I thought it would be good to get current, as it's been many months since our last post. The chicks have grown up and are laying the most beautiful eggs! We currently have 12 chickens- 11 hens and 1 rooster. One of our 2 Americanas is now known as "Cinderfella". Somewhat disappointing as we were hoping for more than one blue/green egger in the batch. They are wonderful! Every day is so exciting when we visit the coop and peak into the nesting boxes for the days eggs. One week ago we got our first blue egg! So very exciting, for sure.
This Fall, a friend and I both had intentions to start doing some home schooling activities for our 3 year olds. Our friend turned her basement into a very cool school room. She invited us over one week to do some activities. It was so inspiring, and I offered that they could come over the following week and I would put together some activities about Bees and the letter B. And our home school co-op was born! Each week we take turns leading a handful of activities with the girls, with a focus on a letter of the alphabet. This past week we focused on the letter E. Tracing & writing the letter E, reading a couple books about eggs, a fun experiment (egg-speriment) and then eating eggs prepared 3 different ways (based upon the book "Two Eggs, Please".)
Organic is all the rage these days, and don't get me wrong I definitely believe it is better for all of us. But the truth of the matter, is that some people purchase "organic" because of the label, but don't really know how different or better it is, than the "non-organic" label. Our egg activity, demonstrated that backyard, free range chickens are superior to even the factory "organic" eggs.
We decided to make hard boiled eggs, Scrambled eggs, and Sunnyside Up eggs. I knew that our backyard/ free range eggs have a deep school bus shade to their yolks. Recently I hardboiled some non-organic factory eggs from Wegmans, and was taken aback at how pale the yolks were. We compared yolks from each of the different procured eggs. The amazing part was while we made the "sunnyside up eggs". We cracked 1 Wegmans organic, 1 Wegmans non-organic, and 2 different backyard eggs (one from Redwoodshire, and one from another friend backyard flock).
Check out these beautiful photos my friend took our our eggs.
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| Dark chocolate brown (Copper Maran)- Light brown (plymouth barred rock or Yellow Comet)- Light Blue (Americana) |
Clockwise from the smaller dark yellow yolk: Redwoodshire free range/ non-organic egg. Light yellow on right: Wegmans non-organic egg. Large dark yellow yolk on bottom: Backyard, non-organic egg (older hens). Light yellow yolk on left: Wegmans Organic egg.
The backyard eggs, though not organic have much darker yolks than both of the Factory procured eggs. The darker yolk is due to the free range diet rich in varied nutrients. Notice how minor the difference is between the two lighter yolks. The one on left is "organic."
WOW! I am convinced that backyard eggs, organic or not, are far superior than factory eggs from the store. From reading about all the nutritional benefits of backyard, free range eggs, I already had a basis to believe they were what I wanted to feed my family. But having cooked them side by side and seen the very obvious difference in yolk colors, I am completely convinced that backyard eggs are superior than their factory procured counterparts.
With all of our hens in the laying rotation, we have so many eggs. When the days lengthen in the Spring we are going to have even more eggs on our hands. We have begun selling our Redwoodshire Eggs to friends in the area for $2/dozen. Once we switch over to Organic Feed, eggs will be $3/dozen. I don't even feel like I have to convince people that they are worth it- because I know that they are. If you are health conscious about putting the most nutritious food into your body, you should definitely consider the hens your eggs come from. Even if you cannot keep chickens yourself, you may be able to find someone local who is raising backyard chickens and selling their eggs.
If you are local and would like Redwoodshire Eggs, please get in touch to be added to our egg schedule.
Photo credit: L. Desormeau 2016
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