can have chicks, we figured out what kind we want or what birds breeds and all those types of things, you know, so now we have to set up your brooder you know, getting prepared to receive those chicks. First thing, main thing is you have a heat source in there, you need to have a heat source in there that's kind of situated in one section of your brooder you want to be able to have an area of the brooder is not so hot that chicks can get away from go back and forth. Yeah, quickly. They'll adjust themselves. So there's so many different types of heat sources. If you're going to use a lot of light, like an actual labs, the heat lamp growing. Yeah, make sure whatever materials you use as a base for your brooder or other materials in there, that they're a good 18 inches or so away from that heat source so it doesn't catch fire. You know, there's other heat sources out there nowadays that are more hot as those heat lamps so it's concerning. Yeah, not as concerning and not too much of a fire. What

Shannon Sand:

are some of the other options in radiant heat TR

Melelani Oshiro:

so it comes out? I can't remember the column was like, type of thing. Exactly. Yeah. And it's kind of on a stand you know, think of it like on a stand. So you can raise this stand up or down. And it's spore supposed to mimic more so the the mama right there mama hen, as hall she sits on her chicks. Oh, so yeah, so it's kind of like a warming heating pad right. And so you raise the level of it depending on how old they are whatnot, they can go crawl underneath it and they have and they have some other heat lamps too that are not hot to the touch. So same thing you know, it's just a kind of a radiant heat and not a light bulb that I essentially get hot, so you don't need to worry too much about the fire hazards. And that's always nice. Yeah, they're a little more expensive, you know, but I think they probably are a little bit more energy efficient as well than your heat lamps. Using your heat lamps to when you, you want to make sure if you do have to use a heat lamp or bulb using a red one, the red one just kind of tends to not affect their sleep patterns in the birds, right. So there's studies that they look at using white light or red lights or red lights just better, we always use the red light growing up. Yeah, and it doesn't have that much impact on the animals as compared to those white light. And make sure like I said, they have an opportunity to get away from the heat source if they need to. And having then now you need to make sure you have food and water in there. I like to keep my waters I use those nipple waters, because I feel like they just make less mess. When I first get the birds. I'll put the waters. So there. Yeah, there are little waters, they have this little balance in there. So they'll tap again on the

Shannon Sand:

cheese for a rabbit.

Melelani Oshiro:

Okay, exactly.

Shannon Sand:

I got it. Okay. Yeah, that's what that was called. Oh, yeah,

Melelani Oshiro:

there's so many different ones that you can choose from nowadays. And you can buy them, attach them to your own buckets and set them up however you'd like to say it's kind of a nice little auto water feeder water. Exactly, then, yeah. And like the first couple of days, I'll put the regular water water in there, you know, those upside down. I don't know what they're called. But I hate that. They're so messy though. They messy. Yeah. And but it's a good way for them to make sure that they're getting water when you first receive your checks. Yeah. And that's when you do receive your checks, that's the most important thing is have a water source for them. Like usually it's here and why you know, it's going to come in even post office or FedEx or something like that, when you know, you're going to receive them, just make sure you have water with you. Because those chicks are typically going to be super thirsty, offer them food within like 24 hours or so. But they typically have this brown fat resource that that they have, which allows them to be shipped. And then you want to adjust your brooder temperatures at about five degrees, drop it down weekly, all the way into reach. And we're talking Fahrenheit here, but until you kind of reach that outdoor temperature of where your chicks are gonna be with just to pick out whatever your location. Yeah, you know, and you can kind of adjust it like I said, yeah, so that's kind of where you go. Like I said, I like to use the nipple water feeders or waters because I feel like it makes less of a mess in there. You have to kind of show the chicks how to use it. Even when you put water sources in there. I just kind of take one chick, dip his beak in there, or tap his beak to the water nipple. And once one figures it out, they just kind of copy each other. So they'll go over there and start pecking away at it. And it usually does work pretty well. Yeah. And then you know, like I said, six to seven weeks old, your birds should be fully feathered, they should be able to go outside, you know, once they're ready to go outside. What

Shannon Sand:

do you I mean, I know what we always did, we always just put them outside fed them. And then a few months later, we had like eggs was like Are there any other important in between steps during that time period when they are feathered and you're taking them out?

