Reviews by Double Yolked

Good info, especially on how long an egg can sit in transport and store before you buy it. I rarely ever wash my eggs, when I was selling eggs my customers all requested unwashed eggs so they could store them outside the fridge. Washing an egg means shelf storage is quite unsafe since it can damage or remove the natural "bloom" that protects an egg from bacteria until the hen is ready to sit and hatch it.

Excellent list and great reading! The only thing I'd add to this, from personal experience, is to watch what your hens are actually eating if you use mixed grains or mix your own feed. If your hens are leaving a particular grain or other bit in the feeder until the last bit and only eating it when super hungry you may want to switch that out for something they will eat. Feed left in the bottom of the feeder will attract insects and pests and ruin all your good work at being frugal.

Good review. Would question a few choices on best and I'm very curious as to how some of this was calculated.
I notice you include Australorps but not the older breed they were derived from Orpingtons. Yet I have found the Orps have laid as many eggs and sometimes more. A chart on this would be very useful as well as how you've factored in other contributing characteristics such as lifespan and climate sensitivity. I found my Barred rocks produced longer than most breeds making them more valuable long term but slightly less productive than my Arps or Orps in the short term.

Excellent article with only on thing I could add.
Never, ever underestimate the suicidal stubbornness of a determined hen! She has super powers! She will take the most secure, carefully planned coop and find a way to murder herself. There is literally no such thing as a 100% safe coop. So please, when (not if) your super hen manages to remove herself from the gene pool, don't beat yourself up with guilt. It will happen and super hen WILL find a way to maim or kill herself. Just keep a good first aid kit and maybe a glass of wine to toast her ingenuity(and calm your nerves).

Great article and good advice, especially for limited range chickens. I would caution though that not all chickens are going to like some toys. My girls are terrified of shiny things (like an old CD). so be careful, if not introduced to the new object properly you'll have chickens refusing to go near it or worse, panicking and maybe hurting themselves.

Excellent info. From personal experience I know chickens do not swim well. I have a small stream on my property, about 8 to12 inches deep in some areas. A rambling hen managed to fly over the fence and dunk herself. Her feathers sogged almost instantly. She sank quickly to neck deep and couldn't get out due to the heavy water logged feathers. Thankfully I found and rescued her in time. Chickens are NOT meant to get into water deeper than 4 inches.

Great article. I would love to add one thing for those wondering about keeping excess eggs. I have 6 hens at the moment and a neighbor who also loves my eggs but with 6 ladies I still end up with excess.
Instead of worrying over holding them in the fridge or on the shelf I learned I could take a half dozen eggs, gently beat them until they were fairly well blended then freeze that half dozen in a large cube sized ice cube tray. Once frozen solid I pop them out of the tray and vacuum seal them with a Food saver type set up and toss the bag back in the freezer. They will keep frozen for up to 6 months easily and I have a few dozen eggs for those times of the year my ladies go on rest. I have heard you can do the freeze with the yolk intact but experiments have led me to prefer them beaten lightly instead.