Eggs

[Pa]

No........these are not dyed. Fact is, they are in my fridge. I get these from a friend of ours who owns a farm. Red, blue, orange, and yellow are common from their chickens too. Pa

This may explain a few things about PA.

pa

i have a little flock in the backyard, i had a auricanna (sp?) that layed green eggs. we get about 4 to 5 a day from 7 birds.

i think they taste and cook up better than store bought eggs. my wife sure likes them for baking.

john

don't know about US practices but over here, vari-coloured eggs are usually taken as a sign of yard-run chickens. Chickens eat litle bits of gravel for their crops and different birds eat different things, why, who knows what chickens think? But it affects the colour of the eggs from that particular bird

[Pa]

Yeah Chris.........I once tried to lay an egg. As my luck would have it....she turned out to be chicken.

Thanks John. glad to know I'm not color blind. As you say, the eggs are great for everything. Dark orange yokes with very rich flavor. Enhances the taste of all you use them for.

I agree 45Brit. What they eat is the answer. Barnyard chickens produce better quality eggs than factory ones. They produce less too.

The question that just begs to be asked is..... If the chickens are in the same yard eating the same feed, why do they produce different colored eggs? My guess would be the different breeds of the chickens, but I've never had any chickens. The ex-wife was terrified of birds.

[Pa]

They are different breeds. I've raised brown egg layers before. Can't remember their breeds but we had two differnet breeds putting out the brown ones. I never had the opportunity, until recently, to view other colored chicken eggs, not unless I dyed them. I was amazed when I scored these ones. They say to check with them every fews days or so. Winter slows production down. Bet they won't come up with a rainbow one. Pa

Curt! - your ex-wife is right. I would stay well away from anyone with eyes as crazy as most chickens.....

Well... Acording to Bill Nye(spelling) the science guy, he says that the color of the egg shell is directly related to the color of the feathers of the hen that layed it.

So you must have a bunch of differant colored birds running around Pa.

well i don't know about bill nye the science guy but the green egg layer i had was the brown one in the back of this shot



the little white and black ones here pictured as pullets have since grown up to be about as big as turkeys and lay goose sized eggs usually with double yolks.



john

[Pa]

John, the black and white ones in the center of your bottom pic are one of the breeds I had that layed good sized brown eggs. The other brown egg layers I had looked simuliar to your green egg layer with the exception of the tail description Pa

pa

the ones in the middle of the second shot are called dominiques. they lay medium brown eggs. they are quite docile, and good for the kids to pick up and carry around.

i try to get chickens that are suited for cold weather, don't want problems with combs and waddles freezing off!

right now we have seven, four brown mixed breeds, one light brama, one australorp and a winnebago. it is supposed to be in the -10 range this week and they all seem to do well if i leave a light bulb or two on in the hen house.

john

[Pa]

Hope we aren't "EGGING" the other members on to the point of not wanting to hear another "PEEP out of us John.

For cold weather, I installed a lamp setup on a timer for the nightime hours. Each hen had her own sitting box located along the rear wall, all along the rear wall of the hen house enclosure. Each sitting box also had a mini door accessing the sitting box from behind the hens. The sitting boxes were 2 tier high. Had 12 producing at the time. Only lost a few eggs out of uncountable dozens to freezing. Pa

The board has been pretty quiet. I don't think anyone would "cluck" about it.

in a vain attempt to keep this motorcycle related, my hens never get upset when i start or drive the panhead by the coop.

oddly enough, they are only upset by stray cats, possums and the occasional raccon that sneaks by at night. their enclosure is wire on all sides and top. i buried about a foot and a half of wire to prevent any "dig ins".

have caught quite a few varmits over the years, i do not practice catch and release!

john

When I was a child....we raised free roaming chickens back in the "holler" here in WV......of course chickens are about the dirtest creatures alive....my dad would keep them in line with a....no shit....red rider BB gun........made it real interesting in the winter eating chicken and spitting out BBs.......eggs were ok, kept you alive...but I preferred eating the chickens.........Skip

Sort of speaking of catch and release ...

My favorite was my next door neighbor who used to live-trap groundhogs in his garden, and then release them into the adjacent river, while they were still in the trap

Mark

Thievin' varmit control? Conibear and release! Easier to handle the occasional skunk than a live trap.