Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
19
Home Processing
FOR BREAKFAST, NOTHING IS QUITE LIKE A
farm-fresh egg sizzling and buttery in a pan,
the deep rich orange yolk standing tall. Once you have tasted a truly fresh, pasture-raised
egg, your taste buds will never be satisfied with a caged-bird supermarket egg again.
You'll sniff and swiftly walk away from a fast-food egg sandwich.
For dinner, what's better than steaming turkey pot pie on a chilly night, or a second
fried chicken drumstick at the annual June picnic? Only deviled eggs to go with them, of
course!
All of these delectable foods can be raised and prepared on your property and in your
kitchen when you know a few key home-processing tricks.
Eggs
The first eggs from a newly established flock will always be the smallest. Those are called
pullet eggs. When your bird first starts her egg-laying cycle, they are naturally smaller,
as her ovaries are developing and producing eggs for the first time. Depending upon the
breed, once she gets an established pattern, usually within several days, you'll notice the
eggs have increased in size. Some breeds are a little slower to develop into laying their
normal egg size, while others lay very few pullet eggs and move directly into the full-size
egg-laying stage.
Pullet eggs are perfectly edible. Sometimes the first eggs the hens lay will be without
a yolk, however. Don't be alarmed by this, as it usually happens only once in a while. It
sometimes occurs at the end of the hen's laying cycle as well. If it continues to happen,
however, you probably should cull the hen; but it rarely does.
As pullet eggs increase in size, you'll soon have a good sense of the size, type, and
amount of eggs your flock will produce. The pullet year is always the hen's most product-
ive laying year; laying steadily decreases in the following years. This productive year can
be somewhat modified if you start the laying cycle just before a fall molt. For example,
