[OldEnglishGame]

Hi Guys,

I'm new to Smallholding (keeping a small group of 6 Chickens) and a friend of mine is looking to bring a product to market for people in a similar situation (keeping free range chicks on a small scale) and asked if I could ask other Smallholders their opinion, what do you think of this: http://bit.ly/NlcyhS Something you think many Smallholders would be interested in?

[Bionic]

Hi OEG,
I would probably use it if I had one but not sure it would be top of my list to buy.
Even with a few hens, I have 4, it only holds 2 days worth of eggs so I would often end up rotating off the egg roller too and then it all gets a bit complicated.
Sally

[hughesy]

Not sure how rolling the eggs gives them a longer shelf life? I'm sure some people would buy such a thing but not me I'm afraid.

[Factotum]

I think that the freshness of an egg is determined by the evaporation of water through the shell. Keeping the eggs covered (i.e. in a cardboard carton) would be a better way of keeping them fresh, rather than having the eggs sitting out on the plastic tray.

Not sure why rolling them would have any effect on freshness - is there any scientific evidence to back up the claim?

[deepinthewoods]

its not big enough and similar has been done before, ive seen them in wire.

[thestephens]

yes, i have an egg skelter made of wire holds about 18 eggs.

[chrismahon]

I thought about this problem of freshness because we keep our eggs in a bowl. Considered making a small one like in the video (our shelf isn't very deep) with a piece of waste pipe cut in half but it's too small because we often have half a dozen when more are put in. Then I saw an egg skelter as Thestephens describes, but they were £18 I think and as our eggs are all the 'rejects' of different sizes I wasn't going to buy one and find it doesn't work. The one in the video is good because the track accommodates eggs of different sizes whereas the skelter has two wires and goes round in a circle so I can see our small ones perhaps getting stuck. The capacity needs to be a dozen at least so could the one you have shown OEG could be made stackable somehow?