Foraging Eggs From My Flock, Chicken and Eggs - #foraging

Foraging for Eggs on my Hobby Farm.

At any given time I keep 20-50 laying hens on our 2 acre farm.  The chickens free range and live a natural life, yet, with all the benefits of domestic animals.  They have constant feed and water, medical services, 2 coops, treats and attention.  In response they provide beautiful eggs.  I wish I could say they all get laid neatly in the coop, but some days are like Easter, complete with a near daily Egg Hunt.  I call this foraging for eggs.

In the above picture some 1-year-old pullets free ranging in the green grass.  The chickens also love to forage for food.

I breed a couple of show breeds, but my real passion is creating project birds that are breed specifically to be excellent layers of beautiful eggs with nice size and colors.

A few pictures of some of my egg shots.

A fall day, eggs collected and deposited on the deck table before they are washed and brought inside.

I have 5 shades of green in this picture although the differences in the shades did not come through well in the picture.

Collected Eggs ready to be sold or incubated.

One more shot of one of my favorite eggs pictures

So once all the eggs have been gathered I have to decide if they will be consumed by our family, sold or incubated.

Consuming the eggs below

Little group of cousins enjoying eggs in my kitchen, they were excited they got to forage for the eggs first.

When eggs are not consumed they are either sold or hatched.

Eggs in the incubator ready for hatching.  Chicken eggs incubate for 21 days, and are removed from the incubator and put in the hatcher on day 18.

After 18 days in the incubator the eggs are moved to a hatcher, where they will pip/peep and unzip.  Chicken people words for "hatching".

Hatching chicks, like all newborns, don't look quite done yet at hatching time.

Three freshly hatched Black Copper Marans, chicks.

Once the chicks are dry, we get cute little fluffy butts people are used to seeing.

What comes first?

another cute chick picture

If I do not gather the eggs quickly enough, a hen may take it upon herself to sit on the eggs for 3 weeks and brood her own batch of chicks.

This sneaky hen hid with her eggs in the corner of the coop, she hatched and raised a total of 7 chicks.  One of the things I things I love about chickens if they are properly cared for they can be self sustaining.

Why do I forage for eggs?  Food, selling and hatching eggs.  The quality of farm fresh eggs is noticeably different than store eggs, in several ways.  They have thicker shells, richer colors, better flavor and more nutrition.   


The pale yellow egg is store bought.

I feel good about eating my own eggs, because I know my chickens lead a happy normal life, rather than factory farm chickens.  I know what the chickens have eaten and I know I am not contributing to an industry that disgusts me.

A quick summary of the benefits of backyard chickens and foraging eggs:

1. Farm Fresh Eggs
2. Chicken meat if desired
3. Chick sales
4. Chicken showing increases the value of your flock
5. Even the pelts can be sold and used for fly fishing lures, and other decorative uses for feathers. 
6. They are beautiful, social creatures which are very interesting to watch.
   

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