With ice out having already occurred on many nearby lakes, you’d think I’d be out on the water tickling my angler itch. Unfortunately, life gets in the way.
But to keep at least one or two of the 3 or so regular readers I have left, I want to try to keep posting regularly, even if it’s not about fishing.
If you’re one of those 3 regular readers, you know that for the last few years, my family has been raising chickens. Since egg production slows after they get about two years old and we didn’t want to take care of them during (what’s supposed to be) the hard Minnesota winter, we brought our flock pair to a farm last fall. No really. We really did bring them to a farm. A real farm. The farm had about two dozen chickens and since most of the chickens there are senior chickizens, we doubled the farm’s daily egg production.
About a week or so ago we renewed our flock. We got three this time instead of two. From left to right: Ginger, Shawn, and Molly.
This in itself isn’t earth-shattering news worth a post. However, Ginger laid her first egg yesterday. Again, not worth writing home about. But what is worth writing home about is that Ginger is what’s known as an Easter Egg chicken. She lays pastel colored eggs. So we got a blue egg yesterday (the second egg is from Molly who has been laying all week).
How cool is that? In person, the egg looked very greenish, kinda turquoise-y, but the camera obviously thinks it’s blue.
One of my colleagues from my old job couldn’t believe a chicken could lay blue eggs. Some Easter Egg chickens even lay green or purple eggs. In fact, he said he would refuse to eat one. He thought it was unnatural and there had to be something wrong with it. We’ve both moved on, so I don’t think I could get him one, but I would have loved to see the look on his face if I had brought one into the office.
With the neighborhood Easter egg hunt looming, I’m tempted to hide one or two of Ginger’s eggs in with the plastic candy filled eggs that are hidden in our yards. But that could be disastrous if one of the younger kids finds it and tries to break it open for a treat.
Loved reading this! Funny about your friend…he’s been duped by conventional egg producers into expecting a polished white eggshell, all the same size and shape. In reality (as you know), diversity rules! It’s common for me to buy a dozen farm eggs where not one resembles the other! Speckled eggs, blue eggs, big eggs, little egges, bumpy eggs, you name it, I’ve ate it! Thanks again for your post. (and your kids are adorable!)
Wow! I had no idea they laid colored eggs either, besides brown eggs.
Happy Easter Chickens MNangler! – Matt
Nice blog dude.. Hey its all about the kids.