Chicken keepers of the world unite

Soup Dragon  congratulations on your first egg - an exciting event.

If you are going to poach the eggs, leave them a couple of days, fresh eggs do not really poach (or boil) very succesfully in my experience.

We are over run with eggs at present - time to make a batch of pickled eggs.

ok.. this is going to be a really stupid question..  no.. I mean..  REALLY stupid...

How do you boil an egg..?   Or..  more specifically..  how do you peel a boiled egg..?

I can never seem to peel one without taking half the egg with it..

What am I doing wrong....?

DV - I always make sure eggs are wet when I peel them and it seems to help but I don't know why.

Another egg appeared today.   Is it usual for chickens to lay during the day?  On Johnny's advice the poached egg delight will be delayed to tomorrow. Ta.

Dark Vader, as Johnny Again says, fresh eggs are not ideal for boiling.  This is because the fresher the egg, the less air inside the shell, meaning there is no space to peel them, although trying to do so under running water helps.

You can tell how fresh an egg is by whether it lies flat on the bottom of a bowl of water (completely fresh), has one end pointing up (slightly less fresh) or floats.

Planning to deal with current egg glut by giving a dozen eggs each to friends coming for dinner tomorrow, making egg custard-based bread and butter pudding for them to eat and freezing any left.  OH won't eat pickled eggs.

Hopetofinish, most of our neighbours have chickens as well, we are in the semi-rural part of Essex!  We get the joys of a crowing contest in the morning between the various cockerels in the area.  We do manage to get rid of a dozen eggs a week to one set of neighbours in exchange for horse muck though, which is handy for veggies. 

This is Cluckingham Palace, also known as Cluck House.

and here are the girls and Rocky, the rhode island red cockerel:

There are five here, Mrs McQueen is lurking at the back and can't be seen very well.

When boiling an egg, put a couple of pinches of salt in the water.

They peel really easy after that.

rosemary - we've got a few flowers but Mr Soup is madly replanting them into some raised beds and containers. I think we might have to buy a jet washer for the patio as well - fed up of chicken poo! I love having them out of the run though.  I feel sorry for them cooped up and might buy a run extension for them, especially after seeing Cluckingham Palace.

Another chicken owner here.... 2 exbats and 2 others that were rehomed to me.

I have the Omlet Cube, did have the eglu  but upgraded to the Cube. Love it, its so easy to keep clean and no bending down to collect those lovely eggies.

I have a walk in run too as dont trus the local foxes or cats to leave my girls alone, but they do come out when am in the garden for worm digging and stuff.

Chicken keeping is very rewarding and think everyone who can should have 2 or 3 in thier garden. xx 

Welcome Dizzy Deb. 

I let my three out of the pen today and two of them just lay stretched out sunbathing.  The funny thing is they then both tried to stretch out on a chair (the same one) and then rolled over to the other side and both fell off each side - daft things.   

Hope - how do you stop broodiness?