She was experimenting with eggs in the various forms they can be cooked, and she had some trouble with her farm fresh eggs and peeling them after hard boiling the eggs.
We ventured into the egg department three years ago. As usual, it required major thought on Rodger's part as to how to make the chicken coop the least expensively. He did a great job and made the coop like I had asked. I had looked at different magazines and books for efficient coops ~ space vs. ease for cleaning. The coop does need cleaned out a few times a year, much to everyone's chagrin!
We started out with about 20 chickens. We wanted to have about 10-15 laying hens so I planned for a few more. You know, mortality rate and all. Turns out that we did need that extra few because we ended up having a few hens meet an early demise. You can read about that here.
Today we still have about five of the original chickens, as some of them have died off or met with untimely circumstances. Here is a picture of some of our current flock of chickens. We have Buckeyes(black), Araucaunas/Americaunas(golden/tan/brownish), Barred Rocks(black and white) and Plymouth Rocks(brown and black).
I have to say that my favorite chicken that we have would be the Americauna's. Their heads almost look like the head of a hawk and they lay various shades of blue and green shelled eggs!
Americauna
Unless you have had a farm fresh egg, then you will have to trust me that when I tell you they are better, THEY ARE BETTER! I would not have believed it myself, but after the anticipation of waiting on those first hens to lay their first eggs ~ well, it was all that and then some!
The first eggs that a hen lays is a very tiny egg. Almost like the size of a robin egg. That is called a "bullet". It is kept for a while as a novelty egg while you wait for the full blown egg production to kick in. The kids would pick it up and hold it and cuddle it and love it. I think they named it too.
The joy of having your own hens is knowing that the eggs are fresh and haven't been sitting on a grocery store shelf in fluctuating temperatures. Nor were they sitting at the egg production plant waiting to get to the grocery store. You won't ever find an egg that is less than a week old at a typical grocery store.
Have you ever noticed that when you break your store bought egg open that the egg white just spreads from the egg yolk all the way to outer Siberia? OK, not outer Siberia, but it does go all over the pan. Not so with the fresh egg! That white generally stays all nice and firm and close to the yolk. Sometimes I'll get an egg and the white will spread a bit, but not generally. Remember people, it isn't always pixie dust and perfection here...
Barred Rock Rooster
The above picture is of our Barred Rock rooster. He is a good rooster. Yes, some are commando's in training! Our first rooster was one such bird. OH MY, did he ever have "little man" syndrome! And he wore that badge quite proudly. I was quite against getting rid of him, but then we didn't have to worry about it. He died one day of a cold and mean heart. I was kind of sad about it because he was such a pretty bird.
We have not allowed any of the chickens to lay on the eggs for hatching purposes. I'm sure we could. We have some friends that let their chickens hatch out the eggs, and they ended up with a ton of roosters (Hi B & E :) ). I don't want that issue. As it is, I do have a very funny story of how we ended up with 15 roosters. I'll have to tell that story sometime.
One of the most wonderful things about fresh eggs is the color of the yolk! You can't hardly believe that a yolk could be such a vivid color of yellow/orange. At first I thought there was something wrong with the egg. Now if I crack open an egg and it is a little bit more pale, well, I condemn it as a rotten egg. It isn't, it is just that I am spoiled!
Don't forget about the bug devouring ducks! We love our ducks too!
One of the reasons that the yolk is so vivid in color is because we let our chickens do what God intended them to do ~ roam the land and eat bugs, weeds and other sundry items! I don't exactly know what the other sundry items are, but whatever it is, they make some lovely eggs!
The downside of the fresh egg, as my friend Heather pointed out, is that if you hard boil one when it is relatively fresh, the egg will not peel nicely at all. In fact, it will laugh at you. You will get chunks out of your egg and they won't make for lovely looking deviled eggs. The part of the egg that is not broken down enough for the peel to come off smoothly is called Albumen. The more easily your egg peels, the more the Albumen has broken down. Grocery store eggs are perfect for that! We just leave a dozen eggs in the refrigerator for about two weeks and then boil. Viola!
Here are some of the eggs we get daily from our hens
I highly recommend that you find yourself a local farmer of eggs and start eating those instead. You will not be disappointed. I found a website that has a good breakdown of what an egg is made of, and if you would like to read about fresh eggs versus store bought eggs, all you have to do is google it! I think most of us are aware of the egg practices that go on in large plant facilities due to the news, and truly, a local farmer is more likely your best bet!
I also have a great book that is full of very useful information on all kinds of homesteading and general information that even a city person could use: The Encyclopedia of Country Living, by Carla Emery. Here is a link through Amazon, but they have it at the library. I borrowed it all the time until I was tired of paying my overdue fines.
Oh, and I still qualify as a "city person" except we moved to the country and are delving into some small scale farming.
So, go out and get yourself some fresh eggs from a local farmer! You might actually become a convert!
Best wishes!
Tammy
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