I have been looking into the recycled egg carton debate and have decided that I can’t risk reusing egg cartons. My youngest has a compromised immune system and unintentionally growing bacteria in reused cartons is too risky. I don’t wash my eggs until right before I use them (except if they are dirty), so there is a higher risk for contaminating the carton. I bought a wire egg rack for my counter eggs that can be wiped down and a washable tray for the refrigerated hard boiled eggs. The wire egg rack holds 36 eggs as advertised, and takes up less room on the counter than two 18 egg cartons, which is nice.

My eldest and I tore up the used egg cartons and put them in the compost. Tearing up paper is good for getting out aggression too. Bonus.

I bought new egg cartons online for transporting eggs. Although we have been going through the eggs in about a week, so don’t often have an excess.

Faverolle hens should lay pink eggs. The egg on the bottom of the picture I consider to be pink. Not white, but ever so slightly tinted brown.

I do have hatchery quality Faverolles, and a wide spread of egg color, but honestly, I like the brown eggs with the dark speckles all over best. The look like they should be wild eggs.

I have been lucky this week and have been collecting eggs in the coop when a hen was just finishing up laying. I have a high rate of certainty of who laid the egg when I reach under the hen and the egg is still clinging to the feathers! However, my hypothesis on egg color corresponding to the chicken is shot.

Seashell (who is very easily identified because she is the only hen with a black beard) laid two different colored eggs about 27 hours apart. Now here is an interesting part: I have heard both that eggs will darken over the hen’s lifetime, and that eggs start out dark and will lighten over time cyclically with the seasons. So I will keep collecting data and see which category my hens fall into. Or if they have their own category entirely. How interesting.

Yay! We have enough eggs to run a batch through the pressure cooker to make hard boiled eggs.

The eggs are on the small side and slip through the circles on the egg holder, so I had to set them in sideways. It worked fine, though. The eggs came out beautifully. The shells peeled away easily, and the yolk is perfect.

I put a cup of water in the bottom of the pressure cooker pot, load the eggs in the egg holder (I can do 14 at a time), run my pressure cooker for 5 minutes on high, and manually release the pressure. I use tongs to put the eggs directly into a large bowl of ice water.