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.
I while back I had an excess of eggs so decided to try freezing some for when egg production waned. I whisked together 12 eggs, and added a little salt (the articles I read suggested either sugar or salt to keep the yolks from getting gummy). Then I poured the mix into an ice tray, covered it with Press and Seal, and froze it. I must note that I have small eggs, and 12 eggs fit in the 16 wells in my tray.
To use the frozen eggs I took enough out of the tray for my recipe (each cube is less than one egg, so I added an extra), put them in a plastic bag, and thawed them in hot water until the cubes were just melted. I used them in my pancake recipe and they worked just fine! Thumbs up from the whole family.
I made a label for my egg cartons! I found some six-egg cartons because we still don’t have many extra to give or sell regularly. That is Tigger on the label, I think she has the prettiest comb. The green glass dish is from my husband’s grandmother’s collection, the lid of the dish (not pictured) is a hen, and I love the color. I printed on full sheet labels, then used my Cricut machine to cut them out. I’ll probably play with different designs when this set runs out, mainly because I can!
I found a shell-less egg under the roosts. It was quite disturbing: soft yet crackly. A little like the eggs where the shell has been dissolved in vinegar, but not rubbery. It was partially broken open in the shavings, but thank goodness it didn’t look like the hens had sampled it, just that it fell from the roost with no shell. There was an intact egg near it, so I think something was particularly stressful that day. I scooped it up with the manure rake and disposed of it. The internet and my books tell me that the occasional shell-less egg is not a concern. Ok.
I’ve been holding onto a few of the chicken’s first eggs, not the whole egg, just the blown out shell. Not the very first egg, I didn’t think of blowing out the eggs until the next day. They have been sitting on my counter for a few months and then I thought making ornaments would be a great way to preserve them!
I took about 10 inches of 32 gauge wire, looped it, and twisted the ends together to make a straight section longer than my egg.
Getting the wire through the tiny hole on the end of the blown out egg was a little tricky, but I got there eventually.
I had some thin ribbon in my stash, so threaded some of that through the wire loop, then used the wire to pull the ribbon through the egg. I used over hand knots to keep the egg from sliding off. I used alcohol based ink (aka Sharpie) to write on the egg, and I coated the egg in matte Modge Podge glue for extra durability, and let it dry.
I’m not that keen on the Modge Podge coating. It makes it look like a plastic egg, even though it has a matte finish. I’ll have to run some experiments to see what I can do about that.
Critters and Craft 