An Egg’s Epic Journey to the Frying Pan

The delightful fragrance of sizzling bacon fills the kitchen as freshly cracked eggs plop into the frying pan  Along with whole wheat toast topped with English marmalade, few breakfasts are more delicious than eggs fresh from the backyard coop

 

Before those eggs enter the pan, they’ve undergone a remarkable journey that starts in the hen’s ovary

 

When a female chicken hatches she has two ovaries but one gradually shrinks and becomes unfunctional  The other gradually matures to generate all the eggs she’ll lay  When she’s about 20 weeks old, give or take a few weeks, a hen begins ovulation  It is

Time to Say Goodbye

Anyone who has kept a backyard flock eventually faces a dilemma As hens age their egg laying slows Eventually it nearly stops There’s a point where the girls eat expensive feed yet hardly lay an egg How does a flock owner decide when to get rid of aging hens and what to do with them?

 

A Laying Scenario

A young pullet starts laying when she is 18 to 24 weeks old If she’s of a productive breed she’ll soon lay like fury It takes about 26 hours for an egg to form, so every once in a while, she’ll take a

How Eggs Get Their Colors

If you’re deciding on new chickens and what new breeds to add to your flock, egg color is probably one of your top considerations Long gone are the days of plain white eggs

How did colored eggs come about?

Eggs from the very first chickens of the wild started out as tan, or light brown Wild jungle fowl were domesticated around 2000 BC All our domesticated breeds stem from these wild fowl

All eggs start out INSIDE the hen as white Through simple genetic tweaks, eggs now can come in white, tan, dark brown, speckled, blue, green, olive, and every color in

Chicken Eggs vs. Duck Eggs

Get ready for the ultimate matchup in the egg world! Are you team chicken or team duck? We’ve raised both on our acreage and I have a lot of thoughts about that! As you know, the chickens won out for me However, there are people I know that swear by duck eggs I think it really boils down to what your preferences and desires are I fell in love with chickens The ducks I could live without

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Harvesting Clean Eggs: Tips to Collecting Eggs That Don’t Require Any Washing

“To wash or not to wash” seems to be a big question when it comes to farm fresh eggs Some people prefer them washed; others (like me) prefer their eggs untouched I’m often asked how I clean my freshly harvested eggs, but truth is, I don’t They go straight from the hens hiney, to the nesting box, then to the egg cartons No cleaning in between When you have a flock of 50 hens (and counting, yikes),

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What is a Fairy Egg?

It started out like any other morning After I got my husband and kids out the door for work and school, I went out to check on my flock and collect any eggs that may be out there I was on my daily egg hunt (not all of my girls have taken a liking to nesting boxes) I was walking through the coop with a train of chickens behind me waiting for their morning treat And there, next to a few other regular sized eggs

Tips for Cleaning Eggs

You’ve successfully raised your fluffy, sweet chicks into beautiful hens  Your hens have started to lay and you can’t wait to crack open your first home raised egg  When you go out to the coop to collect eggs, you might be surprised to see that your eggs aren’t always clean and perfect  There are many things online about the do’s and don’t of cleaning eggs  What’s the best and safest way to clean your farm eggs?

Should you wash fresh eggs?

You may be surprised to learn that the United States is one of the few countries that sells refrigerated eggs