New chickens are always a bit of a worry. You don't know what little friends they bring with them, how trainable they will be (yes, you can train chickens), how quickly they will get into lay and whether they are likely to go broody at the drop of a hat. We have had a few interesting issues with Salt and Pepper since they arrived.
We hadn't expected Pepper to be the dimmest escape artist in the area. We hadn't expected her to continue to produce tiny eggs. We didn't expect her to get "jumped" by Billy on one of her wanderings - we have to be careful what we do with her eggs for a while on that basis. We didn't expect Salt to attack Nibbles one day when she was out for her walk (Nibbles is a cat), as she is the most scared chicken of all time. We certainly didn't expect her to lay two eggs in one sitting, but she has done just that - twice!
Here is a clutch of three eggs I got from the coop one day. I could tell they were all pullet eggs as none was very large - but we only have two pullets.
It was only by looking very closely at one of the eggs that we could see what had happened. Salt laid two small eggs rather than a double yolked egg (double yolks are fairly common with young birds who aren't sure how to do things), and had got a reasonable shell on one (bottom left) but the top egg had a very delicate shell. You can see the issues in close up a bit better.
The band around the middle is the thinnest possible layer of egg shell over the egg membrane. We ate both eggs very quickly - shell is wonderful as it helps to preserve the contents of an egg - both were prefect, tasty, with very erect egg white. You will only find that feature with very fresh, new eggs. We hope Salt will calm down soon however, as two eggs in a day isn't normal and therefore isn't good in the long term for chickens.
On a totally different note - as it was stinking hot here over the weekend, we had a BBQ. I had a load of lamb ribs in the freezer, so defrosted those and made a garlic and mint marinade with the help of my new toy - a herb mincer. I was quite pleased with the results as it made a good coating structure for the meat. I don't know how well it would work with tarragon or with basil, but as I have both in the garden, I will be able to find out, and report back.
As an added bonus for the meal, I made a potato salad with the results of an escaped tiny potato that grew in the pea bed. As the peas are finished, I pulled them up and dug up the potato to see what I had got, prior to replanting the bed with lettuces for our party later in the summer. I was very impressed to find a pound and a half of perfect Charlotte potatoes, which made a delicious salad to go with the lamb and the sausages.
I've never really given much thought to egg production - this is an informative post .... and good fun too!!
Posted by: Anne Donald | 12 July 2010 at 07:47 PM