Holy smokes are the egg shells strong on the eggs coming out of my chickens! The chickens apparently think the whole coop is a safe place, and I find eggs everywhere. I found one with the sole of my foot. Yikes! What was amazing is that it didn’t break. I didn’t put my full weight on it, but I did feel it through my shoe.

I also scared Sunrise off the nest when the egg was out, but still stuck to her tail feathers (she did not appreciate me recording video (click here to see video) with a bright light while she was busy!) The egg fell from her feathers as she left the nest and fell over 18” to the floor below. Of course the pine shavings had been carefully shoved away from that spot, so the egg hit the plywood floor and the shell broke, but the shell membrane stayed intact! Whoa. I did then have egg drop soup for lunch. It seemed appropriate.

I’ve had a bit of a learning curve cracking open the eggs as well. I’ve found that I need to consciously pierce the shell membrane after I crack the egg or I have a terrible time with shell bits in my breakfast. Store bought eggs pour out of the shell as soon as it is cracked. Not so with these!

As much as I like matching Pantone colors to egg colors, it is an unwieldy process and not kid friendly. My Mom mentioned that she took a picture of her chicken’s eggs and compared color to the picture. So I took a picture of the eggs I have, arranged by color intensity, and started at 5 so I have room on the index for lighter colors (just in case). Since my youngest has decided to check for eggs everyday (yay!), this makes it easier for her to help with egg color. It is also easier to tell at a glance at the record which eggs were darker or lighter. We are currently recording date, weight, color, time gathered, and where the egg was found.