He Finally Relented! Chickens are here

[sheepdog 10]

My better half has never been overly fond of poultry. After having to drive (and load before driving) turkey trucks, he absolutly hates turkeys, and his X had chickens, but he sat down and figured out that by the time you paid for the chicken feed the eggs were costing her $11 a dozen, or some such astronominacal figure. Anyway, the recent big jump in egg prices at the store got him to finally rethink his adversion to being a chicken farmer, and finally I have my flock started. We found a fellow at the swap meet with day old baby chickens, pullets, (all female chickens) for $1 apiece. That is down a lot from what they where in the past, they had been running $2-$3 each, which is just way too much money to give for a baby chick fresh out of the egg. The first week he was there I got 25 chicks. 16 Rhode Island Reds, and 9 Aracanna's. (the aracanna's are the ones they call Easter egg chickens, they lay all different colored eggs) The next week the fellow was back with more chicks, and he had some Cinnamon Queens, so I got 10 of those too. These are supposed to lay really big brown eggs, and if my memory serves me right, they are also more of an off season layer, which means I will have fresh eggs for a longer time during the year. Chicks are doing great, they are growing really well. I had a little wooden house to start them in, and as they grew I put together a couple of big wire dog crates and made them a bigger run. My hubby is getting into this enough he is even building me a chicken house! We are going to have the coolest chicken house in the county, he even bought some clear roofing pannels for sky lights! He still has more building to do, but for now the chicks have not completely outgrown their renovated dog cages yet. When the house is finished, we can put them just in the house part, and then build the runs after that, so we stay ahead of their space requirnments. It will be awhile yet, but I am looking forward to having my own fresh home grown eggs. Don't care what anybody says, homegrown eggs do taste better, and they darn sure look better, the yolks are a nice bright yellow-orange, unlike the pale sickly yellow ones you get in the store.

[rob86 2]

I've noticed that there is a big difference between the eggs from the store and the eggs you get "fresh". I've never had ones straight from a chicken but from some big chicken farm that sells them. The fresh eggs from the farm were much, much more fragile. I normally never break the yolk in an egg, but with the fresher ones from the farm I broke them almost every time. The shells were different too. It makes me wonder what kind of crazy things they do to those store eggs that makes them so user-friendly and unbreakable.I was wondering if you are going to, you know, roast one? My parents were from farming families and even had some animals like chickens and cows but they were gone before I was born. I never experienced good 'ol farm life though I did have what was left of a barn to play in before it fell down. I'm glad in a way because I would bond too much with the "food" and would never be able to kill or even eat something I raised from a baby.. though having chickens for eggs sounds like something I could handle. I wonder how many eggs are you going to get from all those chickens?

[sheepdog 10]

I always thought the store eggs broke easier than the fresh ones. Yokes and shells both. Usually when you break a farm egg into the skillet, you will notice the yolk actually stands up higher than the white, with store bought eggs they lay quite flat. There is just one thing about fresh farm eggs I don't like, they are the devil to peal when they are hard boiled. The shells tend to take away chunks of the whites with them. It was explained to me that this happens because of the freshness of the eggs. In store bought eggs, they often sit in cold storage for some time before hitting the supermarket shelves. This gives oxygen time to pass threw the shells, causeing air pockets to form between the egg white and the shell, making it easier to peal after boiling. We won't be eating any of these, I bought all pullets (females) so they will just be for egg laying. On average, during the laying season chickens bred to be laying chickens will average an egg per day. So we are going to be eating an awful lot of eggs during season. Raw eggs don't freeze all that well, but you can make and dehydrate egg noodles, or scramble them up and fry up egg patties and freeze those for sandwiches later. The frozen raw eggs can be used for cooking, but the yolks tend to get hard after freezing and don't mix up well. Next year I can save back a bunch of eggs and put them in an incubator and raise more chickens. Those we will probably eat. I guess when you grow up on the farm, you understand that not all the critter are going to be pets. You just accept the fact that eating some of them is just the way things work.