Even though there is no sun to help the build up of light, as the days lengthen the chickens have begun to lay again. Yesterday I collected TEN eggs.
Eggs are laid with a thin film of protein sealing the pores on the egg, a natural way to help them stay fresh for longer. So I never wash them. If you wash them they are then vulnerable to contamination and must be refrigerated. But with all this mud and with all our chickens being free range the pigs are getting a good number of eggs to eat. I just collect the eggs, boil them up, cool them and feed them to the pigs like candy.
Yesterday was warm so I cleaned out Tia and Txiki’s sleeping area. Usually I am throwing bricks of frozen solid manure with the rest just frozen to the ground and immoveable, so it good to get it really clean. I leave one part of the shelter as deep bedding this I just pick the cow pats out of and spread more straw on top of. The floor of the barn is concrete and cold. They like to sleep in the deep beds. 
I also attempted to clean out the piglets toilet corner but they are hopeless – always wanting to play with the fork. And throwing forkfulls of pig manure outside with little piggies trying to CATCH the fork AND any flying material means someone will lose an eye before bedtime.
It is wet. We did not get the forecast ice, or even much of the rain they were sending out red alerts about. This part of the plains had air full of thick wet fog and great droplets of water that did not rain down as much as hang around. It is 43F/6C already this morning and this looks to be our high for the day. From now the temperature will drift slowly back down below freezing.
Everything is sodden.
Today I will load the little chicks into a big dog crate (after putting Boo on the chain) and take them into the big chook house where they will meet the big chickens from the safety of their own house, in a few days and at night I will release them. It is time to get the turkey house cleaned out. When I come back from the UK and my mystery destination (any guesses yet?) we will receive a new set of layer chicks. They will be ready to lay between 4 and 5 months old so I like to start early.
Poppy the sow was observed being bred by Manu the other day so that is good news as I have a date for her. No-one saw him breed Molly so I have no idea about her, we will just follow the signs. I timed their meeting so that she would farrow six weeks before Poppy so if my plan works Molly will farrow in late March and Poppy in May. The gestation period for swine is three months, three weeks and three days. But you know what they say about plans and mice (or pigs).
I hope you all have a lovely day.
Love celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
91 responses to “Cook us some eggs”
I can’t imagine dealing with an entire barnyard of animal poo! I clean up the deer pen daily, and like you with the rain and the muck, about all one can do is clean up as best you can and pile more straw on top. I really love warmer weather when clean up goes a little more smoothly!
It is the time of year, in the summer with everyone outside the barns are easy to keep clean. Of course having the tractor still in the tractor hospital is not helping. c
Yes, those tractors are life savers!!!
Oh that is a lovely bowl of Eggs!
It is such a comfort knowing they are laying again and the numbers of eggs will increase from here. And the eggs are such an important part of the pigs diet. c
I’ve known that cruisers often coat their eggs with wax before setting off on a long sail. I’ve known it was a method of preservation, but not I know it’s an extension of a natural protection.
The coating on the egg is called the ‘bloom’ though I think it should be called the ‘shine’. It also has anti bacterial qualities. A very clever choice. In fact human babies are also born with a bloom to help them navigate the first few days of exposure.
France perhaps! Or maybe somewhere Scandinavian–how about Denmark, as I have Danish roots 🙂
Those Danish sure did get around. There are a lot of people in NZ with Danish roots.. c
I would love to keep chickens, but we have a bad fox problem round here and we go away a lot, so not to be.
Love the piggies playing catch with the poo and pitchfork! Yes tears before bedtime 😂 Maybe somewhere by the sea?
Since 70 percent of the Earth is actually sea water (and that fraction is rising) I think that is an excellent guess. Maybe – maybe not. c
There is a local lady who sells eggs, I was going to start buying from her but alas she is moving.
Have a wonderful and hopefully warmer and dryer day C.
🙂 Mandy xo
What bad luck – I don’t eat eggs when my chooks are not laying – store bought are so insipid! c
We sold fresh eggs when we had our farm in Quebec. Our customers were bummed when I sold the farm. Sorry your egg provider is moving…. I’d love to have a few chickens here in western Massachusetts but I’m gone too often. I have two parakeets – and I have to find someone to take care of them when I go away. ; o )
I have the same problem with our cats and having someone to look after them when we travel. Would love to take them with but alas.
