Henry Rifle Forums

How do you tell if your eggs are free range farm fresh eggs?
Look in the carton and see all the colors of the rainbow!
Actually there are some missing from THIS carton. Miss Tina also gets the Chocolate Brown, the Dark brown with Spots, Olive Green, Forest Green, bright blue, and every now and then, a marbled egg. Ah... marbled eggs are rare.

They all look the same INSIDE, and taste the same.... even though Tina likes to tell the grandkids the dark brown ones are Chocolate Easter Eggs, but they can't have those til Easter. She won't tell them which hens lay them because they have a secret agreement with the Easter Bunny.

I told my old boss that there was a breed of chickens that lay different colored eggs. He laughed at me till I showed him proof! If I remember right the breed was called Aracana.

Tina had some of those Chickens, we called them our Short Bus Chickens because they had NO tail feathers or tail... which made them look like vw's, they had rounded butts. Funny looking. They were good layers and sold without a problem. They laid bright blue eggs. Miss Tina has had a large variety of chickens here on the farm and there have been some beautiful birds. We have had all the colors of the rainbow, and they have laid a boatload of eggs. She even raised quail for a while. Baby Quail look like furry bumble bees when they are born... The eggs aren't much bigger than a large marble, but are VERY healthy for you and the quail are prolific layers and breeders. She bred and sold them for about a year and then got rid of them. Too messy.

She sold one matched flock, a Gold Lace Brahma rooster and five hens from an elite line, for more than $350 and the lady drove down from Northern NY, five hours each way, to pick them up. Tina's chickens aren't your average "yard birds." LOL. They are what you call "Heritage Chickens."

We have a lot of wild quail around here, it's neat watching a big group of baby quail trying to keep up with mom and dad.

My neighbor had a small black lab that I think knew where every quail hiding spot in the canyon was, he would be down at my place almost before I could get out the door with my saddle, ready to go chasing quail.

Farm fresh eggs are the best. My father raised chickens and those eggs were the best. I hope to raise them in retirement.

Farm fresh chicken on the BBQ is the best to. That stuff they sell in the stores thats supposed to taste like chicken might look like chicken but it dont taste like chicken to me.

We had bantam chickens when I was young. Small but good for eggs producing and eating the chickens themselves.

When growing up we would always go to Grandma's farm in Michigan for a week in the summer. One of our main jobs ( other than tormenting the bull) was to go to the barn and hunt for eggs. Gram would always say " and don't break your darn fool necks". Of course, the inevitable happened and my sis broke her leg one summer after a fall from the loft. She was not a happy camper on the way back to South Dakota with a cast on. Ahh, memories.

I've got one chicken, now; a Rhode Island Red named Bibbity. She lays about one egg per day, a few less in the winter, but her eggs are great.

Until a few months ago, I did have two. We got three of them as day old chicks in April of 2014, but one turned out to be a rooster (named Boo) and we ate him in August of that year. The third chicken, Bobbity, was mangled by a raccoon last summer, leaving her bloodied and dying before scampering off into the darkness after I went out to check on them after hearing the poor chicken's squawks through the open bedroom window. I used a branch cutter to end her misery. It was an awful night for both of us. The raccoon got away. I kept my single shot 22 loaded with a short at the ready for weeks afterwards, but it never returned.

Cool names chickens CT.
Tina used to name all hers, but after about 500 have passed thru here now...
These days, only the roosters... or the sweetest, or meanest, or most personable hens get names. If you're just one of the flock... you are either chicken or... referred to by breed. Orpington, Sussex, Austrolorp.. etc. (Oh... that's so racist.)

Who remembers the movie "The Egg and I"?

I do, I do!!!!!

Sir Henry wrote:Who remembers the movie "The Egg and I"?

I dont remember the movie but we have an Egg and I restaurant chain here in Colorado. There breakfast is good to.

Next door neighbor has quite a few free range chickens, I was feeding the goats after dark last night and one them had decided to hang out with the goats, was still there this morning and shared some wet COB with them. Doubt it will stay as I'm not going to be feeding it. I did have a stray domestic rabbit move into the barn with my horse and pygmy goats for about a year but I feed it through the winter, it pretty much lived on Dandelions the rest of the year.

goats and their new feeder

The hen is still hanging out with the goats, they don't seem to mind her and she's pretty fearless around them. Found 2 eggs in Dad Goat's feeder, it has some of last years hay in one corner that he doesn't want to eat and she's made herself a nice little nest.