Gratuitous egg blogging: The giveaways begin
By Gina Spadafori
May 27, 2008
I love my hens! And now, they’re starting to love — or at least tolerate — each other, after the addition of three more a couple days ago.
Charlotte has decided to quit attacking Hester, and everyone’s suddenly laying like crazy. I can now ID the eggs by breed, for the most part: green and khaki from the Americunas, pinky-red from the Rhode Island Reds and rich, dark brown from everyone else.
I’ll be taking a dozen back to work to give away today. (And I’m going to find out from some expert why eggs are different colors, because I’m curious!)
But as pretty as the eggs are, the chickens are even prettier! This is Hester the Hated, a Barred Plymouth Rock.
I don’t know why the group decided she was uncool, but for the first two days it wasn’t pretty. I separated her so the rest could glare at her through the wire. Yesterday afternoon I let them all out in the garden, and last night they all roosted together in the coop. All seems well.
But at the beginning the others jumped on her and pulled feathers (you can see the scruffiness on her head).
Now I really know what a “pecking order” is all about!
P.S. To sharp-eyed readers. I’m outta coffee. Hence, typos. I think I got ‘em all.
I always hope that the color of the eggshells would match the color of the eggs inside. Wouldn’t it be fancy to have a black and white speckled egg on your plate?
Do chickens like kisses? I want to give one to Hester. Poor thing.
Comment by slt — May 27, 2008 @ 8:02 am
I heard on The Splendid Table that white hens lay white eggs and colored hens lay colored eggs and that the bigger the egg, the thinner the shell and the older the bird. I guess that is common sense if you think about it.
Comment by cheryl — May 27, 2008 @ 9:59 pm