Before we had chickens, an egg wasn’t anything special to me.
I’d certainly bought and used a lot of them, and in more recent years, influenced by terrible accounts of battery hen farming, we’d made a concerted effort to only buy free range eggs.
But I’d never really given much thought to eggs, other than wondering whether or not there were enough in the fridge for my latest baking project. They’re relatively cheap and readily available, and as a result, I’d always taken them for granted.
It wasn’t until we finally had our own chickens that I came to appreciate how special and precious eggs really are. And whenever possible, and because we now can, I want to eat eggs from chooks I know.
Our hens do much more than just lay eggs – their primary function is actually to garden. They dig up the spent beds, eat all the grubs and weeds, fertilise the soil, and then move onto the next patch. The eggs are an added bonus!
Some of our chickens lay quite distinct eggs, and it always makes me happy to be able to match an egg to the chook who laid it!
Francesca’s eggs, for example, are always different from the rest, just as she is different from the rest of the flock. They’re smaller, darker and always a little speckled. I save these for my mum, because she loves the more petite size…
Bertha, on the other hand, lays the lightest coloured eggs, and occasionally the shell will be rough and quite pale. We think she has a dodgy shell-gland, so her eggs aren’t usually as picture perfect as the others. She has, on occasion, laid a shell-less egg, although she’s been in good form for months now…
Finally, it’s always easy to pick Queenie’s egg. Our dominant hen rules the roost like a dictator, and will always insist on first pass at any protein that comes into the coop. Her eggs are always the largest of the clutch, dwarfing Frannie’s little dark ones…
Every time I crack open one of our homegrown eggs, I feel a little wave of gratitude. It’s like a tiny bubble of joy – I ponder whose egg it might be, admire the colour of the yolk, and think about how blessed I am to have something so fresh and magnificent to feed to my loved ones.
I know this all sounds like the ramblings of a chicken-obsessed madwoman.
I also know that it’s not possible for most people to have chickens, and I realise how incredibly fortunate we really are.
I hope though, that the next time you’re baking, you’ll spend a moment admiring the wondrousness of the humble egg, spare a thought for the chook who laid it, and thoroughly enjoy eating whatever you create with it!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
I have always tried to buy free range eggs. I don’t know whether we can trust the label or not. I have kept chickens and also loved to know which of my girls had laid which egg. We now live in an apartment so it is no more chooks for me. I think your chooks are very lucky, they seem to have it made. I am a bit curious about egg production in Italy. I know nothing about what happens there.
Deb, it can be so hard to know if the eggs we buy are really free range or not – this article from the SMH a couple of years ago found that one in every six free range eggs isn’t actually what it claims to be..
http://www.smh.com.au/national/freerange-egg-claims-dont-add-up-20090905-fc4b.html
Too bad you can’t keep a rooster. That adds a whole extra dimension to having chooks. I really miss home grown eggs if my girls take a winter break. We’re lucky to have a local free-range producer.
Liz, it’s a nice idea, but I like my sleep! :)
We’ve been lucky so far and the weather has been quite mild – the girls are laying less, but still consistently.
I loved every word of your ‘ramblings of a chicken-obsessed madwoman’. The majority of the eggs in supply here in the Middle East are laid by hens in spooky sheds out in the desert. Strangely many Arabic households keep hens and I often see them scratching at grass verges on my morning dog walk in the city. Although imported free-range organic eggs are 5 times the price and use food-miles energy I buy these. I think consumer demand is finally making a tiny impact and some local organic free range eggs are becoming available.
I often have hen-rearing fantasies. My Mother-in-law makes the best custard from egg yolks and cream. The hens are kept by friends up the road (in Devon UK) and in the summer everything has a slight tinge of wild garlic from their foraging.
Sorry – I’ve gone on a bit – but it’s a topic close to my heart. More hen posts please!
Thanks Sally! It’s kind of you all to respond so positively when I’ve been rabbiting on like a nutter. ;-)
We’ve really been appreciating the eggs during the colder weather – every other day we’ve been baking friands and making microwave custard with the yolks! :)
An eggsellent egg ramble, Celia. I love our own eggs and now feel quite disgruntled when I am forced to buy eggs – like now, when the ladies are off the lay.
