Catching up, egg facts

The hubbie went on another business trip, this time to the TTXGP in Wisconsin.  It's the first electric motorcycle grand prix series and he's so excited he can barely contain himself.  He'll get home on Monday night, then turn around and leave Tuesday morning for Southern California to work on an electric motorcycle ridden by Chip Yates.  He met Chip on his recent trip to Northern CA a few weeks ago.  Suffice it to say, this traveling thing has paid off.

I have to admit to feeling like a poser writing about what G-man does.  He spouts off technical stuff about and names from the electric vehicle world all the time and I have no idea what most of it means.  I don't know the difference between a volt and a watt.  What I can say with confidence, though, is that I'm so proud of him.  I've known him for nearly 7 years, the first 5 of which he floundered professionaly, going from job to job and sometimes being in school.  He worked in about 5 jobs, none of which he remotely cared about longterm.  Seeing him pursue a career with a singular focus, drive, and excitement is inspiring.

With G-man prepping for an extended time away from home, I've been pulled away from the blog for a few days.  But don't worry.  I've been composing posts for you in my head and taking pictures this entire time.  I've got plans for:

• Several posts on how to get every penny's worth from a whole roasted chicken
• A series on honey: I've developing an obsession.  If you follow my facebook feed, you'll know I recently bought 6 lbs from a guy in a parking lot.  "Hey buddy.  You got da stuff?"
• Some posts on "exotic" greens available now at the farmers markets, and what to do with them
• Updates on the garden.  It's been raining in the PNW for weeks and weeks.  There's much to do.

I'll leave you with thoughts on commercially produced eggs.  People are surprised by some of the "weird" eggs our chickens lay: eggs with no yolks, odd shapes, eggs with no shell, teensy eggs, huge eggs, etc.  The reality is that these things are normal and perfectly uniform white eggs are the abnormality.

Check out these bad boys we got recently:

These were both laid by our polish crested hens, which are bantam (lightweight) breeds.  These hens weigh about 60% of what the production hens weigh.  They are what every girl wants to be: thin and fine-boned.  They're also completely neurotic but that's a whole other issue.

Polish are not supposed to be good laying hens but my girls have been the most reliable ones lately.  Not are they laying daily but their eggs are the same size as those of the hens that are much larger and eat much more.  They make a good case for a polish- or bantam-only flock.

This one was pointy and ENORMOUS:

Some egg facts:

• Did you know that the rounded end of an egg comes out first?
• Pinhead-sized dark spots inside an egg are caused by a capillary in the ovary bursting during the egg production.  They are harmless and will hurt neither the hen nor your food.
• A hen's eggs get bigger & lighter in color over time.  She'll stop laying during a molt, after which her eggs will again be darker.
• The only difference between a white and brown (and pink, green, or blue, for that matter) egg is the outside pigmentation.
• Egg color is determined by the hen's breed, not the feather color, and is correlated to her earlobe color.  In general, the darker the skin, the darker the egg.  Our polish have blue earlobes.  Here's Dozer, modeling her earlobe for you:

Check out this one's earlobes (not my bird/pic).  This is a silkie, which lays white eggs.  I believe this is a rooster.

If you have a strong stomach, check out these weird eggs.  Warning: some of the pics are pretty gross.