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Fresh eggs.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Stitcher
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Stitcher

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My dad always kept a few chickens. About six pullets and one or two cockerills. This of course meant that we could have a fresh egg each for breakfast most days. If and when a pulet stopped laying it went into the pot for dinner. Christmas would always be a bad time for the cockerills as well. I used to have to dig the run so they could scratch and rake looking for worms and I can still smell the spud peelings and other left-overs being boiled up for them.
We also had a pet rabbit and one day when I went to feed it it was gone. I ran in to tell mom and she said it was in the pot for dinner because times were not good just then.
 
Stitcher that brought back a memory or two. Down home we kept a dozen hens when I was a kid. I couldn't look an egg in the face for years after we got them! Boil a newlaid egg for 6 minutes + and it was still nearly raw. Fry it and the same - yuk.
We used to throw 'em the grass cuttings off the lawn (it was dandelions and clover mostly). Mum always reckoned that made the yolks darker.
Mike
 
Stitcher my daughter in laws sister has just bought 12 ex battery hens. They had very few feathers when they fetched them. What a life they have now compared with the way they lived in those tiny crates. My son phoned last week and said his wife and daughter had gone to a hen party. I realised after they had gone round to see the hens now they have settled down. Jean.
 
A young couple recentlly bought some land next to us, for their horses. They are a breath of fresh air because they love the outdoors, and they built a hen house with a large run, enclosed by high wire because of fox's. They also bought a battery hen which was accepted by all the other hens, then they put one of its eggs into the nest box. Straight away another of the hens sat on it and heigh presto there is a little chick running round after the hen that hatched it. They are feeding the chick with corn, but even cut up into four pieces the chick cant manage to pick it up and chew it, so momma hen chews the corn and puts it down for baby to eat.
 
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About this business of fresh eggs, can anyone beat this! Up here, we have been getting 3 pints of milk, and a dozen eggs virtually every Sunday from a local farmer, who produces the eggs himself, so they are fresh, and he charges 70p for a dozen. The price went up to 70p about 2 years ago, so I wont be surprised whenever they go up again. But is that a bargain, or what ? Barry.
 
Barry we buy our eggs from a farm on Barr Beacon. They sell poor shelled eggs for £1.75 per tray of 30. I also have duck eggs from the same place. Bye. Jean.
 
Trevor your story brought back a time when I was evacuated. It was my job to walk along ditches pulling grass filling sacks for the rabbits. For this I was given a lovely Blue gray colour rabbit for a pet.

One day when I came home from school I was told we would be having chicken for dinner. ...

It was after dinner I walked down the garden to the rabbit shed to get a sack, when to my horror I recognised my rabbit's skin pegged on the line - I had just eaten my pet for dinner, its skin hung to dry ready to be used to make a fur collar - I cried and cried.
 
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Oh Beryl that must have been awful. It happened to me with a chick off the rag and bone man. I was naughty and hid at the back of dads shed. When they found it they gave it away as a pet [so I was told]. Found out later it ended up on their plate. Jean.
 
I know exactly what you are saying Beryl. I had a younger sister who went into hospital when she was two because of rhumatoid arthritis. That left three lads at home with mom and dad so we were not bought up to be squeamish or lovey dovey with pets. Therefore it was not as bad for us as it would have been for you. We enjoyed the rabbit as long as we did not think about it whilst eating. Of course, this paved the way for dad to get a young rabbit every few weeks so there was almost always one ready for the pot after that. Dad used to take me fishing and would bring the bigger fishes home and we would eat those as well. I will always remember the earthy taste of baked pike.
 
I was brought up a meat eater - but it wouldn't take much for me to be a complete vegitarian - if in my minds eye I see the animals face. . .
 
Beryl, If we shouldnt eat these animals, why are they made of meat? Only joking. I can enjoy a veggie meal just as much as a meat meal. Its something I never think of as I am eating.
 
motorman-mike said:
Stitcher that brought back a memory or two. Down home we kept a dozen hens when I was a kid. I couldn't look an egg in the face for years after we got them! Boil a newlaid egg for 6 minutes + and it was still nearly raw. Fry it and the same - yuk.
We used to throw 'em the grass cuttings off the lawn (it was dandelions and clover mostly). Mum always reckoned that made the yolks darker.
Mike
Click to expand...

Reminds me of Dad he always went up to Market in Birmingham and there used to be stall you could pick a live chicken and the storeholder would do the necessary and you'd bring home.

Unfortunely this the bird must only been stunned and on the tram home from Steelehouse lane it clucking much to the surprise of the passengers.

Ray
 
Boil a newlaid egg for 6 minutes + and it was still nearly raw. Fry it and the same - yuk
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Mike I didn't know that. I got some fresh eggs from the farm recently, a mixture of turkey, duck and chicken eggs. I made omelets with some and fried one or two and that is exactly what I thought, that they weren't cooked enough. Glad you mentioned that. Mo
 
Sakura, now I dont want give the impression that I am an expert so I will tel you the truth. I was told by a farmer that the faster an egg cooks, or the harder it boils in a short time, then the older it is. He also said that a really freash egg will float in a dish of cold water, an older egg will sink.
 
Norma, I wouldnt know about the eggs, just repeating what I was told. I know all about eating meat though. I must have eaten tons of the stuff over the years. Like you we have a bit less red meat these days and eat more fish as well as pork and chicken. We do sometimes have a lump of beef for sunday lunch and the leftover for monday.
 
Ray Griffiths, I bet that was funny eh. I know what you mean about the eggs. The trouble was if we didnt eat what was put we got it for the next meal so we just eat what came.
 
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