As our girls are aging, I’m adding to the flock later this year – should be interesting.
Amanda, I’m already fretting about what we’ll do when the girls stop laying! I certainly wouldn’t want to get rid of them – maybe we’ll just have to learn how to live with fewer eggs.
Not mad at all, rather charming.
:)
Thanks, love. :)
I so agree with you – a “real” egg is a thing of real beauty. My favourite poet, Marge Piercy, even has a poem about them!
Linda, I’ll have to look that up – I reckon our eggs could inspire me to poetry too!
From one chicken obsessed women to another, I fully understand how important your chooks are to you. I love mine and don’t know what I’d do without them. I’m ordering some fertile eggs in the next month or so, which will be my first foray into hatching my own chickens (not me personally – just thought I’d clarify that one ;-). Let’s just hope I don’t end up with a high percentage of roosters!
Meaghan, I’ll cross my fingers for you! That’s very exciting, hatching your own eggs – will you sit them under a broody hen, or pop them in an incubating box?
How lovely to put a name to your eggs. Its great how they change a little from season to season with the food they eat as well- I know you feed them, but I mean the food they find naturally.
My chookies laid the odd shell-less egg too and I made shell grit available, it was amazing how much they gobbled up. They must know instinctively what they require I guess.
My pick would be the little dark eggs too. Yesterday I opened a whole box (180) of catering eggs, and found a little fluffy brown feather, it made my whole day and I smiled for ages.
We have a small container of shell grit in the coop where the girls can help themselves. It was amazing – they ran out a couple of weeks ago, and you can almost instantly see the difference in the thickness of their shells!
What a treat it is for you (& us) to know the laying habits of your girls. I always make a special trip to the markets to pick up organic free range as I’m with you on being horrified about dreadful chooky stories, cannot handle the thought my eggs would be treated that way, but Celia…, seriously…. your girls have the best life. Thank you for sharing, I will definitely look on my morning googie differently from now on – promise!
Anna, thank you! Good on you for going out of your way to get organic free range – I know it’s not always economically viable for chefs to do that!
Amazing how a dinosaur has evolved into a gardening aid isn’t it? As you know I am a huge bird fan and chickens are one of the many treasures of that world. I love your egg portraits and the delicate and tender way you write about the ladies. What a wonderful read you have given us today! Long live the chooks!
Hopelessly besotted, I am. Thanks Jo.. :)
Celia, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this post. I love that each girl gives you a different type of egg – lovely.
:-) Mandy
Thanks Mandy! It’s interesting – Pete and I can both distinguish the chickens by sight (he can do it better than I can), but Pete can also tell them apart by their personalities. They’re all quite different. Queenie is bossy and demanding, Bertie is cantankerous and downright crazy, Harriet is quite timid, Maggie is skittish and doesn’t like to be caught, Rosemary is immature and always flies at the coop door whenever we bring food. And Frannie, she’s in a league of her own – she really does march to the beat of her own drum!
I had a good giggle at all your chickens personalities – they certainly are all very different and seem to be quite entertaining. :-)
I hear you, really I do! So grateful for our eggy gifts and cracking them open to reveal their golden yolks and plump whites creates a feeling of happiness every time.
An egg slipped out of my grasp the other day on the way back to the house, it smashed at my feet and I couldn’t help but sob. Crazy chook person? Yes. And proud :)
Hahaha…since we’ve had our own eggs, I’ve accidentally broken just one. I was so distraught I had to go out and apologise to the chooks! ;-)
Every time I read about your chickens and eggs, I so wish we could have them. I’ll have to make do with living vicariously through you and getting farm fresh eggs from the chickens at my little guy’s nature center preschool. I love that you can identify whose eggs are whose…this was such a fun post! =)
Abby, I’m so happy you get fresh eggs from your son’s preschool! I wish you could have chooks too – your kids would love them!
We are lucky enough to have chickens at the school I teach at so a constant supply of fresh eggs is ready and waiting!
That’s wonderful! I’m sure the kids enjoy having the chooks as well!
