Not my hens’ egg. This is store bought, then hard boiled. The yolk, aside from the “pupil” and “iris”, was a perfect yellow all the way through. It is disconcerting to have your breakfast give you an eye roll.

That is about how many eggs my hens have laid since they started laying, give or take a few. Yes, I keep a notebook with the date, weight, color (by numbered index), time, and nest box (by number). We are entering the second month of no eggs, so I thought I would do a quick calculation of how many eggs they have provided so I appreciate their output and not begrudge them their rest. It really means that I need to do better at stock piling when they are laying. (This does explain why there are so many methods for storing eggs.)

They did lay all through last winter, but I’ve read that is typical for the first laying season in a hen’s life. They are hatchery quality birds, and although they have the beards, muffs, and temperaments of Faverolles, they may not have the winter laying characteristic. I keep checking the nests, though, just in case.

Not just hard boiled, I suppose, but cooked in an Instapot for 5 minutes, pressure released, then the eggs placed in ice water. The eggs I cooked were laid within the past 5 days, and I peeled them an hour or so after they went into the ice bath. Not every egg peeled as easily as this one, but I didn’t have a single egg where the shell stuck to the white. They all ended up beautiful and smooth. Perfect for deviled eggs!

When I was turning over the night droppings under the roost I found a very small, shell less egg. This is the second shell less egg, but this one had a rubbery exterior like I’ve seen in videos, but no yolk. It was only 18g! I recorded breaking it open, then I fed the whites to the dog; he has a stronger stomach.