eggs!

our multicolored eggs

speaking of egg color driving our hen choices every year (see prior post ), here is a sampling of some of what our flock puts forth every day.  the blue and green eggs come from ameraucana chickens. marans, barnvelders,  and welsummers lay the chocolate brown eggs. . . and the white leghorn hens lay large, perfect, white, hard-shelled eggs.

when we collect the eggs, we never really know for sure what we will get from day-to-day. some hens lay quite frequently, some not so much. we also never know for sure where we will find them. although they have beautifully outfitted nest boxes, some hens just take a liking to a particular spot and will lay their eggs there, nest box or not. then it’s a challenge to avoid “walking on eggshells” when we go to throw them some treats or collect the days eggs.

one likes to lay her eggs on the ground to the right of the stairs that lead out to the run. another deposits hers out in the run.  if we find an egg in the same spot a few times, my husband will place a nest box there for that hen, although there is no guarantee that she will take advantage of it.

the eggs also vary in size; sometimes (when hens are first starting to lay) the egg is as small as a marble! sometimes they are as large as a tennis ball, and we have found eggs of every size in between.  shape varies from perfectly round to oval to oblong. sometimes they are asymmetrical. they are never boring.