BTW. I have recently purchased eggs from a local supermarket and every single egg had a double yolk. I found that really odd. I rang the supplier and they said they were simply super jumbo eggs. I wasn’t convinced. Is it normal in a tray of 18 eggs to have every one with a double yolk? xo
Usually the very big eggs are double yolkers – especially if they are being fed a very high protein feed. Imagine getting a whole tray! They will have been inspected and sorted though and that is why they were ALL double yolkers – I have never heard of that before though.. interesting
I found it really odd C. Not sure if a tray got muddled up in the works somewhere… maybe…
I heard a women at the egg stall in the farmer’s market complaining about dirty eggs. She thought that free range chicken would never let their eggs get dirty and the problem must be down to bad farming. Little did she know. I joined in a defended the egg selling lady – chicken don’t care and ducks are even worse. Another time I heard a someone complaining about dirt on the potatoes! 🙂
Merciful heavens – where did they think the potatoes came from!? I remember being in a big market in Perth and we played a guessing game as to the geographical origins of the potatoes by looking at the colour of the dirt on them. I have a chicken who insists on sleeping and pooping in the nesting boxes, then she leaves her egg in there attracting the others to lay in there and before you know it I have three or four dirty eggs before I have begin morning chores. She is a trial that hen. I need to take steps! c
People like that deserve the supermarket! I tend to look at dirt on a potato as something wholesome and proof it came out of the ground.
Celi, is there a method for keeping the chickens from sleeping and pooping in the nesting boxes? We have this problem with more that one hen! And we have places to roost, as well as the tops of the boxes if they like. It can be very messy! 😦
Every single night we must go out and take that hen and retrain her to the roost or put her under a box for the night on the floor to break the behaviour. Trouble is retraining a chicken can take weeks! c
oh hah! when we used to live in the Portland OR area we had city chickens- best eggs ever….
and it took us about 5 evenings to break one hens habit of roosting in a tree right outside a neighbors bedroom
window- for some reason the hen thought that person needed to get up earlier than really was necessary
(according to the complaining neighbor) Now that we have moved to the mountains we get our local eggs from a
lovely next door neighbor. Too many predators for us to fend off. She has dogs to scare off the bears etc
The thought of farming with bears as a threat ASTOUNDS this girl from the beach
Chicken and dumplings perhaps?
hubby said to me yesterday Jan 25th babe.. an I looked up an raised a eyebrow, his voice had such a hopeful tone and he smiled and said jan 25th is the turning point locally, the time when it starts to stat wise get warmer each day.. not colder..
Each day the light is a touch more here, the solar heat from the sun is ticking up, I know because my living room has a indoor gage and my temps are touching upward an my hens are starting to lay more as well
Congrats on the new pig breedings and my guess.. hmmm I loved Holland but I adored Norway.. so I say.. Norway 🙂
Even though we are still sat inside a thick cloud, the longer light hours seem to be working, now that they are starting to lay again i put supplementary light in their house to create brightness but i am not sure it makes much difference – just cheers us al up to have the lights on for the day i suppose. c
Ireland or France … anywhere in between will make my guess close 🙂 Is there somewhere we can send get well soon cards to the tractor to speed up its recovery? Laura
That tractor! We are still waiting to hear. c
Nothing beats a fresh laid egg….we get ours locally but i think they must be small chickens as the eggs are not much of a size..but to be sure they are not battery eggs…..I know your secret location..on your way home you are stopping off in Bulgaria and then coming to see me…but might I suggest you leave it till the sun comes out, currently we are in deep deep snow and its cold brrr!
Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2017 at 2:32 PM
I read somewhere that pullets eggs are extra high in iron or something – extra good for you anyway. c
I am having visions of soft scrambled eggs, torn basil and slices of fresh red tomato looking at your eggs. One of my favorite treats in the summer time! So going to UK first – then to a mystery destination – Morocco!
Cannot wait for tomatoes and basil – I miss basil the most in the winter.. c
Yes, our young hens are finally laying!!! It seems like forever since we’ve had enough eggs for us, the dogs, cats and pigs! Yeah! The eggs are small, since our hens are young, but we are over the moon about then laying again!!! 🙂 i’m thinking that maybe you are going to Ireland!
So much promise in a young hen – you will have eggs for a couple of years now. c
Playful Piggies! Who would have guessed it? I had no idea they would even play with the pitch fork. I’m hopeful you will be having more soon. I will say, as much as I’m ready to see the cold go and warm and light return, I’ve been very grateful for the long, deep cold spell. It’s killing off the stink bugs that thrive on the warm and multiply worse than rabbits. I miss daylight as I’m solar powered. I’m thinking you may be going to visit another blogger somewhere. Have a wonderfilled day too.
Winter is hard on the solar powered. We would be sunk here as we have not had any real stretch of sunlight in the longest time.. c
I keep full spectrum lighting available as you know Portland is notoriously gray all winter. Keeping busy helps too so I don’t notice it so much.
Keeping busy makes everything better! c
Hi, insearch (hope you don’t mind nicknames!) Just curious – are you speaking of Portland, Maine or Oregon? I was raised in Portland, OR oh so many, many years ago. Now reside in Yosemite vicinity. Sunny
Oregon. I’ve been here almost 5 years now and don’t plan to leave. Love it. Never been to Yosemite. Hear good things about it. I don’t mind nicknames since you don’t have mine. 🙂
Marlene
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I am guessing -Spain!
I have never been to Spain.