Saturday, January 12, 2013

Cluck and Quack Happenings: Signature Eggs


Would you believe that we can tell which hen laid which egg? For the most part. All we have to do it look at the color, shape and size!

Although specific breeds lay similar eggs, such as Ameraucanas who lay pastel-colored eggs or Cuckoo Marans who lay chocolate-brown eggs, hens can lay their own unique eggs. And if you can catch a hen "in the act" and snag that egg before another hen wanders into the nesting box, you can identify who's egg is who's.


Our little flock is made up of mixed breed hens. The rooster was an Ameraucana (for sure), but the hens were Buff Barred Rock, mixed Cochin, mixed White-lace Wyandotte, and Barred Rock. We think. Interestingly, NONE of our hens lay the blue or green eggs that Ameraucanas are known for.

It's kinda neat to be able to say, "I'm eating Speckle's egg!" Or "That BIG one is LITTLE Rhodie's!"

And we also know who's slacking. ::wink::

Our smallest hen, Little Rhodie, lays some of our biggest eggs. They're a pale pink color with a rounded tip.


Little Rhodie's "twin" Big Rhodie lays lightly tanned SPECKLED eggs. So, even though they look very much alike, their eggs are quite different. See?


Onyx, our black hen, also lays big eggs, but they're almost white! Black hen, white eggs! Ironic, huh?


Our orange Buff Barred Rock -Ameraucana Mustard lays small, pointy-tipped pink-tan eggs.


Now, we're still trying to figure out what eggs Speckles and Sassy lay. They have eluded our sneak peaks into the nesting boxes and little coop. But someone laid a small, pale pink with a rounded point mystery egg yesterday. Who's is it?


After a 3 month hiatus to molt and grow in new, fluffy-soft feathers, the "girls" are back to laying. And the best thing about our eggs...they're yummy!

Update: I caught our mystery egg layer in action!




12 comments:

  1. You've got me all excited about our hens laying. Man. How fun!

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  2. We love our fresh eggs and would give near to nothing for them!! We do rotate simply because we raise some for eating as well because its much healthier than store bought steroid chicken! We love our Chickens and our children get very attached to our pets too!

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  3. Fun!!! We're planning a move and hope to have hens there. I love the idea of playing "match the mystery egg"!

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  4. Love the eggs.. I cant wait to get some chickens.. I miss having them.. Do you still have your rooster?

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    1. No, we rehomed our roosters over a year ago. 2 were becoming too aggressive with the hens and "concerned" if the kids held one. Oftentimes the hens would fly on top of the camper or swingset OR ME to get away from them. We really didn't have enough hens for 3 roosters. I wish we had kept the one that was most laid-back, but we didn't.

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  5. We would so love to have chickens Jessy. I loved this 'lesson' in eggs. :) They eggs are so beautiful! And of course the chickens are gorgeous!

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  6. Fun! In our brief foray in to chicken raising, we began with hatching eggs- my sister-in-law made sure that we had a variety. One of things that surprised me is that they came in so many colors and sizes! Thanks for the peek in to your "hens world". :)

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  7. This is cool. I never thought about different chickens laying different eggs!
    Hopping in from Hip Homeschool.

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  8. I love knowing which eggs my hens lay too! (It's nice to be able to have a "heart to heart" with the slackers and ask them nicely to up their output!) After a very long molting season, we're back up to averaging six a day - yesterday was eight. Your hens are beauties! Stopping by from Tilly' Nest.

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  9. So cute :) I like trying to figure out who laid which eggs too. But I am up to 61 chickens now and can't keep it straight :)

    Thanks for sharing this post on The HomeAcre Hop!!!

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  10. You can tell what color egg a hen will lay by the color of her ears. So if your Americauna mix hens don't have the bluish-green ears than they won't lay the bluish-green eggs. I love going out every day to see how many eggs we have.

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  11. I love the "Name that Hen" egg game!

    Thanks for linking up with the Clever Chicks Blog Hop this week!

    Cheers,
    Kathy Shea Mormino
    The Chicken Chick
    http://www.The-Chicken-Chick.com

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