Oh, That's a Big 'Un!

I usually collect the eggs laid by our lovely free-range, organically fed hens mid-afternoon, or wait until YD gets home from school so that she can do it, but it was pouring down yesterday so they didn't get collected.  However, as three of our ladies are prone to broodiness I can't leave the eggs in the nesting boxes too long otherwise I'll open the coop to at least two very cross, growling, puffed up hens, who subsequently stop laying for a couple of weeks.  Much as I love my hens, they need to be productive and have to lay to earn their keep!

So this morning, after school drop off, I grabbed a couple of egg boxes and popped down the garden to top up their feed and collect the eggs.  I ejected the two broodies from the nesting boxes and put my hand in to pick up the eggs and guess what I found......

What a whopper!

Eggs clearly come in three sizes in our house... small, large and eye watering!!! We're not the only ones though, my good friend Mama Syder found a similar sized egg a couple of weeks ago.  Purely out of curiosity, DH weighed the egg and it came in at a whopping 105g... the average hen's egg weighs between 35g and 77g.  I'm saving it to show the children but I bet YD has it boiled for breakfast in the morning with hot buttered toast soldiers... it's bound to be a double yolker.

 After the very harsh, cold winter, when the hens stopped laying completely for three months, we're now getting an average of 8-9 per day, which is great.  I give lots of eggs away to friends and normally donate the excess to the Abbey for the tea shop, either for cakes or egg mayonnaise sandwiches, but this week I'm keeping them for myself as the Brownie's are having a cake sale on Sunday after the service and I've promised to bake 60+ large cupcakes for them.  YD will of course be helping me and I'm really looking forward to spending the afternoon with her in the kitchen tomorrow... we have't done it for a while.