Monday, February 20, 2012

Eggs

The chickens have gone on strike. I shouldn't complain. They made it through January, and I just defrosted the last carton of eggs I froze last summer. (Freezing in the shell keeps them more egg like, although the shells crack, so they need to defrost in a container that won't leak). It's been about two weeks now without a single chicken egg.
However, we do have these lovely eggs.  Three turkey eggs, which really are quite similar in taste to chicken eggs, just slightly larger, speckled and thicker shelled.

The larger egg behind, we've been getting a couple of those a week for awhile now, and assume they are goose eggs.  We're pretty sure all of the ducks are male.

And then we got the really big egg.  It looks the same as the 'goose' egg, just bigger.

So we're watching those ducks, and trying to pick a female.  Maybe.

More likely though, we've got two breeds of goose.  This pic is from last summer when we got the new geese.  They're all the same size now, and all look the same to me, except one grey tail feather on each of the new geese.  We weren't sure what sex anyone was.  Now we're thinking we've got two geese and a gander, and one of the geese lays bigger eggs than the other.

But it could be a duck.

12 comments:

  1. I think they are geese eggs. I had never heard of freezing the eggs in the shell and love this idea!

    Thanks,

    Jennifer

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  2. me too Wendy! so you freeze and then defrost and just use them as regular eggs? need more info buddy!

    your friend,
    kymber

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    1. I just heard about it last summer, so I thought I'd give it a try. I froze two dozen in the cardboard cartons. They crack when they freeze, and leak a bit as they defrost. Once they're cracked fully open, they look just like a fresh egg, with maybe a little less white than normal. I've only used them for baking so far, so can't swear that they'd taste the same as a fresh egg.

      Since they're convenient in one dozen cartons, they aren't hanging around the fridge too long. I would imagine they'd dry out some if I left them sit. Of course, you could probably just take three or four frozen eggs out of the carton in the freezer if you weren't planning to use them all at once.

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  3. Turn those ducks or geese upside down and check the sex.A finger inside the cloaca should tell you all you need to know. If you find something in there, it's a boy. If not, it's a girl. No way would I ever do that. But, you can skin a mutilated bear, so you are the woman with the nerve. I just know intellectually how to sex a fowl. By the way, this would have been easier with itty bitty ducks and geese...lol.

    I am getting a little punchy since I only had three hours of sleep last night!

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    1. That is so not happening, lol. I just don't need to know quite that bad, lol.

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  4. LOL...send the boys out to do that...they can hold the ducks like they were in the ob/gyn stirrups...LOL...I knew you would not like the idea. Neither do I. Remember, I 10 had chickens for 8 months without a clue as to which were boys and which were girls.

    Seriously, I would be interested in their reaction if you suggested sexing the fowl...lol.

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  5. My mom always cracks eggs into ice cube trays, freezes them and when all the way frozen knocks them out of the tray and puts them in a big ziplock bag.

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    1. Thanks, Tayet. I did that with beef stock this year, and then ran out of ice, lol. Ièll have to get some more ice cube trays before I try it with eggs.

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  6. Wendy,
    I have 4 oz Tupperware containers and 4 oz Ball canning/freezer jars that each hold two eggs. I take two eggs, beat and freeze. Your way is soooo much easier.

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  7. Duh! I recently threw out some eggs that froze in the fridge. This is very good to know!

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  8. I noticed that last year you had LOTS of trouble deciding if your baby goats were boys or girls. Here's a link so you never have to wonder again!

    http://fiascofarm.com/goats/gender.htm

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Tayet! I should have read that yesterday!

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