EGG-cellent

Even though it is not Easter my husband and I get to hunt EGGs everyday. Trust me it is truly a surprise to see what the ladies have left behind. Before I explain the picture below we are going to have some Egg-ucation.

1) Eggs come in all sizes and colors.

2) Only HENS lay eggs.

3) Only a Rooster can fertilize the egg.
4) You do NOT need a rooster for a Hen to produce an egg.

5) You DO need a rooster for the egg to hatch a chick.

6) YES, you can eat a "fertilized" egg. (Fertilized only means there is now potential for a chick. The Hen must "sit" on the eggs and bring them up to the proper temperature before the chick will start to develop.)

7) It takes 21 days for a chick to hatch once incubation has begun.

Other fun facts include: You can get an egg with a double yolk during the early stages of laying, you may get an egg with no yolk, you may get an egg that has a soft and slightly see through shell but is normal inside, and last but not least if the egg gets a little stuck in the laying track you get a very elongated egg.

So now that you know a little about chickens lets move on to the photo. Yesterday while gathering the eggs I noticed this tiny (far left in photo) and I mean tiny egg shell in one of the nesting boxes. I gathered it with all the others and brought it to show my husband and of course to crack it to see what was inside. Upon inspection it was just like a normal egg shell as far as color and thickness and so I proceeded to break inside. Inside was the smallest egg white I have ever seen. I am not sure who laid this or why but it was worth documenting. 

As you can see from the photo we get all colors of eggs. When I purchased my hens I purposefully chose different breeds so I would have a variety.  We have brown, light brown, white, green, brown with specks, cream and of course the small bantam hen eggs which are mainly cream in color.  So I guess size wise we have Extra Large, Large, Medium, Small, and Tiny.

Multiple sizes and colors

People are always asking me how many chickens I have so below is the breakdown.

23 total

16 Hens

  2 Bantam Hens (miniature chickens)

  3 Bantam Roosters

  2 Bantams- sex unknown at this time. (These were the first two my hens naturally hatched)

Top four questions after they hear that answer is:

1) How many eggs do you get?

2) What do you do with all those eggs!?!?

3) Do you sell them?

4) Where did I get the chickens?

The number of eggs we get fluctuates everyday. It also depends what time of year it is.  Hens always lay better in the summer months with longer daylight hours.  Most of the time we use the eggs for meals, pasta, and holiday deviled eggs. What we have left we give to friends and family and occasionally someone donates to the feed fund.

I have bought chickens at the following three places and have had success with them all:

Tractor Supply

Meyer Hatchery

Champion Feed and Pet Supply

Now you can tell everyone you learned something new today!!