Sounds like those birds have become part of the family :-)
HoneyB fixed me up with her friend from pre-school (another 4 year old!) who supplies us with eggs for a little fee. The fee goes to save for his first calf :-)
Gill, go HoneyB! Sounds like her little friend is a farmer entrepreneur in the making! Maybe as the years go by you’ll get milk from his cow as well! :)
It’s funny how our perspective can color our likes and dislikes – as a kid who grew up on a chicken farm, I absolutely hated eggs (it was that little slimy part in the egg that I feared with every bite.) – on a good day, I’d eat a scrabbled egg if it was drowned in catsup. I didn’t like chicken meat either, because to me it always had the taste of chickens getting plucked in the giant pot of boiling water (nasty smell). I drove my mom crazy, since the bulk of all our meals was chicken and eggs.
So, it was only when I finally left for college that I was able to shake those prejudices and develop a liking for eggs and chicken. Today, it’s hard for me to believe that was me.
It’s funny how our childhoods prejudice us! I’m glad you got over them, Doc, can’t imagine what cooking and baking would be like without eggs! :)
I can identify with that as well. I hated being chook girl as a kid, and it probably took me 10 years before I wanted to have chooks of my own. Now, geez I would love to have them. There would be nothing more exciting than introducing my boys to hatching chickens under a fluffy bottomed mama chook.
Also being involved in that simple circle, of giving them food, and they in turn giving it back….ahh, one day.
I hope so, Brydie – I think you’d love them! :)
beautiful: we have our holiday home on the South of France and free range it certainly is: when the kids were tiny we were fore warned about plucking etc but now it is as it happens….the eggs are fab too -deep orange yolks making perfect cakes…
Fiona, a holiday house in the South of France WITH chooks sounds like heaven… :)
Thoroughly enjoyable post Celia. I have been an animal lover from a very young age, and am always amazed at the wonderous things in nature that God created for our enjoyment. I try to thank him as often as I can remember to. It is moving how much you care for your hens. I would give anything to have some egg laying hens of my own. Until I do though, I will try to buy free range eggs as often as I can. I think it is unfair that we have to pay more for practices that s/b followed by all.
Melanie, thank you for your lovely comment, and for reminding us that we’re all very blessed! :)
As a lucky recipient of your lovely ladies eggs I know how precious they are. I love eggs in the morning, the sunny yolk colour looks like the sun to me :)
I’m glad you enjoyed them, love! Come and get some more! :)
On the weekend I cooked my first successful frittata, it seems it would be nice to use for some home grown eggs.
I think I will try individual serves next. I find it is nice to have ready for a quick weekday breakfast. On the cold mornings it is delighful to have a warm offering.
Moo {:0)
Moo, there’s an egg based tarte tatin that you gave me the recipe for once – I must try it again with our own eggs!
For years I had a nice sized chicken yard that hosted not only chickens but also ducks and my beloved goose Melina (who was as faithful and loving as a good old yellow dog)… Since I’ve never been a big egg lover (but loved having poultry) I continuously gifted many neighbors with my “girls” daily production…(Have you ever seen or eaten a goose egg, they might as well have been from T-rex?)… Well, after having to give away my dear birds (but keeping the goose) I bought a dozen commercial eggs, what a surprise when I broke open the first one being that it’s shell was so thin (as all commercial ones are) that the yolk and all splattered around the top of the stove upon striking the critter on the side of the frying pan, with my home-raised eggs the shells were so thick and hard that there was never such a problem… Wadda surprise!!!!
A question please, from where in the world are you writing you wonderful blog, Celia? I notice British spelling and saw the give-away word “Vegemite” (England, “Down Under”?), or Italy???? I really enjoy your site and have advised family and friends about it, I’m so glad that I chanced upon FJ&LC which will give me another reason to be at the computer for hours on end.
Yours,
Gian John Banchero
Berkeley, California – USA
Gian, I’ve never had a goose egg, but I’m sure they must be amazing – I saw one on a friend’s blog recently and it was ginormous! We’re based in Sydney Australia, and I’m very chuffed that you’re reading all the way from Berkeley! Thanks for stopping by! :)
I bet you have the happiest eggs on earth. :-)
Maz.
