Raising Our Own Chickens

The Egg-ecutive Producers

We have 19 pullets who are at or are nearing the laying stage.  Pullets are what you call female chickens that are under 1 year of age.  Once they're a year old, they are called hens.  So far, that I can tell, and as of this posting, we have 6 pullets that are laying eggs.  Three New Hampshire Reds and three White Leg Horns.  The New Hampshire Reds lay lovely brown eggs and the White Leg Horns lay very nice white eggs.

Here is, Floppy, one of our White Leg Horns sitting in a nesting box.

And this is what Floppy left for us.  No, not the golf ball.....

Usually, when a pullet starts laying, her first few eggs will be smaller than what is normal for that breed.  For example;  Floppy laid this small/medium sized white egg.  Normally she will lay a large/x-large size egg.  In about a week or two she should hit the max. size for her eggs.  And as an FYI, White Leg Horns are prolific layers! They lay 4- 6 eggs a week!  And we have four White Leg Horns!  

An Incr-edible Egg

Have you ever compared an egg purchased at a supermarket and an egg straight from you very own chicken, or at least from someone else's very own chicken - straight from their backyard farm?  If you have, then you know there really is no comparison to a farm fresh egg!  When chickens are raised on a farm or a small backyard farm where they are allowed to forage, are fed fruit/veggie/grains table scraps, and a good layer feed, you are going to notice the difference in taste and the difference in the way the yolk looks.  A farm fresh egg will have a richer taste and the yolk will be a yellow-orange color, not the bright yellow you get from an egg obtained from the supermarket. Farm fresh eggs are even more healthy for you. Check out this article about eggs from Mother Earth News! 

Here is an egg I broke open this morning from one of our NHR pullets as a part of our breakfast.  We even got a double-yolker!

See the nice rich color of that yolk?  You won't get that from a supermarket egg!  

If you can't or just don't want to raise your own chickens, look around in your local area to see who does raise backyard/small farm laying chickens - I bet you could purchase a dozen from the farmer there. You could get different colored eggs; white, brown, dark brown (chocolate color), brown speckled, blue or green.  But no matter what the color of the shell is, all chicken eggs taste the same.  Some people prefer getting the different colored eggs! It's always fun to see what color egg your pullet will lay (if you don't already know). 

Depending on where you live, you could pay anywhere between $3 - $8 per dozen.  And most of what you pay is to help the farmer off-set the cost of feed and supplies to help keep the hens happy so they lay those nice farm fresh eggs that will keep you wanting more!  You'll soon forget the eggs at the supermarket!

We will soon have surpluses of our eggs available for purchase!  We will post updates!