The Egg-citing Brilliance of Eggs!
The Egg-citing Brilliance of Eggs!
I love sharing my love of the Egg-citing homegrown egg! Every morning, I start my day with an egg, more importantly, an egg yolk. Why?
In my journey this past year into holistic health and herbalism, I've learned a lot about how essential the nutrients we put in our bodies are.
One way I can kick start my day with the most vitamins, minerals, and protein is also the easiest way: EGGS!
One egg contains the following:
- Vitamin E
- Vitamin D
- Vitamin K2
- Vitamin B6
- Vitamin B12
- Retinol
- Zinc
- Selenium
I start every morning with an egg and mushroom coffee. If I feel a cold or illness, I'll cook two eggs, but no matter what, I always include the yolk, where most nutrients are stored.
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Where do they come from?
Most people will shout chickens as the first answer! However, many edible bird eggs are available, and it might surprise you which animal species produce dish-worthy eggs worldwide.
- Chicken
- Duck
- Quial
- Turkey
- Emu
- Crocodile
- Goose
- Guinea Fowl
- Octopus
- Gull
- Ostrich
- Pheasant
- Pigeon
Were you surprised by some species that made it to the list. I would love to give you more details, but that is another blog post for another day! I will cover some of the facts about how chickens lay eggs.
Chicken Egg Laying Facts You Might Not Know:
- Egg Layer is the name/type used for breeds known for their egg production.
- A good egg layer will produce 281 - 365 eggs a year.
- The most productive years are in the 2-3 year range. They can lay up to 10 years, but don't count on them for your daily egg gathering.
- Most chickens start laying when they are between 5 and 7 months old. So, if you get your chicks in early spring, say March, you should see eggs around September.
- Egg production depends on temperature (45-80° is best) and how much sunlight per day. These conditions are why chickens will lay during the winter, but production might slow to one egg every other day. In the summer, a hen can lay up to two eggs daily.
- You DO NOT need a rooster to get eggs from a hen. But, if you ever want to hatch chicks, you must get a rooster.
Intriguing Egg Facts:
- Eggs are a complete protein.
- When assessing other foods ' protein quality, scientists often consider eggs the gold standard.
- The shell color of an egg corresponds to the color of the hen's earlobe: white, brown, or bluish. It also depends on the breed. Some chicken owners pride themselves on the variety of egg colors their flock produces.
- A properly refrigerated egg will retain its quality for about six weeks and rarely spoil, like meat and fruit.
- Leave eggs in the fridge for at least one week for an easier-to-peel-boil egg.
- Egg yolks contain fats that assist with the flavor release of other ingredients in a recipe, making everything more delicious.
- Egg whites are perfect for baking because they aerate batters by creating foam up to eight times greater than the original liquid, adding structure and bounce.
How to boil them:
You do not want to use a fresh, laid that-day egg. Use a 2-3 days-old egg kept at a cool room temperature or in the refrigerator. The best way is to leave eggs in the fridge for at least one week for an easier-to-peel-boil egg. Wait until the egg is completely cooled off before attempting to peel.
Here are the boiling times for different eggs:
- Chicken Eggs: 8 min
- Duck Eggs: 10-15 min
- Quail Eggs: 6 min
What is a double yolk?
It does not matter how often you crack open a double yolk; it is still magical every time! You can usually tell they will be a double yolk because they are larger and have an elongated shape.
Old folklore tells us that someone close to you might have twins or that a new beginning is on the horizon. In some cultures and religions, a double yolk is good luck. Or you just cracked into about one in 1,000 eggs with a double yolk.
But scientifically, when hens are coming into their first season of laying eggs, their bodies are just figuring things out, which is why their first eggs are usually small, some almost tiny. So, sometimes, they will release two eggs very quickly, causing a shell to form around them simultaneously.
Referencing the above Instagram video, this particular egg yolk differed from our eggs' usual rich, thick yolk. See how the yolks broke as soon as they hit the bowl? Even our "normal" double yolks stay firm. The cause could be several things: maybe this hen didn't get enough in her diet to produce that egg, or perhaps it was her first double yolk because we have some new layers.
But I'm not concerned if the other yolks are still high quality. I'll monitor them to see if the children need to be consistent with the amount of feed, the amount of food scraps, and the chickens' foraging.
If you watched the reel till the end, you saw all the Vitamins & Minerals yolks contain!
Ask any school-aged child when they can find eggs, most will respond with Easter or spring. So, let's explore the Easter egg!
History of the Easter egg:
It is probably not surprising that the Easter egg originates from religious practices. Dating back to the medieval period, when it was forbidden to eat eggs during Lent, receiving or getting an egg on Easter Sunday was a real treat!
This Easter morning treat was especially exciting for the poorer people of the time, who usually couldn't afford meat and would substitute it with eggs. Eggs also carried folklore around with them during Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
If you kept your eggs laid on Good Friday for one hundred years, they would turn into diamonds. Eggs that produced two yolks were a sign that you would soon become wealthy. Cooking your eggs on Good Friday and eating them on Easter Sunday would help with fertility and prevent sudden death.
People of the 18th Century decided to have a little fun with their eggs. They would hard boil, decorate, and then roll them on the ground in an egg roll race. At this time, it had become a practice for children to roll eggs decorated with colors. There is documentation that in 1290, King Edward I had eggs decorated with colors and gold leaf given as gifts to his family members.
Learn More:
As you can see, eggs have held an important role throughout history, and hopefully, this post will help you understand why. Maybe next time you look at the humble egg, you will see how much brilliance it holds inside!
Thanks for spending time with us at the Wildwood Wonder Cottage Homestead. If you want to learn more about what to do with eggs or Chickens 101, check out the following blog post!
