Greensboro Birds

On Monday, February 9, at 12:30 p.m., Lunch laid her first egg. It’s a blue egg, which matches her earlobes. Lunch, contrary to our original information, is not a Welsummer, but is an Easter egger—EE for short. Besides the blue egg, her little pea comb, lack of wattles, her ear muffs, and slate-colored legs back up the EE theory.

Between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Friday, and today, Lunch laid three more eggs, giving us a total of four thus far. Four eggs, mind you, is enough for a pair of bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches on rolls. If you’ve ever lived in or visited New York for any amount of time, surely you’ve encountered and become addicted to these deli specialties. Since leaving the city, Josh has worked diligently to replicate these culinary wonders. Our first backyard egg meal, therefore, would be these legendary sandwiches.

I blew out Lunch’s first egg so we can keep the intact shell for posterity, the pullet version of bronzed baby shoes. Josh promptly cracked the other three. The first thing he noticed was how high the yolks stood up from the egg whites. And we couldn’t miss that vivid gold color. Josh whipped ‘em up and sent ‘em to the griddle.

We could’ve easily made two sandwiches with only three eggs, and maybe even just two. They cooked up super-fluffy and a much brighter yellow than store-bought eggs. So fluffy, in fact, that I have half a sandwich waiting in foil for later this afternoon. So, even though these sandwiches cost about $150 a pop (adding up the cost to date of the coop, hutch, and feed), we’ll probably use fewer eggs per breakfast in the future, making our break-even point about 20 years or so from now. Note: If your “new frugality plan” includes raising chickens, stop kidding yourself right now. Backyard chicken eggs are not cheaper than store-bought.

Delicious, yes, but honestly we couldn’t really taste a difference from grocery store eggs. Maybe our taste buds have been seared by all the spicy food we eat. But it is cool—although a little weird at first—to eat food that our pet provided, and we know exactly where she spends her time and what she eats and who she hangs out with.

In fact, Lunch has two new friends. Tootie (left) is an Easter egger (aka Ameraucana) like Lunch. EEs are like mutts and come in various colors. Skula (right) is a barred rock. Get it? Skula barred rock. Say it out loud and it’ll come to you. Skula is my bet for next to lay. We sent Rita into retirement with a lady from town who has a bigger flock. Rita and Lunch together were too much for the newbies, so we had to level the playing field a little. Lunch and Skula are now working out the boss role. For now, Lunch is top pullet, but wise money in the long run is on Skula.