Color Carnival: Our Rainbow of Eggs

Many people do not realize eggs come in natural colors other than white or brown. We also have pink, green, blue, tan, and dark brown laid by our heritage breed hens. Aren't they beautiful? We sell them as a Rainbow Selection. Here's the mock up for our new egg carton label.

For more colorful images, visit Color Carnival!

Return of the Magical Mystery Egg

When we first began keeping chickens, we bought a dozen ceramic eggs to place in the nesting boxes to give the girls the idea of where we wanted them to lay. This might seem silly to those of you who do not keep chickens, but it is a fact that young pullets are just as likely to lay one on top of your head as in the nest box without a little instructional guidance!

Soon we were awash in eggs, and selling them to friends and neighbors. I collected up the fake eggs, which were no longer necessary, only to discover there were now only 11. Our greatest fear was we had accidentally sold one of these great imitations to someone expecting a dozen edible ones! Yet no one would own up to receiving the mystery egg.

This weekend, while digging up some of the composted soil that washed down with the last rain into the creek, Farmer Rick discovered the missing egg! It looks as if it has fooled quite a few egg eaters by all the tooth marks on both ends. I'd love to know how it got into the creek, and where all it's been the last three years! Maybe this has given predators the idea our eggs aren't too palatable!

Two Finds in One Morning

Yesterday morning we found our first little Cuckoo Marans egg in the new coop. They are known as the "Chocolate Eggers." Yup, the girls are now entering their point of lay. This means Farmer Rick needs to hurry up and build some nest boxes!

Perhaps the more unexpected find, though, was this large stone artifact at the intersection of several of our trails near the new coop, where I have undoubtedly walked right by it a zillion times. I am not sure if this is an early biface or a blank that was to be later made into something more refined.

Several decades ago a nearby field was excavated by the Texas Archaeological Research Lab of UTSA, and yielded many artifacts of Native American encampment. We suspect that our land, too, was a camping ground as we find the dark and angular limestone rocks used in their "ovens" and signs of worked chert. Back when the two creeks flowed, the place where I found this would have been a prime hunting spot.

Many times I've looked here for artifacts, and of course I only did the finding when I wasn't looking!

Big Bird's Big Adventure

After looking a gazillion places at least five times and giving her up for dead, Big Bird returned in the arms of Farmer Rick before dinner time yesterday! You can imagine my joy of seeing her again!

He was down in the creek dutifully patching up all the critter holes under the fence with wire when he heard a car slam on its brakes, and then a chicken cackle. He saw a couple of feathers floating up, and wondered...

...could it be?

He ran to the top of the bank, and there stood Big Bird in the middle of the road, befuddled as ever, twisting her head around trying to figure out where she was.

Now I'll remind you, this is a fancy feathered light-colored chicken with limited vision that's just spent two days and two nights out in the rain and cold without much cover, food or water, and plenty of predators around. The fact that she survived this is amazing.

Suddenly, a car was coming, headed right for her! Farmer Rick scaled the no-climb six foot fence and bounded for her, and the car slowed to a stop, to avoid hitting both of them. I'm sure the driver was wondering what was that?

By now, she figured she was in some kind of really big trouble and fleed toward the 20 foot drop off to the culverts below, narrowly ducking into a thicket of green brier, and forcing FR to dive into it, gashing extremities to retrieve her.

It was a beautiful reunion. We sat together in the wicker love seat on the front porch as the rays of the setting sun washed us in gold. She nestled her bouffant head into the crook of my arm as I petted her. She sang a sweet little song. Then, I felt it hit my thigh. Thinking it was something else, I looked down, and there was one perfect white egg in my lap!