Ted’s essays

Easter Egg Chicken Ranch


That is one of my favorite names for our homestead … once I get most of it in order, that is.

The Leghorn chicken breed is the most egg productive. A prime-age hen will come very close to one white egg per day. Most chickens are closer to one every other day. Thus, commercial egg farms will exclusively use Leghorns and, therefore produce white eggs. That is why the least expensive and most common eggs are white.

For me, feeding an extra bird or two is inconsequential. It amuses me to have a variety of birds and a variety of colored eggs in every day’s harvest. You see what I mean. What my mix loses in practicality it more than recovers aesthetically.

While no chicken breed could be accused of much intelligence, the Leghorns do seem just a bit dumber than most. Nevertheless, I tried to have some white eggs in the daily egg gathering mix, but lost my two Leghorns this spring before they reached productivity.

In this photo I captured one of the neighborhood fawns outside the chicken yard fence. The young birds and young deer are mutually fascinated with each other.

This scene was repeated several times a day for a few weeks. They are used to each other now.

I close with one of many flower photos I have taken in the last couple months. I’ll share more elsewhere.

– Ted –