Melelani Oshiro:

Yeah, right before usually before the birds go out into their outdoor runs will vaccinate for Fall pox and typically about five to six weeks of age is when we'll do it. Some folks like to trim wings around that time before they take them out as well so that you don't have fliers. But it all depends, like I said, if you're putting them in a totally enclosed area, or they just in a fenced yard, that's going to really depend on your situation. Adjust your waters, if you're using nipple ones, I just attached mines wire so that I can adjust the height for the birds as they get bigger. And you typically want your waters for your birds to be at eye level for them wherever they're standing. We talked about floor space. That was one thing you asked Shannon. So bird get older, you will need to increase the amount of square footage for each bird that will start at about three weeks, one square foot per bird when they're three weeks old. And then there's gonna it's going to increase as those birds get older. So by the time they're at 17 weeks or so, you're you're about almost a foot of space that is needed per bird by the time they are 17 weeks old. So you have to kind of think about that. Yeah, you know, and it's hard it's hard to like vision. But that's the I'm we're talking floor space nipples and feeders right. So how much do you need to have a space and that is one thing we figured out with our waters is that making sure we have enough nipples for the amount of birds that we had was really important. So when they get that full at that

Shannon Sand:

because what's the biggest size of like water for the

Melelani Oshiro:

waters are neat because you can adjust however many you have, or want for the amount of birds that you have in a single pin. You connect these up with PVC pipe the nipples go into them and then they're they're connected up to a bucket so I have mine connected up to like a fire One bucket, or two gallon bucket, and then yeah, so you're just gonna have to refill the bucket as as needed. But how many nipples you have on that run is gonna depend on how much birds you have usually about set up your waters, you want to have at least four inches of space between each water or each nipple, and then put about one for every six birds, you can have more on top of there, if you've got 12 of them in there, you know, four to six nipples is probably pretty good on there, because they'll all want to try and go and drink and fight for something to drink from. Yeah, but yeah, they that's what I noticed. Yeah. So but it takes so it takes them to be about 30 weeks before their full maturity, and they're gonna start laying, right. So that's like six months, seven months old, seven, eight years old, want to be aware of their age. So at that time, you can start to put out a nesting box for them, you know, put some shavings in there, get them used to it, get them going in there. Some things that I've noticed some folks have or some people have said was if you don't have roost, and enough roosting space for your hands in there, they'll start to lay on the ground. And that's the one thing you want to avoid is your hands laying on the ground. Make sure you have that roosting space and you need about you probably want to go about six to eight inches, maybe even more of roosting bar per bird. Right so because so that when there you have some of the heavier set birds, you might need even more space in a brooding box or excuse me, not a green box, but a nesting box, you can go at about a foot pervert. Oh, really? You know? Yeah, yeah, do those those that about belt that's about what we have. And having about one box where every four or five birds is usually efficient enough. Okay, I have set up where I had more boxes, and they all lay in one box anyways. But give them the option because I have very dominant hands, you know, you want to have at least another two or three boxes for that many birds. But yeah, so you need to look at those space requirements. And these are kinds of things you have to plan out ahead of time to when you're deciding how many hands you want to have, you know, understanding the space requirements for everybody. So you need to have space requirements within your coop, you need to have a certain amount of space on the roosting bars. Yeah, and you need to have a certain amount of nesting boxes for your Monahans that you have. Yeah, so take all those types of considerations in when you're deciding how many layers you want. Um, what else?

Shannon Sand:

Oh, you know, some

Melelani Oshiro:

people kind of asked me to like, how many birds? Should I have that, you know, I can have as many as I want to? How many should I have in question, but it's also more in preference. And, you know, you can group about six to 10 birds together pretty good size for backyard flock, then the other thing is to you have to think about once your once your layers are no longer lame, and getting to that age, what do you do? Are you going to do well? Are you going to keep on? Are you going to process them? You know, we've take out our older layers and we start to bring in new ones. It's kind of preference, those are things that you need to think about. Right, you know, feeding recommendations for some of your flocks that maybe are then at mixed ages is that you need kind of want to think about them as you're going so that you're not really putting you don't really want to have like Kickstarter being fed to your older layers. Yeah, because it just has a higher protein content than your regular layer feed supplements that you can use for your older layers and some other questions. Why do we have soft shells, you know, your adult, your birds might not getting voiced or shell Yeah, because they may not be getting enough calcium. So that's a supplement that you can use. And they they're pretty good at using it as they need. So you don't really have to measure out those types of things.

