We all know the typical saying that the more, the merrier. But it's hard to know what to do if your chickens are laying more eggs than you can use. What do you do with all the extra eggs your hens are laying?

The egg is, undoubtedly, a fantastic food. As a budget protein source, it can't be surpassed for its health benefits, taste, and price. You can prepare eggs in various ways, whether it be baking, boiling, scrambling, poaching, or frying. They also add a rich flavor to waffles, crepes, quiches, egg bakes, custards, pies, cakes, and popovers, among other dishes. But if you have too many eggs produced by your hens and you are tired of eating eggs every day, fortunately, there are several ways to deal with a surplus of eggs (and we will exclude the idea of expanding your family so that more eggs can be consumed 😃)

Here are a few ideas on what you can do with those extra eggs made by your birds:

#1 Sell the eggs

If your birds produce more eggs than you consume, the simplest and most economical way to deal with the surplus is to sell the extra eggs. Put up a simple signage in front of your house and advertise your eggs to those who drive or walk by. And if you don't like the idea of a physical signage, why not put up an ad on Craigslist? Besides the general public, you can also sell eggs to friends and relatives, or take them to work and offer them to your co-workers. 

You may be amazed at how easy it is to sell your eggs, since more and more folks are re-discovering the benefits of local grown produce and farm-fresh taste! Ultimately, the main driver for this option isn't to make a ton of money but to ensure that whatever nature and your care for chickens has given you is not going to waste. As a side benefit, you may also pickup some commercial knowledge and use it in other areas of life.

#2 Gift the eggs

It's a nice feeling when you give to others. Giving eggs to your neighbors is an excellent way to get acquainted with them and make some friends. In addition, you can provide eggs to homeless or people who need them directly or indirectly by donating them to charities. They will surely appreciate it, and you will be spreading much needed kindness, something we all should strive for.

#3 Feed them back to the birds

Feeding eggs back to the birds is also a good option. Some people may not be comfortable with this idea, however in the wild, chickens eat their eggs, which are a fantastic source of nutrition. If you include the shell, you also got yourself a natural and rich source of calcium which the birds, especially hens, always require.

When you have too many eggs to consume, boil the eggs for fifteen minutes, then mash them all with a potato masher. You can give this mashed snack to the birds, while also clearing up room in the refrigerator. The only "problem" is, you are likely to be rewarded with even more eggs in the weeks to come 😃.

#4 Use those eggs!

There is a delicate balance of various high-quality nutrients in a chicken egg, many of which have a very high biological availability, or in other terms, get easily absorbed and used by our body. Because the egg provides a wide range of health advantages to consumers, it is classified as a functional food by the World Health Organization.

We can find eggs in many dishes. If you're seeking to branch out from your usual breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon, you should try one of these equally tasty and simple egg recipes. 

Many are afraid of egg's cholesterol content. And while nutrition science is rarely unanimous, large part of scientific community is of the view that dietary cholesterol is not the main cause of chronically raised blood cholesterol. To stay on the safe side, general guidelines are to avoid too much dietary cholesterol for those who already have high blood cholesterol. However, if one does not have high blood cholesterol to start with, and is leading a healthy life with a varied and healthy diet, egg cholesterol should not pose any problems and may in fact be beneficial. As with anything, practice moderation and talk to your doctor for advice on how many eggs may be too many.

Conclusion

Overproduction of eggs can make some of us worried so we have provided a few options in the hopes of helping you use up some of those extra eggs from your backyard chickens. Please take advantage of your overflowing egg baskets and don't think of it as a problem but nature's gift to be shared, sold or gifted!

If you had scrolled through Instagram feeds of some backyard chicken enthusiasts, you are likely to have come across photos of chicken eggs in many different colors, from white to shades of brown, pink, green, blue. Why do eggs come in different colors and what decides the color of an egg? Do different color eggs also have different nutritional properties? This question is also one of the many questions that occupy the minds of us chicken keepers or those who are about to join the chicken keeping community. Let us try to demystify some of the questions and understand what it would take if you wanted to get that perfect shot of a beautiful and colorful egg basket.

The Science Behind Different Egg Colors

All eggs start out as white in color. As the egg passes through the oviduct different pigments are released, giving the eggshell its color. The two main pigments providing a myriad of different shades of brown and blue are oocyanin (blue shades) and protoporphyrin (brown shades).

Now, blue pigment, if it is present, is deposited earlier in the egg's journey through the oviduct. This means that although all eggs start out as white in color, some may actually get blue pigment deposited before and in addition to other pigments later in the eggs journey. This also explains how we end up with green or more precisely olive colored eggs. It's the blue pigment earlier in the journey, on top which which brown pigment is deposited that gives us the appearance of olive color. 

