Nothing can beat that first egg of the season
Comments(15)
Photo: Chickens in the snow
I’ve been very envious of people who were collecting eggs from their chickens throughout November, December and January. All of ours have been on egg laying sabbatical since October and, although I want them to enjoy a decent holiday each year, I did expect the laying breeds to produce an egg or two in January. They were coddled and eventually cagouled with no egg effect.
Life off the nest was clearly far too important to accommodate anything as strenuous as egg laying . Admittedly most of our hens are elderly maidens – but the layers have come up trumps for the past years and started laying early in January.
So I took stock of our flock. The ginger hybrid layers are six years old (I was astonished when I did the maths) no wonder their egg laying was meagre and erratic affair last year. Carol (the Maran) is five in April. Cloud, the guinea fowl wife is not even two years old yet. Mrs Boss and Mrs Squeaky (six year old Pekin Bantams) have always been more concerned with beauty treatments or raising a brood to lay many eggs. Hope (our one remaining adolescent Wyandotte) is still too young but should be laying eggs by Easter.
In the UK the egg laying peak is around Easter time. So I’d almost given up hope of any eggs before then.
After two years, egg laying gradually declines as hens get older. Some people cull or give away their hens after a couple of years. Our hens are pets and are here until they fly into that vast meadow in the sky. This means that we might not collect as many eggs as we’d like as our hens get older. But we love their companionship – hens are hugely entertaining. So if we get eggs from the older hens these are a real bonus.
If you want a regular supply of eggs you need to make sure that younger hens are coming up through the ranks. Tonight I realised that we have coasted and not made adequate plans for this.
So if Mrs Boss goes broody in the spring we are going to try a clutch of Sussex or Leghorn bantam eggs under her. If they all hatch out we can easily extend the run and I have the shell of a new Hilton hotel to accommodate the brood when they eventually step out of the Emerald Castle into the main run. Until now the size and original cost of our hen house has stopped us enlarging our flock too rapidly. But I was given the frame of a house (actually designed to accommodate floor tiles in a house that I was decorating). All it needs is a roof, floor, cladding and a perch.
But it will not be until this time next year that we will be hoping for eggs from young hens.
A couple of days ago, I was doing a brief roll call before I shut the flock in for the night and spotted a large brown speckled egg in the nesting box. It was an egg from Carol. Within seconds I was running through the snow and up the stairs to the Rat Room.
“I’ve got good news.”
Danny looked up from his desk and I held the egg out to him.
“Great! That looks like Carol’s egg.”
This morning she’d laid another. Tomorrow it will be boiled eggs for breakfast. The first two eggs of the year are always the best ones to linger over with a slice of soft buttered toast and a little Murray River salt.
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Thank you for your comments. And a bit of silly bath time fun with the Frothing Sea Monster trick!
Cutting energy costs
Recipe for sausages baked with herby garlic infused beans, bacon and tomato
Tracing some of my ancestors has taken me on a long journey
Recipe for lamb shanks braised in red wine with shallots: slow cooker/crockpot
The cupboard was bare – so what was The Contessa going to eat last night?
HG
I’ve been pointed in the direction of Leghorns a few times by friends, since we’ll be keeping chickens mostly for eggs and pets. I adore Rhode Island Reds though. If we can find them near us, we’ll likely go with those. How long would you say they still lay decently? A few years, I’m guessing?
I loved how both you and Danny knew it was ‘Carol’s egg’. Friends think we’re crazy when we name the layer of the egg – but it becomes so special and each egg is a gift
Celia
Congratulations! Our hens have been off laying since July!! One went broody and raised chicks and the other went off in sympathy
Now the young hens will be old enough to lay I am hoping that they will all start laying again together… with 4 hens laying compared to none, we’ll forget what buying eggs is all about (I hope) 
Two eggs for breakfast?
Here in France we’ve always thought “Un oeuf is un oeuf”
Our hens recommenced laying in mid-January, after a break of about three months. Their abrupt halt was something of a surprise as they’ve always laid consistenly throughout the winter before now.
I’ve got a real ‘mixed bag’ of breeds, here; the senior cockerel is a Welsummer; I’ve got one Leghorn; four Black Rocks & two Bluebells. Meanwhile the family in the other Ark consists of a ‘farmyard’ cockerel & his ladies; including the broody Silkie who raised them all, last year – dubbed the Mother Superior as with her black-& white wimple she looks a bit like a Nun! It’ll be interesting to see how this lot perform in laying terms although I suspect our broody lady will remain just that – which is fine; a broody hen does a far better job than my incubator, especially where raising the chicks is concerned.
Like you, our hens are with us for life & some are now a substantial age in chicken terms. I have to say the Black Rocks are amazing – incredible longevity & hardiness, & consistent layers of huge, delicious eggs. So they certainly deserved their break!
