Gift Ideas For The Chicken Keeper In Your Life

In 2023 an automatic coop door manufacturer contacted me and asked if they could send me one of their products to test. Unfortunately it wasn’t the best experience as it started to malfunction within weeks and the replacement door they sent didn’t work from the get-go. I wasn’t able to post a positive review given my experience, but that sparked my interest to see if other companies were willing to send their products in exchange for an honest review.

As you may have noticed I don’t have any sponsors or pop-up ads. Frankly, I find the distraction of ads on other sites really annoying and am not interested in promoting a variety of products I might not believe in. Unfortunately I’m not independently wealthy and still have to work. If I won the lottery tomorrow I’d quit my job on the spot (I’ve been there 30 years and have 18 months until I can retire) and fill my days with the things that fulfill me. I spend numerous hours ‘chickening’ so having the safety net of my bills being paid would be a relief. Chickens aren’t as expensive as dogs but they still require a secure coop, bedding, a run, feed, first aid supplies and for some folks, vet bills. In addition, I spend money on replacing tarps, bungee cords, fencing and netting so I appreciate when companies are willing to send me products that save on my expenses.

I’ve requested a number of products that I thought would be useful including rat traps, leg bands, trail cams and a heated waterer having either received no response or a polite “No thanks”.

I’ve targeted companies with good reviews of quality products that I suspect I’ll have no issues writing a positive review. With the exception of my first experience that has borne out to be true.

I’d like to give a big shout out to Omlet and Run-Chicken for sending me automatic coop doors. I have written about them individually as well as part of a comparative review on my experience with five different doors, including those two.

This post will focus on three products that I’ve received in the last few months (I wanted to see how they held up over time before writing about them).

Personalized Stamps

Etsy Shop stampbymestudio offered me two different kinds of stamps – one for eggs and the other for egg cartons – as well as two stamp pads. There are three styles to choose from which can be personalized with your farm name. The egg stamp comes in three sizes and I regrettably ordered the large one. Although it doesn’t appear too big, imagine that you have to impress a round surface with a flat stamper. To do so, means rolling it both up and down as well as from side to side in order to get the whole image. I was a flop at that. The ink smeared and I was left with a partial image. If done properly they are an attractive way to personalize your eggs and my customers did enjoy the few I managed to do successfully. If I ordered a stamp again, I would get the smaller size.

One of my chicken friends gave up her flock and offered me two cases of brand new egg cartons. I usually use ones my customers bring back but they often have a commercial label on them – so not ideal for stamping. I found there was a trick to getting a good image. If you just press down on the lid there isn’t enough uniform pressure so that the image was incomplete. I found opening the box and placing a hard surface under the area you want to stamp was more successful. You do have to get a fair amount of ink on the stamper and make sure the whole surface is uniformly pressed to get a good image. I ended up ditching trying to use the egg stamper and use now both stamps on the cartons. Again, it’s a nice way to personalize your egg cartons.

Nest Box Pads

My Favourite Chicken offered great customer service. I asked for both nest box pads and a first aid kit. Unfortunately they are located in the USA and unable to ship the first aid kit products across the border to Canada. They happily sent me the nest box pads and a package of aromatic flowers. The box contained ten pads. When I saw them I thought they’d be toast in no time as they are made from aspen excelsior. My hens routinely toss shavings out of their boxes or worse still, occasionally poop in there. Between the scratching and the poop I didn’t think they’d last long. I have seven nest boxes, three of which are the perfect size for the 13” x 13” pads. I put one in each and they’ve been there for more than three months. Initially there was a bit of scratching to form a divot for laying but otherwise they are still in great shape.

The pads themselves are infused with organic flowers but the addition of loose aromatics is a bonus. It’s a mix of lemon verbena, calendula, chamomile, echinacea, lavender, lemon balm, spearmint, and rose buds/petals.

I’ve written a series on natural products including some of the above which are considered to have properties of insect repellants, antibacterials and antifungals, as well they make your coop smell better.

Egg Candler

I’ve had dozens of hatches with broody hens. Many folks candle their eggs (whether using an incubator or a hen) at various points during incubation to ensure they are viable and pitch the ones that aren’t developing. For the most part, I’ve opted for the ‘wait and see’ approach. When I have tried to candle eggs using a flashlight it’s been with mixed results.

One of my hatches this past summer combined three of my hens’ eggs and eight from a friend. Good thing I had chosen to use some of my eggs as all of the ones from my friend’s rooster were unfertilized, as was one of mine. If I’d had a candler I might have been able to predict such a poor hatch earlier.

My last hatch of the season consisted of 13 eggs I’d been given from three different sources (I’d just given my rooster away). I was a bit nervous waiting till hatch day to see how many chicks I’d end up with. As it turns out I was glad I had a proper candler, having just received the OvaScope High Intensity Scope from Brinsea.

I won’t claim any skill with using it and would probably benefit with more practice. This is the deluxe model that consists of a darkened chamber that blocks ambient light, an internal mirror and an egg platform that can be rotated to see all sides of the egg. The batteries operate a high output LED light that can illuminate dark-shelled eggs. Although it is advertised that the scope can be used in daylight I found it was much easier to see into the egg after dark or in a semi-darkened room.