In certain cases, these pigments may permeate the eggshell and some color may be visible on the egg as well. This is more likely to occur with blueish eggs.

What does the egg color depend on?

Anecdotally, many people relied on bird's earlobes to predict the color of the eggs. Hens with white earlobes would usually carry white eggs, while those with red carry brown eggs. And while this may be true in some cases, the only 100% sure way of deducing the color of eggs is by looking at the breed. Egg color is specific to the breed laying them. So if you're after brown eggs, go for Orpingtons, Plymouth Rocks or Rhode Island Reds; if you're after white eggs, go for Leghorns or Anconas; similarly, for blue eggs, go for Ameraucanas and Araucanas.

While the color is undoubtedly decided by the breed, the exact shade of the color is as much a matter of nature as it is of nurture. Bird's age, stress, feed, environment are all factors that may in one way or another contribute to the color gradient. 

Nutritional Differences

Many people swear they can taste the difference between different colored eggs. However, nutritionally, they are all the same, as long as the feed they were raised on is the same. Since it is usually the egg yolk that gives eggs its distinguishing flavor, and the quality of egg yolk greatly depends on feed, there is bound to be a difference between commercial and eggs from the backyard. But the difference has nothing to do with the color of the eggshell, rather it is the lower quality of feed which according to some often makes commercial eggs less tasty or rich in flavor.

Conclusion

Enjoy your eggs, whatever color they may end up being. As long as you take care of your birds, you will be getting great, nutritious eggs from them. But if you do want some variety in egg colors, for fun, or for Instagram, or any other reason, feel free to mix up the breeds in your flock and introduce new ones. You won't be able to get a rainbow of colors, but there are still plenty of colors your birds can surprise you with.

You've seen your friend's chicken coop and now you're playing with the idea of joining the backyard chicken keeping community. But you want to be 100% sure you're doing it right because you don't have any experience raising poultry. The closest it gets to raising anything are your dog or cat who are next to you asking with their eyes for their next food serving while you are reading this.  

You are not wrong in doing some research because you do need to make sure, both for your benefit and the birds you'll be getting, that you are ready to go ahead and bring some birds home. After all, most hens live from 3 to 7 years and some even more so you'll be expanding your extended family for quite a period of time. If you are more adventurous, and go ahead with geese, they'll be with you for approximately twice as long as hens.

Assuming that you decided to go ahead with chickens and not ducks or other poultry, we congratulate you on making the first right move. Since chickens are easiest to handle out of all poultry, once you master your game of chicken keeping, moving on to the more difficult levels of keeping ducks, then geese, and then perhaps turkey will be a gradual progress.

But now you are stuck with the next question. Not all chickens are the same. There are different breeds and just by reading some articles you come to the conclusion that these different breeds seem to be so unlike each other that it's almost as if they belong to a different species! But this is not the case. In fact, the best thing to do when trying to select the right chicken breed is to not breed-pick. It may sound counterintuitive at first, or perhaps overly spiritual to say that if you let things develop on its own, you will be naturally inclined to select the right breed.

There is no point in spending countless hours doing research trying to find out the perfect one. There is no "perfect" chicken breed. Some sources will point you to Plymouth Rock (Barred Rock), others would say Speckled Sussex or Buff Orpington. And although these are all great choices for a beginner, what we suggest is to just go shop for chickens and not go for specific chicken breeds.

When you find a local hatchery or store, ask around for the most common chickens in the area, suited to the climate and your goals, which can be keeping chickens for eggs, meat or as purely an ornament for your garden and family. If you shop for chickens and not chicken breeds, especially in the beginning, you are setting the path to more successful start of your little backyard farm. In the future of course you'll be much more knowledgeable about what you or your backyard needs and you may switch to shopping for specific breeds, but don't stress yourself with that question when you're starting off. There are other more important things to think about, such as the backyard itself, the coop, as well as figuring out all the accessories for feeding, maintaining cleanliness and the daily work needed around keeping chickens.

Conclusion

Chicken keeping isn't easy and you can't just jump into it without doing some research. But there are some things that you should worry about more and others that you don't have to worry as much about. In this article, we addressed the question of choosing the right chicken breed to start off with. We hope to remove one headache in your journey to starting your own backyard chicken farm.

Our advice to all beginners is to shop for chickens and not shop for specific chicken breeds. Doing so will lead to you the easiest chicken breed to handle which is likely specific to your area. The key to anything is starting easy and building up your knowledge over time, and it's fine if after some time you start chicken breed shopping once you gain that necessary experience.