Big Eggs

Check out what I found in my hens' laying boxes last week.

 

My eyes almost popped out of my head. I wondered which poor chook had laid this Ginormous egg. The little one here is even considered a large sized egg. The Big one is HUGE!!

I thought I should measure it.

 

The measurement says 118g, and the smaller one measured 67g,

but wait there's more........

 

Another one appeared 2 days later.

What's going on???? was there an emu sneaking into the chook yard?

I plotted and planned what I was going to do with these monsters.

I needed help. Inspiration please.

Something to honour them.

mmn what to do with these beauties.

I took the plunge (we were hungry!) and had a crack (haha) at a favourite of ours at home.

 

 

Just as I thought a double yolker, my two youngest even thought that they might have been triple yolkers.

 

And then we made something really simple- Throw 'em together rissoles. Yum Yum..

I love my chooks.

Better still, I love the eggs they produce. Most years we get little day old chicks in spring and raise them. Last year, I left it too late and missed out. This year, in the last few weeks, I have had to buy older chooks (who are yet to lay any return on my $200 investment) as I am not getting any eggs yet. Add to that one old hen who has started eating them before I can collect them. So these whoppers are indeed valuable. 

I read a lot before I got my first chooks many years ago and made sure that I would have all the right conditions for healthy, happy hens, who would lay GIANT eggs.

No roosters cockle-a-doodling at my house in the middle of the night!

Here they are. My girls.

 

I'm pretty sure these black ones, "Black Bond layers" are not laying any googies after just being moved to my house and having just finished their molt. I have 7 of these.

The Black and white spotty ones, Anconas, only lay very white eggs, and they haven't laid anything for ages, so it's not them.

 

These girls "Bond red layers" are still a bit too young to be laying, they're pullets. I have 7 of these. I have opened up my veggie garden so they can clean up the weeds and have a good scratch around.

Behold the beauty of the healthy fresh young chook! Check out how they have pecked and munched out the silverbeet plant.

 

 

Inquisitive aren't they? on the top right hand you can see a couple of scrappy old red chooks. I think it's one of them.

It's not you! You're in big trouble! you were caught with egg on your beak, you've been eating eggs!

Solitary confinement for you to hope you'll get over it. 

(Sounds a bit like a suspension from school!)

She's been removed from socialising with the other girls.   I have put her into her own very roomy (and 5 star!!!) cage with plenty of food and water, with the hopes that she'll forget about that nasty habit, well at least she won't be able to teach any one else how to eat them.

 

I'm pretty sure it's this one-very scrappy, in the process of molting, who's laid the GIANT eggs. She's about 4 years old and they might have just been her last eggs.

They sometimes do that, lay either very small or very large eggs when they are about to retire from hard labour laying.

For those of you who are interested, my chooks live a long, happy life, rewarded for their productivity with plenty of food, cuddles from the kids, and sometimes a few nice "kisses" from the dogs.

They always expire from natural causes.

And, due to the abundance of dogs around here,

 not too much of this -