The Egg Routine and getting calluses, and some R-rated material at the end (for violence, not sexual content)

Saturday is a half day here at the farm (for me, not for Sally), and like always, I did the egg routine. I figure I’d photo-document that for y’all, as I do this every morning.

First, I let the chickens out of the coop:

For some reason, it always makes me feel like the chickens just landed on the beaches at Normandy.

Then I give them their grain which they crowd around, clucking.

There are many more chickens than this--at least 23, but this morning only a few immediately came over.

Then I clean out their water bucket and give them new water, and come back with a basket to collect the eggs in. Not really a photogenic process.

Then I collect the eggs.

oh, hello there!

Sometimes I open up the door to the nest boxes and there's still a chicken on top of the eggs, in which case I either shoo them away or, if they don't move, just reach under them and take the eggs. Some are more territorial than others, and this particular one didn't mind at all. Didn't really seem to notice, actually, which makes me question her maternal instincts. 

After collection.

Then I take the eggs over to the little egg-cleaning station that I set up. The empty egg cartons that I'll put the clean eggs, a mat to clean over so if I drop one it won't crack on the hard table, a little towel to hold the eggs with, and sanding sponges to sand the eggs with.

Underneath the table you can see Reina's stuffed animal graveyard.
I would not wish to be a stuffed animal on this farm.

Sometimes Reina comes to help out.

But I think she's just hoping I give her an egg

During this time is when Sally usually comes over and we talk about what works needs to be done that morning. Yesterday she said that the artificial inseminator guy was coming because Dorie was in heat--didn't I notice Dorie mounting the other cows? Nope! I hadn't. But just then I heard some movement from the barn pasture and Dorie was indeed trying to get on top of Sparkle, who was scrambling away. Ginger was watching the scene, but keeping her back end safely pointed away from Dorie.

The reason we sand the eggs instead of washing them is because when eggs are laid they have a natural protective coating around them (the bloom), and sanding them with the sanding sponge is believed to disrupt the bloom less than washing with water does (and so you could keep them at room temperature if desired.) Though apparently how a farmer chooses to wash their eggs is bit of a hot-button issue, so don't expect this to be the way that all farmers do it. I have heard previously that if you use the washing technique then you have to refrigerate the eggs afterward, because more of the bloom is washed off and thus can allow more bacteria to enter the egg. But if you do wash eggs, you should wash them with warm water, not hot so it doesn't cook the egg, and not cold because it  makes the pores of the shell open up and may allow more bacteria in. 

One thing I really enjoy about farm eggs is that various sizes and colors that they come in. There is one chicken here that lays very oblong eggs that are almost symmetrical along all three axes. Here it is next to a "normal" egg.

Two of Janet's (Sally's partner) hens lay blue eggs. One of those chickens is a full-sized chicken, but one of them is only a poult and so is not fully mature and lays miniature blue eggs which I think is great. She gave me one on my first day and I ate it for Sunday lunch. Delicious.

Sally said that one of her hens will occasionally lay an egg that doesn't have a shell, just the thin membrane around it. I haven't come across this yet but I don't really care to either.

After cleaning enough eggs to fill the cartons and putting them in (pointier end down--some sort of thing about an air bubble on the bottom that shouldn't be squished) I bring them to the farm stand where anyone can swing by and buy them!

two dozen eggs! 

the inside of the fridge in the farm stand.

And that concludes the egg routine!

Today after eggs Sally and I loaded up another 125 bales of hay on a hay wagon. It's exhausting work. I started on the ground retrieving the bales from the barn, and Sally was positioning them in line on the wagon. After two layers of hay we switched and I was on the wagon. It's hard moving around up there, you have to step in the middle of the bales otherwise the hay will give out, and they kind of wobble regardless of where you stand. After that was done we moved the hay that didn't fit on the wagon into the barn basement. Lots of hay-moving! I was wearing gloves and my hands still felt tight and red for most of the day.

After an early lunch (another reuben from the Creamery--I'm addicted!) I hammered a bunch of barn board on top of the drywall, which is also tiring work and by 2.30 I was too fatigued and did some bottle washing instead.

washing bottles..er...jars.

It was a tiring day, but sometimes it's nice to get a kick in the ass after a few lazy days.

Oh also! Yesterday I noticed some feathers strewn about in the front pasture. Two chickens had been killed there a few nights ago--probably the two chickens that don't actually roost in the coop, but rather hang out with the coop chickens until dusk and then roost elsewhere. Sally reckons that they were hanging around a little too late, waiting for their buddies when a fox or something got them. One of their heads is still out there, and I offered the suggestion that we should remove it before the wedding as they'll be using the front pasture for hot air balloon rides. She agreed. Neither of us have touched it yet.

Sally said that last year they had a mink that would go after the ducks, and it would attack them, bite their heads off, then try to drag them through fence but couldn't because their bodies were too big, and so then leave them there. So they'd wake up in the morning and ducks would be beheaded and jammed into the fence. Isn't farm life great?! 

With that, have a good night! Sweet dreams!