Sadly, a lot of the purist poultry keepers look down on Black Rocks as mere hybrids; however they are beautiful birds in a wide range of colours & an ideal ‘starter’ bird for the novice hen keeper. They’ve given me years of pleasure & hundreds of lovely eggs, apiece – so whilst once they finally cease laying altogether I’ll miss that treat, they deserve a long & happy retirement; watching the sun on their glossy plumage is pleasure enough for me.
But I share that delighted excitement at discovering the first fresh egg of the year, in the nestbox; & the ultimate pleasure of dipping a crisp finger of toast into that deep golden yolk: surely the finest meal imaginable! Breakfast is now the highlight of my day…..
Oh – just from your wonderful blog posts on your poultry adventures (and many other fine things)I adore your feathered friends almost as much as I adore mine! (4 bantams – barred plymouth rock, araucana, leghorn and something else -, one cockerel whom we raised from an egg in Sept and now needs a non-urban home as is crowing : ( , 2 gorgeous 1 month-old barnevelder chicks raised under leghorn bantam and as of this week a 3 day-old pekin duck!). Your posts have been so useful, and so moving and also delightful. Thanks so much for sharing, Wendy in sunny NZ (BTW we just had our first egg in weeks and it is summer, due to broodiness, moulting and other such hazards to egginess)
I so like the thought – much loved pets with the added bonus of eggs (sometimes known in my family as cackleberries).
Your Chooks are so beautiful – huggable too?
Keep warm and cosy, Mickle and Zebbycat Downunder
Our hens have been admirable layers right through the winter. We have three, and got 74 eggs from them in January, which is almost one a day from each of them. Pretty impressive.
We’re planning on adding to our little flock slowly until we have 10 birds so that we should hopefully have a regular supply of eggs every winter as our older hens get older still.
As such, we’re building a big new run for them this weekend.
Yay Carol! I too think it’s great that you and Danny can look at an egg and know who laid it
My hens usually have a period ‘off lay’ over the darkest part of the year, so I do sympathise. But to my amazement my rescued ex-battery hens (acquired last June) have laid without a break all through the winter. I’ve even kept one of my neighbours supplied too. Great stuff, particularly as the rest of my flock, like yours, is knocking on a bit.
You can’t beat the first fresh egg of the season!(well you can if you’re having an omlette!) my chooks have just got nicely going again since they went on strike at the start of November. I have 10 feathered females, and usually get more eggs than i can eat, so I have managed to arrange a “conversion” scheme at my local, whereby 12 eggs = 1 pt of Tetleys “finest”, this way I get to enjoy my eggs twice a day – morning and night!
The allotments here have been plagued recently by (we suspect) a Stoat, several of us have lost a few hens over the last few weeks, Just over three weeks ago i lost a Silkie bantam, although i searched everywhere for her, she had gone. Then day before yesterday, she turned up scrattin on the Rhubarb patch with six chucklets! this was a suprise as i’d searched everywhere for her without sign! where had she been? In a corner of the allotment,where the nettle patch is (should say my nettle beer crop!) on i’ts side lay an old plastic builders bucket, sure enough inside that i found a rudimentry banty nest, so thats where she’d sat all through the snow, rain, and the hardest frosts we’ve had for many a year, tough winter, tougher little bird! They are now tucked up in the greenhouse and loving it!
Thanks for a very timely post.
We have three ex-battery hens that laid throughout the winter without much break, but we did notice the frequency from one hen has declined a little and were debating whether to get a couple more young ‘uns to add to the flock.
I think you’ve just made my mind up!
My girls have never stopped laying all through the snow and cold!. Remarkably they are now 2 and a quarter years old and i expected them to decline in production through the winter but i still get 3 eggs a day from five chickens. I called mine Esther, indeed they are all called Esther and they are Lohman traditional breed.
I will get some young ones to replace these lot of Esther soon, from the organic farm down the road, so if anyone would like my five esthers as pets or to run about in their garden they are welcome. I am just south of Nottingham.
I must say this blog is excellent and most cheering!
kevin
We have been inundated with eggs all Winter – my 3 Speckedlys that I got last Easter have continued to lay at least 3 per day with 1 from my Black Rock more than enough for the 4 of us. The neighbours have been well supplied. My sister’s Buffs have been on egg laying strike since the autumn!
(Kevin – with the Esthers! what a coincidence this is Jane in Derbyshire who had your previous Esthers!)
Jane
I’m so enjoying reading your articles and comments. I set up home for 6 young hens last September and now have 4 starting to lay. That first egg (Sadie’s) was so exciting! The eggs are very delicious.
But we are surprised to see the yolks are rather pale.
I am feeding them on organic layers/growers pellets mixed together (because two are still growing). The hens, which are a source of great delight to me with their funny ways and different personalities, are free range. We have no grass in our garden – they’ve eaten the little available! Not much green stuff in their bit of the garden – they’ve eaten everything! I give them shredded cabbage etc from the kitchen but they’re not terribly interested in it – mostly they seem to love scratching in our very gravelly garden soil under the tree and shrubs.
What can I add to their diet to make their egg yolks a nice strong yellow?
Rosie