I hope so, Maz! Thank you! :)
What a super post. You are right, eggs are precious. Can I ask you something about chickens? Do they usually get bothered by domestic cats if they are free roaming? I think we have an ideal garden for chickens, and we’d certainly appreciate their help with the weeding etc (smile), but we have two cats and there are three next door and random others in the street. Would the chickens get stressed/eaten, or are the cats likely to come off worse?
Jane, thank you! Our chooks live in a large moveable dome, so they don’t roam around the garden. It wouldn’t work – they’d eat everything in sight! :) They do have a heap of space though, with a swing and a high roost, which they jump up and down from all day long. The dome in theory keeps them safe from foxes (not a huge problem here in Sydney’s inner west), but also from dogs and any other predators (barring snakes, I guess). We don’t have any cats, but there are some up and down the street, and so far none of them have bothered our girls.
If you’re interested, I wrote about our chook dome here: https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2011/01/14/moving-the-chook-dome/
I’ve just discovered your fantastic blog, through some other beautiful minded souls. We have four chooks, Henny and Penny (because we can’t tell them apart) Matilda and Daisy. Alas two aren’t laying – one for quite some time now :-( but they are family, so dirt turning, scrap eating and content clucking have become their primary jobs.
We love giving our excess eggs away to friends and neighbours, often in return for other home grown produce that turns up at our door. I love the concept of turning my vege scraps into eggs :-)
looking forward to reading and sharing more
Ally
Ally, I’m the same, I love giving away surplus eggs to friends and family. A couple of friends have suggested selling them, but I don’t want to part with my ladies’ hard work for a few cents each. I’d much rather give them to people who will really enjoy them! Thanks for stopping by! :)
I love your chook posts. Everything you share is surrounded with love !
I’d love to have my own chickens, but I love my husband more and he is adamant. NO CHOOKS!
I love them vicariously through yours.
Heidi, it’s ok, you can share mine. Husbands first..always! :)
Celia I LOVE this post! :) So thoughtful and so lovely.
Thanks Mrs B! I knew you’d understand.. :)
I initially got chickens just for their eggs. But now with our newly built chook dome chicken tracker they too are being put to broader use. I so agree with you on how a connection with the egg forms. I recommend chickens to everyone.
Jason, your chook dome looks great! :)
I think its so great that you have chickens! I have thought about it for when we move out of our apartment but I’m not sure I could handle the upkeep and I have a small fear of birds (I think there’s a hit out on me as they all seem to fly straight at my head) so Im not sure how I’d cope :/ lol
Nic, they do fly at us a bit, especially when we approach the dome with food. I must confess, I’m a bit chicken (hehe) about it as well, but Pete is a born chicken whisperer, so he usually just shakes his finger at them and they all behave.. ;-)
You are making me look forward to moving back home to Nigeria, where i can keep a hen or two….me thinks.
There is supreme pride in growing/laying (through faithful chickens) your own. I share that bubble of delight with you my friend!
Thanks Oz! It’s a teeny moment of pure joy!
What an interesting site!! You have inspired me to stop at a local and buy their eggs… range free????.
When I was growing up 1955’s, my folks decided to raise game birds, Pheasants, Quail, Partridge, and assorted Turkeys, Geese, etc. I had many a morning breakfast of pancakes with goose egg on top, (What I wouldn’t pay to have a fresh goose egg!!!); quail egg omelets, fried pheasants, baked quail, egg custards from all sorts of eggs; ad infinitum. It took a lot of years to get used to store bought, big city, grocery eggs….
We had 1 acre of land in West Texas (El Paso), Pop built a half under ground incabator house & worked his (& Moms) “pope’s nose’s” off. They made enough to put me through college. At that time, they were the second largest game bird farm in Texas. To complete the story, the city annexed their land and declared the farm illegal…. Oh, Well or should it be “Oh, Hell?”
I am now retired and watch the wild birds – road runners, guineas, crows, quail AND LOVING it!!!!!!
Tom, what a wonderful story, although I’m sad to hear they lost it in the end. It must have been an amazing time growing up though, with all those gorgeous fresh things to eat!
Thanks for stopping by, and glad to hear you’re having a fun retirement watching the wild birds! :)
I enjoyed this post and love the names of the girls..
Norma, wish I could introduce them to you! You’d have to promise to keep your eagles away.. :)