Over the years, I’ve acquired quite a few chicken themed collectables; antiques, farm equipment, art objects, hand crafts, etc. I’ve even drawn, painted, and carved my own chicken art. Why my captivation –my fascination with fowl you ask? The rooster. It is unexplainable, I know. I just like them! A lot. The rooster has great proportions, despite the weirdness of it’s wobbly and dangly bits.
Recently, I decided to add some real chickens –hens to be specific, into my collection. The reasons? Eggs for one. Another reason, is because I want the full experience of what chickens are, the essences of chickens. About a year ago, I began purchasing fresh eggs on a weekly basis, from two friends who each live out in the country. During the winter, I researched how to care for all things chicken, by reading numerous books from my public library. Over the summer, I hunted down a used chicken coop and run on Craigslist. And last month, I bought 3 hens from a local chicken farmer.
Suffice it to say, my hens are laying eggs in my urban yard. The picture above shows a lovely dark brown egg which my middle hen, Crackers II, laid. I have an old egg scale that indicates the standard weight range and size designation of chicken eggs. And of course, you can guess that I would be so compelled to weigh every egg that my hens produce!
So in my case, you could say the store bought eggs came first, then the chicken collection, then the farm fresh eggs from friends, then my chickens, and now the eggs…I would.