Backyard Egg Envy
After visiting another friend, Laura at the not-so-Urban-Hennery, though, I decided against our own flock. The chickens were gorgeous. I loved the idea of our own fresh eggs... and yet, clearly, chickens required daily work. We have two young kids, we had just acquired an energetic kitten, and adding more living things to our daily responsibilities seemed too much. (Besides, Laura told me, my fantasy of the chickens pecking aphids off my kale as they strolled through the garden was misguided. They'd be eating the kale, too.)
I hadn't regretted the decision until we visited our friends last week and were treated to lunch from their mature, generously laying flock. Our kids collected a pastel rainbow of eggs from the laying boxes. The yolks were golden and the whites firm; they made fabulous fried egg sandwiches. Our friends told us that, when the eggs are scrambled, they don't shrink when cooked the way supermarket eggs do, they look as plentiful at the end as the beginning. Their baked goods are even better than before.
On top of all that, they get to store the eggs in this awesome spiral egg holder that a sister sent from England. I've been looking around for a similar model, and this elegant egg holder, also from England, is the closest one I've found. Guess it'll take even more of an egg-volution before such tools become common in our American kitchens. As for us, the kitten is now a cat, the kids are getting older... maybe someday we will count those backyard chickens after they're hatched.
-- Rebekah Denn
Debbie on December 29, 2009 at 05:33 AM
http://www.omlet.co.uk/shop/shop.php?cat=Kitchen&sub=Egg%20Storage
Try this website. It is called an egg skelter. Those eggs look beautiful!
Jack Okie on December 29, 2009 at 07:01 AM
Rebekah:
Kids on farms all over the country are responsible for caring for the livestock. The idea might have merit for your family.
Shari on December 29, 2009 at 07:05 AM
I've had chickens for the past 5 years. Even raised a few from eggs. Don't need a rooster but keeps the girls happy. All organically feed from our garden along with scratch grains, cobs, etc. You'll never go back to store-bought eggs. Little care-get a large self-watering can and a feeder you can hang so they don't scratch out all the feed onto the ground. Mine usually lay all the eggs in one box.
Paul A'Barge on December 29, 2009 at 07:37 AM
If you are too lazy to raise chickens when you have a kitten and two kids, don't bother now. Give up.
arlo on December 29, 2009 at 08:45 AM
Just do it. After you get set up, there's hardly any work at all. I made a feeder and waterer from 5 gal plastic buckets, and that usually lasts for a week or so for 9 hens. One thing I would have done differently would have been not getting so many because they're averaging around 40 eggs/week now, and we just can't eat that many. However, being the local egg distributor will make you popular with the neighbors.
Nancy on December 29, 2009 at 09:40 AM
As livestock goes, chickens are absurdly easy, and not time-consuming. We live in WI, and in these dark days of winter, we need only check the food and water every couple of days (we don't provide artificial light, so the hens don't lay during December and January). As far as egg overproduction goes, we give some to the local food pantry, although I haven't received any comments on how the multicolored eggs go over with the patrons - our eggs look like the ones in the egg skelter! But in the fall,we also start storing some eggs for winter use. We have a fridge which is kept at about 36 degrees; last year, our hens stopped laying in mid-November, and we finished off the last of the eggs in February. Aside from an increase in the size of the air sac (slight dehydration), we noticed no difference in the eggs in texture or flavor. The whites were still firm and the yolks upstanding - unlike storeboughts, which are often flat and runny when you first buy them. We did put dates on the boxes so that we were using the oldest eggs first.
Rebekah Denn on December 29, 2009 at 01:48 PM
A SKELTER! What a great name! Thank you, Debbie!
Jack, you're right -- the kids could help. It's a pleasure to have them working in the garden, and there's no reason they couldn't take on some chicken tasks.
Shari, Arlo, Nancy -- That's less work than I had anticipated. I was partly scared off by the idea of vet bills (some of our friend's chickens had picked up problems) and daily feeding, cleaning, protecting from predators. Just reading your descriptions makes me feel braver. Thanks!
Doug Jones on December 29, 2009 at 02:16 PM
Rebekah, you don't take chickens to the vet, you take them to the soup pot.
Toads on December 29, 2009 at 05:12 PM
a) Make the kids responsible for caring for the chickens.
b) Start small, with 2 chickens.
One thing I worry about this whole thing (particularly after seeing the number of eggs in the egg holder) is that eating eggs daily leads to VERY high cholesterol.
Do you know how much cholesterol eggs have?
Backyard eggs are great, but if this is tripling your egg consumption, that is not healthy either.
On the other hand, if you frequently give a dozen away to a neighbor, they will *love* you.
Open Channel D on December 29, 2009 at 05:31 PM
Toads,
In a February 2009 Nutrition Bulletin paper entitled "Eggs and Dietary Cholesterol - Dispelling the Myth," Prof. Bruce Griffin and Dr. Juliet Gray reviewed studies of egg consumption, dietary cholesterol and heart disease risk. The following conclusions were drawn:
•There appears to be an association between dietary cholesterol and coronary heart disease because saturated fat and cholesterol co-exist in fatty foods.
•Dietary cholesterol can increase LDL cholesterol a small amount, but the effect is clinically insignificant, and the effect of saturated fat is far greater.
•Evidence does not suggest the small increase in blood cholesterol caused by dietary cholesterol increases the risk of heart disease.
•Eating eggs may increase HDL cholesterol, counteracting the effect of LDL cholesterol on heart disease risk.
Eggs are not the enemy.
BTW, check out Khaki Campbell ducks; they outlay most chickens, their eggs are fantastic, and they're easy to take care of.
AST on December 29, 2009 at 05:35 PM
If you eat the chickens, you'll find they taste better than the "meat" chickens, bred to eat constantly and grow fast for the food industry.
You also ought to check the zoning laws. Having chickens crowing at all hours will not endear you to your neighbors.
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