Comments on: The Downside of Really Fresh, Local Eggs

By: Judi Dixon

Judi Dixon — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 01:50:56 +0000

Yes Dan, Your Reds will get along with most barnyard animals. During the day we have them out with goats, geese,(check your breed with geese, some types can’t even get along with themselves.)and ducks. Our Reds roost alone at night, but the ducks like to be free to wander around. (we live in a warm climate) Be sure to give the ducks a little pool at least–they’ll love you forever! Good luck! Judi

By: Dan Howard

Dan Howard — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:13:09 +0000

Barbara,to say my wife,Ankha,was reluctant would be an understatement! It all started when she went to boil eggs for a salad and there were none. I had made a large omelette the day before and egg salad for lunch. She couldnt believe I had eaten a dosen eggs. I do eat a lot of eggs but it was rare to eat that many. As a joke I sugested we get a few chickens. She laughed. I spent the afternoon reading about chickens via the information super highway. I shared all that I had learned with her that night and sugested we get rhode island reds. She said no. I put a picture of six cute little chicks as the background picture on our computer and our four year old thought they were just the cutest things. I then spent the next few weeks eating every egg she put in the fridge and sending her cute pictures of baby chicks. She finally folded but said she wasnt taking care of them… Nobody spent as much time with those chicks as Ankha did, she loves them. We are getting six more in the spring! I have heard Emily singing to them, maybe thats why we get so many eggs. Do ducks and chickens get along well? Baby ducks are so cute!

By: Barbara

Barbara — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:09:40 +0000

Dan, I keep threatening to get some chickens–but so far, Zak (my husband, who agrees with me on nearly everything) has not been convinced. I love having chickens around–and ducks, too, now that I think of it.

It was my job to take care of the fowl at Grandma’s farm, and I loved it. Grandma discovered that when I sang to the chickens, which I did while cleaning the coop, feeding and watering them and gathering eggs, they gave more eggs….Grandpa teased me about it until Grandma showed him the numbers of eggs per week, and the weeks I was there, and singing and the weeks I wasn’t. Accounting for differences in season, they still gave about 5-8 percent more eggs when I sang to them.

Grandpa, ever the pragmatist, said, “Whatever works. If we still had milk cows, I’d have her sing to them, too.”

I’m glad you like the site–I just got back to writing on it, so it is good to have encouragement.

By: dan howard

dan howard — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:13:59 +0000

Barbera, Rhoge Island Reds are great! They are very harty. We ordered 6 cute little chicks in the spring and still have them all. I dont live in the country, my yard is under an acre. I think eveyone should have a couple chickens. If we had the same problem with chickens that we now have with cats and dogs no one would be hungry They are easy to take care of and in most citys there are no laws against owning less than a dosen hens. We had our first garden last summer and it went ok. We learned alot and are looking forward to this spring when we can try again. We are “getting back to the land!” I found your web site yesterday, and enjoy it very much. Thank you for taking the time to share so much.

By: Barbara

Barbara — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:47:39 +0000

Rhode Island Reds are among my favorite chickens, Dan. The ones Grandma had were always very sweet tempered and gave a ton of eggs–and I always thought they had really pretty feathers. They were just pretty chickens in general.

As I said, Grandma just had ugly deviled eggs in the end, and just dealt with it. They tasted so good that no one really gave a hoot, but it still bugged her a little bit.

For the record, I have no other methods to try and make pretty boiled eggs from really fresh eggs laid by well-cared for chickens–I just don’t really make deviled eggs for instances where it matters what they look like.

And, I do love egg salad, so I make that a lot, too.