221

That is the number of eggs we have collected from our chickens during October and we still have another 12 days to go. The lights go on in the coop at 3am so they think that there is 15 hours of daylight and will not go into a molt and stop laying. Every morning I go out about 6:30 with a bucket of fresh water and my Italian egg basket that I bought 13 years ago in anticipation of this task. I pour some crumbles in the outside feeder, refill the water, throw a handful of buckwheat in the run, and let the girls out for the day. Most days I gather the first eggs and let the children go periodically down to the coop to gather the 4-5 eggs that are produced later in the morning. 

What have we been doing with almost a dozen eggs a day? Boiled, fried on toast, or poached is now standard breakfast, and then I went through the Betty Crocker Cookbook and made a list of all the yummy dishes that require many eggs. Quiche, french toast, pumpkin bread, and almond pound cake are among the favorites. Maggie loves to make cookies so we have been eating lots of chocolate chip, chocolate crinkles, and snickerdoodles. But we still have lots of eggs, dozens of eggs, so I'm taking them to school on Fridays to sell. Hopefully I can build up a steady clientele who want farm fresh eggs to reduce our stock and the school gets a little extra in the petty cash drawer.