5-Month-Old Non-refrigerated Eggs for Breakfast!

And we lived to tell the tale!

On February 15th we took raw eggs from our hens and set them back to see how long they would keep. Today we took them out and made breakfast with them. Two were suspect, so we did not use them, but the others looked great, smelled and tasted just as good!

Storing eggs from the summer/fall is a great way to even out your production from your home flock to make up for the expected drop in egg numbers during the winter.

The ones we ate Sunday were stored on 2/15/2012

Here's how to do it (but it is certainly not the only way to preserve eggs).

• Take fresh, raw eggs and cover them in food-grade mineral oil. Be sure to get a good coat on it. The idea is to fill all the pores of the egg shell so no air can get in to spoil the egg.

• Lay down some plastic wrap in an egg carton just to keep things tidy. Pack the eggs into the carton and wrap the plastic over the top of the eggs.

• Label the carton and store in a cool, dry place and they should be good for 4-8 months.
• That's it, very simple and easy.

A couple of good links on egg preservation:

• http://extension.oregonstate.edu/lane/sites/default/files/images/lc105.pdf
• http://preparednesspro.com/safely-preserving-eggs/

Into the Nursery!

Alright, the new hens are doing fine now in the "nursery" (plastic bin in the garage) and are eating and drinking like crazy. There was one that looked like she was going to die but we hand-fed her water with electrolyte additive and she is doing fine now, seems she was very dehydrated from the trip from the hatchery.

The Ladies Have Arrived!

I picked up the new hens this week. They arrived at our local post office all healthy and cheeping merrily after their long journey.

Loss of Flock Due to Predation

Recently, we lost our entire flock due to a raccoon attack. I won't elaborate as there is not too much more to say but we ordered more hens and are rebuilding the flock.

2010 Chicken Photo Essay

 

 

 

Chickens Have Been Moved

We recently moved to a different house and of course, took the chickens along.

It was a scene moving the coop, we have video and will try to post it soon!

 For the record, we not did move them as they do in China:

You get some large sacks, poke some holes in the top, weave the birds into each so each head is sticking out, and then you can throw the entire sack on a bicycle or truck. Source.

Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon...! Arrival of the First Eggs

My little helper Nick and I headed out to shut the chickens in their coop for the night. We opened the door to count them, and I noticed a little egg shaped item on the coop floor. I could barely believe my eyes, but I reached down to touch it, and while the shell was soft, it was indeed an egg! The girls turned 22 weeks old this week, and they are entering womanhood!

Here you can see the various sized combs they are developing, which is a sign of maturation.

Dot's comb seemed to grow overnight.
This photo was taken this weekend, and the comb is even bigger today.

Nick helped me look in the nesting boxes, and there sat another beautiful little egg. Nick was very excited, but I told him we needed to go get Joe, and away we ran back into the house to get Joe.

We grabbed flashlights and headed back outside as quickly as we could. I was so nervous they would step on an egg or that the eggs would be terribly fragile and break, but I was pleasantly surprised to find how well they stood up to the boys handling them. The soft-shelled one even stood up to Nick throwing it on our kitchen floor when we got inside because Joe told him it was "bouncy" and he wanted to see how it bounced. It didn't bounce, but it did stay intact!

We ended up finding three eggs! One truly hard-shelled blue-green beauty, one soft-shelled oddity, and one membrane-covered mutation. I have read that when chickens aren't getting enough calcium, their shells can be soft or non-existent. Doing further reading tonight, I also found out that first eggs can be like that too. Soft-shell, no shell, smaller and sometimes oddly shaped are all normal in the first 2-3 weeks of laying. I have more research to do.

Left to right: Soft shell, no shell, hard shell. This is before I washed them off.

We don't know which of the 9 layed these eggs, and we don't know if it was 3, or 2 or even just 1 of the girls that produced these. There's probably not a good way to know with the configuration we have for their coop. I feel confident, however, that we will be seeing MANY more eggs soon!

Sadly, Jason missed the excitement as he was in class this evening, but as soon as he got home, the boys couldn't give him all the details fast enough.


So begins our sustainable egg supply, from happy, healthy chickens, that we can feel confident are untainted by weird hormone treatments or poor living conditions. I can't wait to fry up one of these eggs. Maybe tomorrow morning, with a side of bacon!