Shannon Sand:

And I was also going to ask about additional supplements because you actually have like some people eggs are one of the few things I was like because in general, most fruits and vegetables, organic or non organic in general, on average, nutrition wise is the same across the board, but with eggs. It's if you feed them a high a diet and omegas I was like it's the egg actually has higher omega. So it's kind of an interesting, you know, yeah, people make a lot more money. Well, not a lot, maybe but depending on their cost for flaxseed. Like sometimes people make a good bit more because they can sell those because they do have a higher omega content, you know, are different. I don't know about other vitamins, but

Melelani Oshiro:

yeah, yeah. And typically, you know, your backyard. Poultry are going to be grazing a little bit too. So they'll have a lot deeper yellow yolk, which not some people don't like you know, but it's just, yeah, it just has to do with the beta carotene that they're getting from the forages that they're eating, you know, and it doesn't really, to me I can taste a difference as far as raising pullets in your backyard.

Shannon Sand:

I mean, it's nice because it's a good project, if you have young children, or even if you're a single person, a small group of people or a couple, or just a couple of people you want to play, I think it's nice, because you could do two to four very easily in a small space, you know, and they have all kinds of new contraptions out if you want to buy rather than build your own. But like, there's easy DIY, blueprints and projects online that people will walk you through all the steps for building the stuff if you want to do that, too. Yeah. Hands on

Melelani Oshiro:

the type of system that you want to have, if you're going to have them confined, you know, yeah, there's less labor, you have a small area, and your startup costs may be a little bit smaller, because you're having this large area to take care of, but you do, you're gonna have more manure buildup in there. And so you'll have to deal with other things like flies and whatnot. Those are things to consider when you're thinking about the type of confinement system that you want to use.

Shannon Sand:

And the ones that you can roll now are really nice ops. Yeah, so I've got chicken sighs Yeah, no, and all that stuff. Yeah. Okay. No, no, go ahead. No, go ahead.

Melelani Oshiro:

Yeah, let's talk about chicken tractors for a bit because as I think, to me, are very, probably the most cost effective way to have a small flock in your backyard and have one that you're not having to kind of mess around with cleaning out a coop every day and all this kinds of stuff.

Shannon Sand:

keeps the bugs in your yard down to just FYI. Exactly. Right. And so

Melelani Oshiro:

they're essentially like your movable fertilizers in your yard, you know, a little bit of pest control to Yeah, they love the book. Yeah. And the system, which is the nice thing, yeah, you need a little bit larger area to do it. But if you have the space to do it, you know, it's a great way to start. And you have to think do have to think about whatever forage is in there. And it's a little bit more labor. But you know, you don't have to worry, you don't have to really deal with the manure buildup, because you can move them out you kind of having that you stimulate that nutrient cycle right in those areas. So yeah,

Shannon Sand:

kind of tangential question, well, maybe not. But I have had friends that live here that like some of them have talked about gathering like the jungle chicken eggs. Is that an okay thing is what I'm going to ask? Because I was like, I don't know what all they're exposed to, you know, I, they haven't been vaccinated. I don't know what all that means. So

Melelani Oshiro:

I don't I mean, I couldn't say one way or not if it's if it's safe or not. Because if you have captured one of these feral chickens, kept them in a cage know exactly what they're eating, and you know, I've done whatever you need to do to them, to get them healthy and know that they're healthy, then you're essentially feeding them out, you know, so we didn't talk about biosecurity, you know, with your backyard hens. And I think that's an important thing to talk about. Because a lot of these different viruses and diseases that we vaccinate for America and one it's a neurologic thing and it can be spread through the wild bird population and not just other hands or other foul you know, it can be spread through just other wild birds. So you know, you need to take that into consideration when you have your flock you know, just one of your birds getting sick or whatnot can have you to inlet have to eliminate your whole entire flow. That's

Shannon Sand:

what I was gonna ask because I know I forgot we had a conversation prior to this a few weeks ago, I feel like or maybe a month ago now. But I remember you talking about like, you know, that there were certain diseases that like if you had a Chick fil A chicken that came up positive, you'd have to eliminate the whole flock so

Melelani Oshiro:

