Eggs in August

This year the egg production of our hens have held up nicely even during the hot summer months.  I attribute that to supplementing the rice we feed them with a bit of laying pellets to boost the protein levels.  The hens have responded and the normal fall-off of egg production in the summer didn't happen to such a large extent as in previous years.

One of Benjamin's daily chores is to gather eggs and to close up the laying boxes at night so that the hens don't roost in the laying boxes and poop on all the hay.  Initially, this worked wonders in keeping the eggs clean.  No more time was spent cleaning chicken poop off of the eggs.  It made Benjamin's job easier and he was happy.  Until here recently.

Benjamin has been returning from egg gathering in a foul mood.  Sorry.  It seems that we have a chicken that is breaking eggs and eating them.  The resulting yolk gets all over the other eggs, making egg cleaning a tedious and arduous task.  Why would a chicken resort to such cannibalistic behavior?

If chickens begin eating eggs, it can be difficult to break them of the habit.  Then they teach other chickens that the eggs are food.  Not good!  One reason chickens eat their eggs is a lack of protein in their diet.  We've solved that issue, so it can't be that.  Another is a calcium deficiency in their diet.  We have crushed oyster shells in a big bowl where they can eat it at will.  It's not that either.  Yet another reason is overcrowding.  It is a little crowded at night in the hen house, but that's when they roost - not when they lay their eggs.  Probably not that either.

We have had a few hens get broody lately and that is Tricia's theory.  She hypothesizes that the broody hens are laying eggs and then not getting off the laying box to let other hens lay.  This gives other hens not a lot of room to lay eggs.  Fighting ensues and eggs get broken and eaten.  The only way we've found to minimize this is to gather the eggs around late-morning and then again in the afternoon.  This doesn't solve the issue, but at least the clean eggs are picked up prior to having them broken and covered in egg white and yolk.

We'll see if the egg eating stops.  I certainly hope so.  Meanwhile, we picked up a small egg yesterday.

Here is a normal sized egg for comparison. 

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Normally, we collect a few small eggs when pullets first begin to lay.  All of our chickens have been laying for well in excess of a year, so we don't know why a small egg was laid. 

We love our chickens and enjoy eating those delicious country eggs.  Unfortunately, one of our hens has decided she likes the taste of the eggs, too.  Hopefully, she will break that habit and leave plenty for us.

The Dented Can

My Grandfather on my Mom's side (Poppy) owned and operated a small town family grocery store.  It was the type of store where "the regulars" came in for a free cup of Community Coffee Dark Roast in the morning.  It was a store where you could bring your homegrown cucumbers and Poppy would give you a fair price and sell them in the Produce Department.  They'd always sell out before the cukes that came from the warehouse!  It was also the type of store where bag boys carried out your sacks of groceries, put them in your car, thanked you and wished you a good day.

One thing I learned from having a grocery store in the family is that the customer always received only the best.  We weren't going to sell any dented cans.  Many times throughout the delivery process, unloading and stocking onto the shelves, canned goods got beat up and became dented and that was just unacceptable. You can't properly front and face a dented can.  It just couldn't be sold to the customer, so they always ended up in our house in the pantry.  As long as the seal wasn't broken, there was nothing wrong with the contents and we ate lots of beans and corn and soup that came from dented cans.  In fact, I was probably well into my teens when I became aware that there were actually canned goods WITHOUT dents in them.

Sometimes I think that many of us are like dented cans.  Our outsides are sort of dinged up and unattractive, but what's inside is good if we've been made new by the Blood of Christ:

1 Samuel 16:7

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

The Dented Can - Image Credit

Although we no longer have a family grocery store, the 'dented can' principle is still alive and kicking in our household - with eggs.  Benjamin's job is to gather eggs.  He uses the wire basket shown below to go to the chicken tractor, the egg boxes in the hen house, and the egg boxes in the barn to gather eggs each day.  Oh, he also checks the hiding places that a few hens like to lay their eggs in, like under the barn sink, or up in the hayloft, or behind the fan, or in the small barn in the corner, etc. etc.  Each day he'll come back to the house with a basket full.  The basket below averages 50 - 60 eggs.

Benjamin's basket of eggs

Now although an egg can't be dented (as far as I know), there are some eggs which are just not eggs that you sell to customers, friends and neighbors.  So Benjamin sorts them out. He'll pack customers' eggs in cartons, always trying to put at least one Aracauna egg in the carton as the blue or green egg offset against the brown eggs make for a really nice presentation.  Notice the customers' cartons loaded up with nice eggs, but also notice the carton in the back.

Eggs for the customers - Family eggs in the back

The carton in the back is the egg equivalent to the 'dented can' and is for the Sonnier Family consumption. Benjamin will sort out broken eggs like the one below.  Some get broken in the course of transit between the barn and the house.  If the membrane isn't broken, well, those get put in the family carton and we eat them. If it is broken, the dog gets to eat them. 

The broken 'dented can'

Other eggs are like the one below and are called "Fart Eggs."  I explained those in this post from last year and you can click on it to read the interesting story of the fart egg:  http://ourmakersacresfamilyfarm.blogspot.com/2013/06/extra-small-egg.html  Well, fart eggs are perfectly fine to eat, but they are small.  Those get put in the family carton along with the broken ones.

The Fart Egg 'dented can'

Then there are the eggs that are just dirty.  Some eggs get dirty from muddy chicken feet climbing into and out of the nest.  Some eggs get dirty from, well, chicken poop. We'll wash some of it off, but we don't like to wash the eggs if at all possible.  When a hen lays an egg, she puts a coating on the egg called the 'bloom.' The bloom seals the porous egg and keeps bacteria out of it.  Washing the egg removes this protective coating and also allows the moisture in the egg to evaporate, thus reducing shelf life of the egg.  Excessively dirty eggs get washed but will go in the family carton with the broken eggs and fart eggs.

The dirty 'dented can'

There is one more egg that we don't sell to customers and I don't have a picture of it. I call them mystery eggs.  Remember when I told you about hens liking to hide their eggs?  Well, mystery eggs are those nests that we find in uncommon places and we don't know for sure if they are good or not.  Those definitely go in the family carton. These eggs are tested by floating them in water.  If they are rotten, they will float and those eggs get composted.  The eggs that pass the float test are cracked ONE AT A TIME (a lesson learned!) into a separate little bowl before we cook them. 

Looking at the family carton is sort of like the Island of Misfit Toys, but you know what?  Pastured eggs laid by free range hens roaming under blue skies and sunshine - eating bugs, worms, and who knows what else are delicious, regardless if they have a few 'dents' in them.