5 posts tagged “eggs”

A harvest lunch

I thinned the winter greens a bit today, so I made myself a gourmet lunch. These tiny seedlings are often referred to as "micro greens" at fancy restaurants. Here the combination is arugula and spinach. I tossed the greens with a touch of extra-virgin olive oil and salt. The eggs are from my own chickens (of course). I've been saving a dozen eggs for about 3 weeks now just so I can make some into hard-cooked eggs. I did use the trick of putting a pinhole in the air space (through the round end), too. This combination of techniques worked: I was able to peel the eggs fairly easily.

Of course it was incredibly yummy! I still have a lot more thinning to do, so I hope to enjoy more salads like this over the next few weeks.

That seems to be my role these days! Since the girls have been laying regularly (and Betty finally worked out the kinks and has been laying only fully shelled eggs for a week now), I've got lots of eggs to spare. Despite the fact that I did some baking Sunday morning, ate 3 eggs for lunch on Monday (scrambled with fresh dill and some cream cheese for extra creaminess....yum), and used a couple eggs Monday night while making salmon patties, I still can't keep up with them.

Yesterday I shared 4 eggs with my friend Rachael and dropped off another 4 with Jamie at Stitch n' Bitch. Jamie doesn't eat eggs (is she crazy???!!) but she loves to bake, so hopefully she can make something nice with them. Of course there was some discussion of chickens and chicken tending at SnB then.

Today has been a busy day at our house, and I've been presented with plenty of opportunities to spread the chicken/poultry bug on to others, too. The soil for my raised beds was delivered this AM, and we're also having some minor patching and weather-proofing done to the house. I spent some time conversing with the landscaper (who had been looking forward to seeing the chickens) and her helpers about the joys of keeping chickens and the ins and outs of doing so in Chicago. I also gave the landscaper all three of the eggs layed today, right out of the nest box. She seems to be really considering getting some chickens or maybe a couple ducks now. The handyman and his helper asked me about the chickens, too, and seem intrigued by them.

Yep, just call me the chicken evangelist of Chicago!

I found a "softie" in the Eglu today.

Selma's Softie

I'm thinking this is Selma's since the other egg in the nestbox had a darker brown shell, and Maisy usually lays the eggs with the darker shells.

Softie egg

This egg was on the floor of the Eglu. It had obviously been laid on the roosting bars (which Selma has done before) and then slipped through. The contents were perfectly intact, but the membrane was a bit gritty and dirty.

While I was showing it to Mark this evening, the dogs took a keen interest in it. I made mistake of holding it out so they could sniff it and then quick as can be Sadie nipped the top off! Hannah got a lick in before Sadie moved in for final gulp and swallowed the rest. Well, I had thought of giving it to the dogs, and I guess this settled it!

It's perfectly normal for pullets to lay these soft eggs every once in a while. I'm just glad that it didn't break or get broken in such a way that the chickens would get a taste of it. Sometimes chickens get a taste for their own eggs and will eat them before collection.

Luckily, my girls don't seem so inclined. They'd rather that I bring them more fishy stuff like the salmon skin from our poached salmon. Yep, they eat just about everything!

Shortly after I came home tonight, I let the pullets out to graze in the yard and checked the nest box. Look what I found today.

Dark and light

In the front is Selma's first egg. Hooray for Selma! Maisy's fifth egg is the dark one in the back. So, it was a two-egg day on September 12, 2007.

Maisy is producing one egg a day, and she is clearly still "calibrating the system." Out of 5 eggs, one was quite large and had a double yolk. The rest have ranged in size from small to medium.

Maisy's first eggs

Seen here from top to bottom are Maisy's first, second and third eggs. On the right at bottom is an egg from the last dozen I bought at the farmers market a couple weeks ago. That third egg was the double-yolker. Rachael and I ate them for dinner Monday night. We sauted a bunch of swiss chard in some garlic-enhanced chicken broth, then added the eggs on top, a la Barbara Kingsolver's Eggs in a Nest recipe. Yum!

I couldn't resist taking a little video of "the layers."

Maisy and Selma are now extremely focused on eating as much protein as they can get. They spent their entire time outside the run scratching for insects. I guess once they start laying they become voracious!

A warm, brown egg.

Maisy's first egg Sept082007

1 comment

I have no idea exactly when this was laid, but it was sometime today. I've been checking the nest box every day and didn't find any eggs yesterday.

This morning, I got up a little later than usual (about 7 AM) and started the usual chores: let out dogs, collect feeding/watering gear and head outside to let out chickens. I didn't check the nest box right away. I was planning to clean out the coop today, so I thought I'd wait to open the door over the nest box. It was about 9:30 AM by the time I finally got around to opening up the nest box door, and there it was. It surprised the heck out of me.

It has to be Maisy that's laying. She looks the most mature with a better developed comb and wattles and more ginger colored plumage than the other pullets. Yesterday afternoon, I also noticed that she was doing a bit of "crouching" for me, too. She didn't get flustered at all when I reached out to pet her, and she crooked out her wings a bit and sort of squatted a bit.

The others can't be too far behind. In a couple weeks, I should be getting 3 eggs a day. Urban chickens rock!!