yeah, yeah, and America is probably one of them because it'll become neurologic for them. And you just wouldn't want that to spread into an outside production zone, you know, where that whether it's a neighboring property or whatnot, you know, you have to have to take those things into consideration if you're going to plan to have your fall in your backyard or poultry, you know, and raising for pullets you know, try to be sure you be safe about handling them, you know, they do have salmonella, you know, and it's a great it's a great opportunity for for you to teach your kids but and whatnot, but you have to be safe about how you're handling the birds go into your pen and you know, we had a we had a we had Geneon we talked about biosecurity and one of the things we talked about was having specific clothing and shoes for that area. So if you're gonna go into your yard, use your shoes that you use at home to be in your yard, you know, so that you're not taking whatever is in there out if you go out to visit a friend's farm or whatnot. You don't need to spread things like that, you know, make sure your kids are washing your hands after they're done handling any of the eggs and anything like that when you collect eggs. They have this bloom over them and it does give the eggs some protection from bacteria over time. And essentially, if you don't wash that bloom off, it can last a lot longer. Here in Hawaii, we have hot, humid, very variable temperatures in our homes. So I don't suggest storing your eggs on your colander as we as many do like in other countries where it's a little bit cooler, you know? Yeah, so I take ours we don't wash out as long as our eggs are clean, which typically they are. Because we clean our boxes every day we checker, we keep those areas clean, so that when our when our hands go in there, our eggs are laid on clean surfaces, right or not dirty when we collect them. So we can take those ones directly and I just store them directly into our fridge. If they are dirty, then we'll have to wash them. And we'll wash them really quickly, you want to use temperature and water that's a little bit on the warmer side not so much cold because you're porous, you know. So you have to remember that whatever is going to contact with your eggs such as the solution or water and bacteria or whatever is in there can and will get in through those pores. So I typically wash ours in like a running water or I'll dip them wash them and rinse them. There's a lot of egg washes out there that you can use, you can even do it there. But no, then when you put those eggs in the fridge, they usually have a little bit shorter life's shelf life as compared to ones that have the bloom on them will have to open the Department of Health does have some recommendations for washing eggs, if you're planning to sell them, but within your own household, you know, making sure you just wash your eggs before you use them. And if when you're if your kids are out there collecting make sure they wash their hands when they're done. If they pound I would

Shannon Sand:

imagine if they were wanting to sell them there would probably be additional licenses and stuff they need exactly. Getting as well. Yeah. And that if we decide to go that deep, maybe we could try and have someone from the Department of Health. Yeah. Willing to get on to talk about it. I don't know. Because I think that's what we would like.

Melelani Oshiro:

ballgame, if you're planning to sell this the your eggs that you're producing at home. So we're talking about raising your pullets or laying hens for backyard production for your own home use not for selling. So yeah, so those are the Yeah. So Shannon, go back to your question about wild, you know, the feral chicken population because

Shannon Sand:

I was like, because they're everywhere, at least where I live. So it's like, and I do have neighbors that have like, you know, chicks and stuff, you know. So I guess that goes also back more to your original thing about making sure the chicks you buy are vaccinated?

Melelani Oshiro:

Yeah. Because and you don't know where they have. And if you're collecting eggs, and you just see oh, there's an egg there. And you don't know how long is sitting there? You know, so unless you physically have seen and you put a box out for these birds to be laying in? I don't really know. And I would not say that it's safer. It's not safe. I think you need to use your own judgment on that. But the wild or feral check. Fall population can introduce other diseases to your domestic flock. So if you do have them out around in your area, you probably want to have an confined enclosed area for your domestic flock to prevent any kind of cross contamination. Yeah. And just to have a better biosecurity for your own

Unknown:

flock. Yeah. I can't think of anything else. I'm sure there's other things. I mean, if people have questions about one, or they want to get started, yeah, send us an email. And we're happy to help you know, answer questions, but I hope this is helpful. You can email the fallout podcast or lifetime Wala'au podcast at Wala'au at hawaii.edu. Oh, are you gonna email mele? No,

Shannon Sand:

we'll throw her email address in there in the show notes. Well, thank you for talking about it with us today. Mele we really appreciate it. Yeah, and make sure to join our Facebook page, the livestock extension group if you haven't already. And we are preparing over the next few months, we want to do a feedback fest which is basically when I hear from y'all. And kind of what you think of the podcast, what you'd like to listen to in the future kind of what we've done good what you'd like to see us change things like that so that we can kind of, you know, hopefully improve this channel as time goes on and stuff and really hone in on what y'all want to listen to. So we'll have that hopefully linked if we remember to in the in the show notes or the description box. And be sure to visit the U h CTAHR. Extension website and our YouTube channel that are also listed in the show notes. Yeah, and for more information about this topic, see the show notes of the podcast and the description box on our YouTube page. Or you can email us at Wala'au at hawaii.edu. Or you can email me and I'll put our email address in the description box as well. But thanks for listening to the livestock Wala'au And before we go show some love for your favorite podcast. That's us by the way, and leave us a review on Apple podcasts or any platform that you're listening. And then stay tuned for next month. This episode. Yes, thank you again to our sponsors the Western extension Risk Management Education Center, USDA NIFA, the livestock extension group and CTAHR. Yes, thanks for listening.

Unknown:

Oh, hold on.