Mr. Munro and I both agree. On that alpaca farm, we’ll have some hens.
There’s nothing better or more satisfying than eating the fresh eggs you’ve collected. Of course, I know from experience that some hens take issue with egg stealing and they fight back. Hen pecks aren’t much fun. They hurt!
I also know (from experience) that if it’s meal time you don’t muck around with dispersing those vegetable scraps or hen pellets. Get in and get out. It’s no fun being mobbed by a flock of hungry birds.
At egg eating time, make sure you crack that egg into a cup first because there’s always the chance, especially if the kids have collected the eggs, that the egg might be a bit old. It’s no fun having to start measuring the baking ingredients again because the egg was off.
But there are good times as well. Picture that fresh breakfast egg and the way it tastes. It’s fun watching the chicks peck their way from eggs and seeing the hens with chickens pecking for grubs in the paddock. Ah, yes. Fun times on that farm.
Do you have any experiences to share? Do you like eating eggs?
I love chickens! We only have about 8 right now, but at one time we were selling chickens and eggs and had around 200. Not the smartest birds, but highly entertaining. My favorite part is watching the momma hens with their babies. It is amazing how they survive.
You’d think I was a big egg eater, but a couple eggs a week is my limit. Although hubs can sit down and have a dozen egg omelet with no problem.
I had to laugh because my daughter cracked an egg into a cake mix, and it was an old fertile egg. She didn’t eat eggs for the longest time afterwards, but it sure made the kids more aware of those eggs that hide in the hay. Not a fun experience.
Wow, with wanting alpacas and chickens, you are going to have a full fledged farm! Yeehaw!
We currently have 19 hens and we love it. No more buying eggs at the store. Plus we give quit a few away. Since there is only the two of us. A friend of our is going to help us hatch off a few more. He is the incubators and all the other equipment to help us. We are going to start with 2 dozen and then see if we want anymore. Have a great day.
What a beautiful photo of the hen and chicks. I’m a city gal, so I’ve never owned a chicken, but I sure do love eggs. Mmm… I could eat them every day.
We LOVE eggs, but we definitely don’t have hens. We’re city-types, and sadly have no experience with tending animals. I imagine fresh eggs would be an experience to be truly enjoyed!
I’ve had a flock of chickens for over 9 years now. I love ’em. I help the Kindergarden class over at my kids school when they hatch and take the lil’ chicks home. I love my eggs. And since the lil’ chicks are all handled by kids the first 2 weeks of their lives they don’t give me any trouble when I’m in the coop.
Hens are easy, fun and worth every penny of feed you give them. The eggs are so much better than those you get from the store.
I can remember when I was in high school and my dad bought a bunch on baby chickens so he could raise them. We had chickens, a cow and rabbits that we had to feed.
Ah my husband just finished building a chicken coop and we’re getting chickens real soon. Very exciting! LOL I’m a country girl at heart.
Oh! I love my chickens! I have always had Buff Orpingtons. They are the sweetest, gentlest hens you could imagine. They lay the extra large, brown eggs that have lavender freckles with nice dark yolks. They are a larger, cool weather bird that is very hardy and good mamas! I had one hen who loved to follow me around and “help” me garden. You rake the spot and she would be right there to clean it up for you! hehe
Sadly, the current little flock I have now don’t lay any more. A bob cat tore open the top of my pen (nails and all!) and killed one of my hens. Now none of them lay and my rooster is afraid of everything! :roll: *sigh* Oh well, they are very pretty birds though.
Good luck with the farm! :grin:
Colleen
Debra – eggs that are off are definitely not a fun thing to come across. It put me off eggs for ages. Not that I eat many. I might have one a week.
Roberta – my parents used to buy chickens and keep them in an incubator. The chickens would come in a little cardboard box and were so cute. Let us know how your chicken rearing goes.
Julia – I think eggs are a good food source, and they do taste good in cakes. :mrgreen:
Fedora – hubby informed me tonight that the council says we can have two chickens where we live in the suburbs. I said I’d wait until we had land. I don’t think the dog would be very happy!
Catherine – I have to agree about the eggs tasting better. There’s no comparison.
Loretta – ah, yes. The chores that come with animals. We had those same chores when we were kids.
Karen – I look forward to hearing about those chickens. :grin:
Colleen – I haven’t heard of that variety of chickens. When we were kids we had Speckled Suffix, which were very proud looking birds. The eggs sound quite pretty – almost too good to eat. I hope they get over there scare. We don’t have any nasties like that to upset our chickens in NZ.
Shelley, you also have to put the egg up to a light to see whether or not it has been fertilized. That’s better than being grossed out if you crack it open to find a partially grown chick inside or the start of one.
This is are 2nd year with raise chickens for eggs and meat. We started out with 6 layer Road Island Reds and 15 broilers the 1st year. But this year we add 2 more Road Island Reds, 2 Barred Rocks and 2 Araucanas (Easter Egg Chickens) the eggs are colored naturally light blue to a dark Turquoise in colorer. They should start laying the begining of Sept. instead looking for brown eggs we have to look for blue eggs. Also we had 30 broilers this year. And we love eating fresh eggs.
Barbara – good point, although kids don’t always remember to do that!
Jeanette – blue is my favorite color. I’d love to find some blue eggs. The RIR are nice looking birds too. My mother had a few of them as well. I haven’t heard of the other two breeds you mention so I’m off to google.
Thanks for stopping by :grin: