I really love collecting eggs from my hens. It makes me smile. Every single time. From the smallest, to the largest, I just love finding those little gems in the nest boxes.
I keep a daily count of the eggs I’ve collected. In January, I collected a total of 274 eggs. Not bad for a bunch of new layers, with six of them in the middle of molt. Especially considering it’s winter, when most hens decrease production, or do not lay at all. That’s an average of 8.84 eggs a day. I need to work on that one laying the .84 egg.
Not only do I count my eggs, I weigh them. I don’t weigh every single one of them, but I take a sample of each day’s collection and put them on my nifty egg scale, just for the fun of it:
I keep that baby on the counter, right next to the refrigerator.
Here are the minimum for egg weights as defined by the USDA:
Fascinating, isn’t it? OK, not really, but it does help you understand the terminology on my nifty egg scale.
Most of the eggs around here weigh in at almost medium
Some of them weigh in at small
And I still get the occassional peewee
Every one of them just tickles me. Just absolutely tickles me to death.
Today Bernie is chopping wood and I have puppy duty. These little buggers are growing like crazy. And they keep us hopping. They are doing great on their potty training and we’ve had no accidents in the house for two days. They’re even learning to walk to the door when they have to go potty.
And for those of you with pups of any age, I’m including a recipe for some tail-wagging, puppy pleasing cookie treats. I used to make these for our other dogs and they just loved them. I wish I could remember where I got this recipe so I could give the appropriate attribution. I think I got it out of a dog food recipe book I can no longer find – I’m sure it’s packed in one of those boxes somewhere….
Peanut Butter Doggie Biscuits
Ingredients:
3 tbsp. peanut butter
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups water
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup rolled oats (you can use oatmeal – but NOT the instant type)
1/2 cup fine cornmeal
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Beat together peanut butter and eggs. Gradually beat in oil and water until well mixed.
3. In a separate bowl, thoroughly combine flour, oats, and cornmeal.
4. Add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture and blend well to form a dough.
5. Roll out the dough to approximately 1/4″ thickness and cut into shapes, or just slice them into squares if you don’t have cookie cutters.
6. Place on a lightly greased cookie sheet, leaving about 1/2 between biscuits. Bake for 20 minutes until browned. Turn off the oven, but leave the biscuits inside to “crisp”. (NOTE: If you are using a smaller cookie sheet and have several batches to cook, you can place the finished biscuits in a single layer on a plate and leave them on the counter to “crisp” as you bake the rest.) Once the biscuits have hardened, treat your dogs! Store the remianing biscuits in an airtight container.
This recipe makes a fair amount of doggie biscuits, so I keep a few in a cookie jar, and freeze the remaining in a freezer bag.
Bon Appetite, Fido!
Bee Free,
Penny
