Glinda, that's a great post!

When I was growing up, our local grocery store offered double yolk eggs. I guess the local egg producer would sort the eggs out and package the double yolk ones together. My mom would always buy the double yolk ones. I bet they were cheaper.

This same egg producer would advertise on tv. I remember the jingle well. "Brown eggs are local eggs, and local eggs are fresh." They sold brown eggs and were trying to make wary consumers understand that they were just fine.

Glinda I wish you lived near us :(
The 'rents won't drive to buy free-range local eggs (reasonable I guess) so the choice is supermarket ones, or local - caged - ones. I fall down on the side of the supermarket ones, all things considered. But I'd LOVE to get those pretty colours and still feel as if I was doing the right thing.

There is a supermarket that sells breed-specific eggs, but it's 8 miles away.
And plenty of local farms, but again within that kind of radius.

If I save an egg carton there's a teacher at school that is happy to pass on eggs from her own coop. I rejoice in that. But they are all brown anyway... How shallow am I?

Aw, you guys knew the spinning trick! :p:

More arcane chicken facts for your Encyclopaedia of Useless Information:

Did you know that hens can crow? No kidding. Happened to me.

My first roo ("cock" for the naughty in the crowd) was a real bastard. Oh, he did his job keeping the girls safe and protected (and properly coited), but he apparently considered me as much of a threat as the hawks and coyotes that live out here in the woods. Came after me all the time.

After two bouts of infection from being spurred by that little fuck, I gave him away. Within about a week of his departure, one of my hens stopped laying eggs and began beating up the other hens. Then, she started crowing! It was a pretty lame crow, to be sure, but by god, that little bitch was turning into a roo!

I had to separate her from the flock, because she had become so mean. She apparently thought she was a roo, and that all the other hens were roos, too, so she had to fight them. And because freaked out hens won't lay eggs, she had to go. Since then (it's been about two years), she's had the run of the yard and sleeps in the greenhouse with Marlon, one of my bantam roos, and they get along just fine. Marlon had to be separated from the flock too, because once the big roo was gone, Marlon started fighting his brother (who was the No. 2 roo) for the top spot.

Now, I have a big, ugly leghorn roo in the chicken yard who does his job and doesn't harass me in the least. (Yay!)

Chickens are weird. :D

Here's a pic of Butch and Marlon hanging out on the front porch:


http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/4365/img0405hy.jpg

Yes, my front door is purple. :cool:

Awesome, just awesome. And thanks Glinda for some great posts. I love learning about your chickens.

Yeah, knowing what I do about how big egg farms work, I could never buy commercially produced eggs and sleep at night. Of course, my neighbors laugh at the way I pamper my birds, but they sure LOVE the eggs they make!

:D Buy your school teacher a few Araucana (Easter Egg birds) pullets next spring and in six months, you'll have the colored eggs you dream of! Do you have a garden? If so, why not get yourself a few pullets (yes, they come in the mail!) and have at it? Chickens don't take up much room at all, they eat just about anything, and they're so interesting to watch - cheap relaxation/meditation plus delicious, pretty eggs!

Thank you and it's my distinct pleasure. I LOVE chickens and promote them, whenever possible. :)

Mom always had chickens when I was a kid, so when I bought my first house with a yard, I ordered chickens before I'd even moved in. The birds arrived four days after I did (yes, in the mail!).

I see that you're in Seattle. If you're even down Vancouver (WA) way, let me know. I'm just a few miles north of there, and would be pleased to show you my cocks...

HA!!!! :D

Everything you always wanted to know about eggs but were afraid to ask.
By Glinda.
:)

STOP!

you boiled them for 14 minutes!!!??

nononono

put the (large) eggs in hot tap water. put them on the stove. watch them. once they begin to boil, 5 minutes = perfect egg (cooked thru with just a dot of liquid yolk) . run cold water into the pot and over flow it , dump water, and run directly under cold. this halts the cooking. 6 minutes for even yellow yolks, 7 minutes if you like them dry and hard. 8 minutes if you're going to dye them. 14 minutes, my god woman. were they green in the middle?

also....

this was funny, monster. unfortunate page placement.

thanks, that page placement about summed up my day....

and I love the chicken info too, thanks, Glinda.

Double yolk eggs used to cost more when I was a kid -they were "luxury" items.

How do you know it's a double-yolk egg without cracking it?

candling

Good grief, that will ice up the cooling coils. If you have a self defrosting refrigerator as most people do, it'll cost you ( pulls number out of ass) 50% more to run.

Srsly? Any self-respecting dwellar knows if you pull a number out of your ass, it's going to be 85%

If I want to buy eggs, I can either go to the village store and buy them there (choice of locally farmed, or cheap and cruel)... or, I just walk up Upper Lane and buy them from the little farm there. If you just want to buy a few for the day, there's a basket of eggs and a pot for coins. It's done on the honour system (couldn't do that in an urban setting I suspect). If you want to buy half a dozen or more, then you just knock on the kitchen door.