Saturday, April 5, 2014

A to Z - E is for Eggs

 Have you ever seen a green egg?  Check this out.

Did you know green eggs are almost imporrible to photograph?
I should have put it next to brown and white eggs for contrast lol.
This is the best one I could get.

I have an Easter Egger hen, which is a breed of chicken that lays green eggs (and sometimes blue or pink too)! Easter Eggers are actually mutts, because they are a cross of an Ameraucana or an Araucana crossed with any other brown egg laying breed of chicken like a Rhode Island Red.  The Ameraucana and Araucana lay blue eggs, but when their genetics are mixed with the genes of a brown egg layer you get the other fun colors, green and pink.  :)  For more information on the Ameraucanas check out this website http://www.ameraucana.org/faq.html

Now here are a few more pictures of my green eggs.  I tried a bunch of different settings because I couldn't tell if the color was showing up on my camera.... the color really doesn't show up very well at all!!  You can see more if you Google green egg.  :)  I had fun carrying my eggs around the yard and taking pictures though hehe.

They look white here because they were in full sun.

 Once again washed out because of the sun, but the flowers in my yard are so pretty!  I love spring!

 They look a bit more green here.  I have them piled up in the crook of my plum tree hehe.


I LOVE this one of Jackal with the eggs.  He really should be called Shadow since he's always following me around when I take pictures.  He wanted to eat the eggs, but he listens to his "leave it" cue really well, thank goodness.  Isn't he adorable??  Okay I know I'm biased hehe.

Here are a couple of pictures of my Easter Egger hen below.

 See her beard?

She's so pretty! And she was not happy because my dog was beneath her hehe.

In case pictures of my pretty hen and her pretty green eggs aren't enough I also have a really cool and helpful tip to share with everyone!  If you have a bunch of eggs in your fridge and you're not sure how old they are because you forget to rotate them (like me hehe) or someone gives you eggs and you don't know how old they are, here is a really cool way to know if they are good or not.  Put them in a bowl of cold water!!  If it sinks to the bottom it's still good.  If it float it's bad!

Here is a clearer explanation that I found on Google....

"Egg shells may seem pretty solid, but they are in fact slightly porous.
Old eggs float in fresh cold water because of a large air cell that forms as the egg cools after being laid. As the egg ages, air enters the egg and the air cell becomes larger and this acts as a buoyancy aid.

Generally, fresh eggs will lie on the bottom of the bowl of water. Eggs that tilt so that the large end is up are older, and eggs that float are rotten. The tilting is caused by air pockets in the eggs that increase in size over time as fluid evaporates through the porous shell and oxygen and gases filter in. The older an egg gets the more gas builds up inside it. More gas = more floating!

Carefully lower your eggs into fresh cold water (do not use salted water) using a spoon:
If the egg stay at the bottom - it is fresh.
If the egg is at an angle on the bottom - it is still fresh and good to eat.
If the egg stands on its pointed end at the bottom  - it is still safe to eat but best used for baking and making hard-cooked eggs.
If the egg float - they're stale and best discarded.

The final test:

To make sure the egg is not spoiled, break it into a clean bowl and check to make sure it doesn't have a bad odor or appearance."


  Well that's all for today!  I can't wait to see all of your E posts.  :)

10 comments:

  1. I had no idea! Those eggs are beautiful and so are the hens. What a delightful E post for Easter coming up.

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  2. Some of my friends have Ameraucana and Araucana chickens. They are beautiful and tasty too! We only had Seabright Bantys as their little feet weren't so hard on our garden. It did take 2 banty eggs to make one regular chicken egg though! When we moved to the Mt Shasta area on 10.5 acres we did not bring our chickens- too many predators here to allow free range chickies! So we get our eggs from close by neighbors.
    Cheers!

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  3. Okay I know nothing of farm life or chickens. But I am an animal lover and have thoroughly enjoyed seeing your pets. My post happens to be about something Egg-citing too. I am a teacher.

    2 Smart Wenches

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  4. Never knew that eggs came in more colors other than brown and white. Very informative post. Enjoyed reading it. Good luck with the A to Z Challenge. This is my first year.

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  5. Cheryl what is the link to your blog so I can see your A to Z posts?

    Thanks for the comments. I'm glad the post is interesting. :)

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  6. Our chickens are Araucanas, silver and gold lacewings, barred rocks and a sulkie. I love the technicolor results.

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  7. I have some pretty terrible memories of chickens from my childhood! I have never quite gotten over my fear of being pecked or chased.

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  8. We used to have a hen that laid green eggs. I took some to the neighbour once for her children and her eldest son, who was about 5 at the time, took one to school for "show and tell" which amused me greatly when I heard.

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  9. I learned something new! Didn't know about green egg laying hens! I had heard that the reason why eggs are traditionally kept in the fridge door is because that would make them move a bit with each open and close of the door.

    –Sylvie

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  10. Michelle, sorry you had bad experiences with chickens. I was scared of roosters when I was a kid because our rooster chased me. My rooster and chickens I have now are very friendly. It just depends how much you handle them. :)

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