Visit our farm site!



http://graswerka.wordpress.com/

Monday, August 24, 2009

Storing Eggs


We are fortunate enough to have a surplus of chicken eggs this summer. Our family took over the management of my father's egg laying hens this summer. We have been camping in his woods Thursday-Sunday this summer in our alter-ego existence as country dwellers. We have two groups or chickens: 8 leghorns and around 2 dozen assorted banties. We house them in two chicken tractors, which get moved across the field daily or twice daily as forage conditions allow. The tractors were an experiment after reading Joe Salatin's 'Pastured Poultry Profits'. A way to improve the soil and keep the hens safe from neighborhood dogs, foxes, coyotes, hawks, wolves and the list goes on! It has been very cool to see the square patches of lush grass spring up where the pens had previously sat.




All these eggs! We have been selling them to co-workers-just enough to cover feed costs. My father gets all he can use and I have started freezing the extras!
It's not difficult at all. I have been freezing in baggies of 6ct, and also in smaller 2 egg breakfast portions. I also plan to freeze some in ice cube trays to give me individual eggs.





Thanks Gina for the mention of freezing eggs! This is such a baby step in becoming self reliant. Now we need to figure out how to feed these guys with out going to the feed store every month! We have been supplementing their diet with garden extras and I even planted a row of mangles with the idea of supplementing the diet with rootstock. But the real answer will be growing (and harvesting and storing) grain. We have a scythe and a whole field of peas and oats, and also some buckwheat. Perhaps we will play with the harvesting part in the upcoming weeks.

Kris

6 comments:

Ruth Trowbridge said...

Wow Kris, I did not know you could freeze eggs! I am so tickled when I learn something new. Yes finding out how to feed chickens is what we all strive for, i do not know the answer here either. Keep happy! Peace for all

Hickchick said...

Ruth --do a small amount first to be sure you like the flavor/texture! I made scrambled eggs with the frozen ones and could not tell the difference. I have not tried any baking yet, but then I am not much of a baker so I do not have good 'normals' for comparison! :) K

Sue said...

Talk to some of the oldsters in your area....almost all had chickens, and no one went to the feed store. I've often wondered myself how to go about it....it would be wonderful to find out.

Hickchick said...

It is heartbreaking how much practical information has been lost in the last few generations.
K

Ruth Trowbridge said...

thanks Kris, o yes the loss of knowledge - the best things are not disposable - when thinking about feeding birds i would consider the highest protien to be the most valuable - i have kept worms under my laying boxes, tried to stimulate maggots (don't ask, please), grew lentils and sunflowers, and used fish, rosehips are good too - they eat it all so quickly and i am back to the food store - peace for all

Anonymous said...

Wow! I had no idea that egg whites/yolks could be frozen like that. I've been wondering recently about if they, like other foodstuff, could be stored, and if people who eat eggs do... now I know.