As Fresh as it Gets

Eggs! We're getting eggs!  Stay tuned for some funny egg pictures. But first...

The run. We wanted to build a run for the chickens so they could get out for fresh air. We found that the ground is SO hard in that area. We gave in and had our neighbor bring a tractor to drill the holes for the posts. (We thanked him with eggs, of course, and the chicken card I made, above.)

Ben and I set the posts with dirt and water (hard as cement!). Then when his dad was visiting, Ben somehow talked him into helping put up the chicken wire. They even built a nice man-door for it. 

The chickens love their new run!

And we love that Jonathan can help with the chores now. He thinks it's fun.  After school he opens the chicken door, gathers the eggs, and puts out fresh water. (After dark, the chickens all go back inside and we close the door so they'll be safe from predators.)  

The chicken wire looks cool in the snow!  And strangely, the chickens like to come out on snowy days too. But not when it's windy. That seems to ruffle their feathers.

Our egg production is booming. We get 8 or 9 eggs a day. Did you notice something funny about the picture above? 

That is a very large egg!

It had two yolks inside! This has happened twice so far. Jonathan wants me to boil it next time.

(Notice the super huge griddle we just got to cook all these eggs. I can also do twelve pancakes at a time!) 

Another funny egg. This one doesn't have a shell! We decided not to eat it. Ew. 

It's also interesting to notice that there are occasionally spotted eggs, which are fertilized but still edible. I forgot to take a picture of one up close but I just noticed that there is one in the egg carton three pictures above, if you want to hunt for it. (Above the big one and to the right.) 

The best part of all our egg production is that we have plenty of eggs to go around!  We've eaten a lot more French toast. And scrambled eggs. The kids get to help more with the cooking now because it's okay if an egg gets broken occasionally.  We have boiled eggs for after-school snacks. And we can share fresh eggs with neighbors and co-workers and still have plenty left over for our family.  I'm looking forward to trying my hand at omelets one of these days. If any of you out there have a  favorite egg recipe, please send it our way! 

All in all, we're very happy with our chickens and their eggs.  I'll end this post with a quote from Zach:

"Chickens are our friends.  We give them food and they give us eggs."