Eggscellent!!

[BoSoxGal]

I just got hooked up with a source for farm-fresh brown eggs - our Undersheriff has a little ranchette and keeps chickens (among other critters); somehow the subject never came up before, but now I'm guaranteed at least a dozen a week - more if I want them, for $2/dozen.

I'd forgotten how fantastic farm fresh eggs are compared to the stale ones that sit in the grocery's cooler sometimes for weeks before going on the shelf.

These eggs have rich dark orange yolks and the shells often still have grass and chicken poop on them when they come to me. Their TASTE is amazing!

Eggscellent! I highly recommend finding a local source for farm-fresh eggs, if you can. It's akin to the difference between a commercially grown tomato and one grown in the backyard or at a local farm.

[Scooter]

These eggs have rich dark orange yolks and the shells often still have grass and chicken poop on them when they come to me. Their TASTE is amazing!

Oh dear, ambiguous antecedents lead to two quite different pictures in the mind.

[BoSoxGal]

Yum, chicken poop!

[rubato]

Ya know what's so great about brown eggs? They're brown.

yrs,
rubato

[BoSoxGal]

The only difference between brown and white eggs is the color of the hen; brown hens are bigger and eat more, which is why brown eggs are often more expensive. Same nutritional value in the eggs.

[Sue U]

Actually, the color of a chicken's egg is determined by its breed, and supposedly you can also tell by the color of its earlobes (although I have yet to undertake a search for our chickens' earlobes). We have an "Easter egger" that lays a lovely large green egg. We had another whose eggs were light blue, but she died last year. Our other chickens all lay various shades of brown, from oatmeal to walnut, mostly medium to large size (although they were much larger when the birds were younger, and frequently with double yolks). In addition to the remaining Easter-egger, we have three reds (Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Red Star), a gold-lace Wyandotte and a speckled Sussex.

I think a few of us on this board keep chickens. You might consider getting a few yourself, BSG.

[Joe Guy]

How do you prepare to begin keeping chickens?

Do you buy a chicken or an egg?

[TPFKA@W]

If the eggs have poop on them the chicken people aren't picking them up fast enough. If you pick them up (out of the nest) fast enough they won't get all poopy. If they eggs are poopy you have to wash them (reasonable hygiene suggests that you would want to) and if you wash them then you have to refrigerate them. Unwashed eggs with no poop just the natural mucusy layer don't have to go in the fridge.
Just my fyi to you.

[Guinevere]

I eat nothing but local eggs from free-range chickens. The farms where I get my eggs have most of the breeds Sue mentioned, plus Ameracunas, which are the ones that lay blue, green, and sometimes pink eggs! One of my local egg ladies has hens that lay double-yolkers regularly -- huge eggs!

[kristina]

I'm lucky that I can keep a couple of hens in my little yard. When all's right with the world, I get about a dozen eggs a week (not as many in the winter, or when one of the girls is molting). I get to turn table scraps and weeds and stuff I'd otherwise toss into delicious eggs. The yolks are not as deep orange colored as they were when the girls first started laying, but that's because they've eaten every green thing in their yard. I give them whatever greens I can scrounge (grass and weeds, over-sized zucchini, brussels sprout and broccoli leaves from a friend's garden, shredded cabbage from the market in a pinch), but it's not quite enough.

[BoSoxGal]

I have a lovely space attached to my backyard proper that a prior owner utilized as a vegetable garden. I have all winter to decide whether to be ambitious enough for vegetable gardening, or whether to set up a coop for a few lovely hens of my own.

[oldr_n_wsr]

my sister has chickens and she gives dad eggs. When we go up to his house we use those eggs rather than store bought. Haven't really noticed the taste difference as I usually have two eggs with bacon (or sausage) and cheese on a roll.

there is a lace not far from me on the Island that sells fresh laid eggs for $6 for three dozen. He still has LI Ducks too. LI Duck is goooooood.
Not many duck farms left on LI. They all merged and became the LI Ducks baseball team.

[Big RR]

@W--how long can you keep unwashed eggs at room temperature and still use them?

[Sue U]

BigRR: If you eat eggs with any frequency, you really don't have to worry how long they're sitting out. When our hens were laying the most -- we were getting 5 or 6 eggs a day -- we had some eggs on the counter for two weeks or so before we could get to them. (Frittatas for dinner a couple of nights makes a good dent in any oversupply.) I've seen many people report that unwashed eggs will easily last a month or two unrefrigerated. But frankly, if you've got so many eggs that you can't eat them within a month, you're doing it wrong.

[oldr_n_wsr]

Halloweens coming. Give all your unused eggs to the little devils so they can throw then at people, cars and houses.

[Sue U]

Unfortunately, this time of year the chickens are molting, and between that and the shortening days/cooler weather, they are far less productive. From now til spring, I'll easily use whatever we get. So no egging cars/houses/etc.

[Big RR]

Sue--thanks; my guess was that the mucosal coating dries out and the eggs become much as washed eggs in a week or so. But 2 weeks to a month suggests this is not the case. I do recall seeing eggs on unrefrigerated supermarket shelves in Europe, so I knew they'd last a while.

Do you usually wash the eggs before using them to remove an residual matter on the shell?

[Sue U]

No. Once the "bloom" dries it essentially becomes part of the shell, acting as a sealant. We don't wash the eggs unless they have some mud stuck to them, which can happen during rainy seasons. As a rule, there shouldn't be any poop on a chicken egg, since hens don't poop in the nest box. (Everywhere else -- and I mean everywhere else, they do.) But occasionally it does happen, generally when there's some poop already stuck to the chicken's butt. Those we wash off.

[TPFKA@W]

@W--how long can you keep unwashed eggs at room temperature and still use them?

Sue said it. Basically it is important that they not lose the mucosa layer on them. Commercial eggs in the US are washed, there is a particular formula for it, and then must be kept refrigerated. In the UK and probably most of the rest of the civilized world, eggs are not washed as they are here and so if you go to the grocery they are not refrigerated.
OTOH having a bowl of chicken poop on my kitchen island is disgusting so it is important that the eggs are gathered as they are laid.

[Gob]

I do recall seeing eggs on unrefrigerated supermarket shelves in Europe, so I knew they'd last a while.

Not only Europe, we don't refrigerate in Aus.