cockerel advice please

[suffolkhens]

I have just expanded my flock and added a cockerel. I now have two sussex lights (which I paid way over the top for), a young sussex light cockerel and two maran hens.

I bought the marans and the cockerel today at auction for the princely sum of £3.50 and have introduced them all to the girls immediately.

My question is, now that I have a cockerel am I ok to take the eggs as previously as I have concerns about eating fertilised eggs.

Many thanks in advance.

[melons]

You can't quite beat an egg looking at you out of a frying pan, blurgh, just collect them as regular as clockwork & don't let them get warm, or they'll start.
A pal of mine brought some quails eggs to eat, forgot about them & they all hatched in the egg dish in the kitchen
Your very lucky to be able to have a cockeral, I absolutley adore them, most of us get our cockeral fix from seahorse AKA the Colonel.
I saw some full sized, full on Orpington cockerals last weekend, wow flippin wee you could have ridden some of them.

[Richard]

Hello there, nice to 'see' you,

Yes, get them out quick and look round the corner with a mirror first - these cockrels have a habit of leaping at your legs!!!

Not all I'm sure, but the one I had once did. I was petrified to go in the Coop. You could see him watching you out the corner of his eye.

You have to stamp your mark on the pecking order as well.

Mine accidentially got here because I brought the 'wrong type' at auction! Thought it was a strange crow one morning!
But I thought about it, then found a good new owner and somehwre he could really go to town!

So I'm not much help am I !!!

Good luck.

Richard

[suffolkhens]

Well the first night has passed without drama (other than my staffy breaking into the run and chasing the new birds about for a bit)!

I knocked up an ark yesterday afternoon which we managed to get him into without any trouble and we were awoken to "cock-a-doodle-doos" this morning.

All of the girls settled in well together and we're looking forward to our first "chocolate" maran eggs.

Great site and forum, and have picked up many useful tips already. Garlic for the hens this evening!

[Mo]

Yes, it's ok to eat them (unless you are a vegetarian, maybe)