The Egg

 

Having chickens is really a bi product of achieving ultimate taste when it comes to The Egg.  In the photo above, the egg on the left is a grocery store egg - "store bought egg" to those of us in KY with access to "chicken eggs" like the one on the right which came from one of my hens, Mrs. Hall or Helen.  I knew that chicken eggs from hens that have access to grass would have darker yolks and more flavor, but I never realized the difference in the white part of the egg.  A really fresh chicken egg like the one on the right has an egg white that stands up, and has a flavor.  It's not bland or runny and doesn't flatten out like a store bought egg.  If you've never gotten used to real chicken eggs and you like your store eggs just fine, don't ever switch over, because you'll never be satisfied with the taste again!  I've been known to pout if my Saturday morning breakfast egg isn't a chicken egg.  

 

 

An added perk to getting superior tasting eggs is the aesthetic appeal to your refrigerator.  You stop putting your eggs in opaque styrofoam containers, but instead display them so you can admire them when you open the refrigerator.  It's hard to resist pulling them out when you have company and making people admire them.  Praise my eggs!  Why do some people get really grossed out when you make them hold a warm one straight from the chicken?  That's not so weird, is it?

 

The pretty eggs in the photo above are from my mom's mixed flock.  Helen and Mrs. Hall make brown eggs, but mom's hens lay dark brown, light brown, tan, blue, and olive.  And they are all different sizes, too.  I feel sorry for the poor hen who laid that whopper in the corner.  Ouch!

 

This is mom's flock, which are quite pretty themselves.  The light brown hen in the center is the mother of the chick I recently hatched in the incubator. 



 

This is the rooster and father of the ugly duckling chick.  It's very hard to take photos of chickens with a cell phone because they move around so much.  He's really a good looking bird, and very nice.  He doesn't attack the kids like past roosters would do, and when he finds something tasty he calls the hens over with a little grunting noise and gives it to them.  If they don't see what he's trying to feed them he picks it up with his beak and drops it in front of them, over and over until they catch on.