Cluck-Cluck

I think I've decided that Nate and I are the slowest people on the planet when it comes to acting. Take chickens for example. We've talked about it for some time, read books, visited friends with chickens, interviewed other chicken owners, researched how/when/where, but when it comes down to taking action, we get around to it... eventually.

It is official, though. We finally took the plunge and placed our chick order. After much debate and talking it to death we decided on a straight run of 12 New Hampshire Reds and a straight run of 12 Dominiques. For those of you who don't know (and I'll assume you don't simply because this is all new information for me, too), a straight run means both male and female, roughly half and half. So yes, we have both hens and roosters showing up, although at this developmental stage they are referred to as pullets and cockerels. When they arrive they will be two day-old fuzzy, fluffy, cute little chicks... that will grow into both our egg layers and our dinner meals. Yep - that's right! Our plan is to butcher the roosters and keep the hens for fresh eggs. They get here in about 8-ish weeks and then 8-ish weeks later we take the boys "to market." Not entirely clear on the details of how that will work, yet, but to be sure I will keep all posted.

Presumably we'll have around 12 hens left for laying. Which, if we did the math correctly (albeit a little late), we should have about 70-ish eggs per week. Holy cow! Or chicken! Or egg! We realized this after we placed the order. What to do with that many eggs??? Some will go to friends/family, some for our fridge, some to our church's food pantry, and then who knows. I guess we'll have to play that part by ear. Actually, we're playing a lot of this by ear - flying by the seat of our... tail feathers if you will. Our plan is to learn as we go! Anyone have any great recipes that use lots of eggs??