Pickled Silkie Eggs

Pickled silkie eggs.
Oh the horror! The humanity!
The... the... the... yummy goodness!!!!

So what, you ask, is a silkie and why are the eggs different? Basically a silkie is an ancient breed of chicken that has feather issues that make them look fuzzy, in the States they are bantam sized. These are a few of our silkies. See? Fuzzy.Being as they are smaller chickens they produce smaller eggs. In the picture below you shall find eggs, clockwise from top center eggs are laid by Ezzy, Red, Joe, Bertha, Freak, Panic and Mayhem. The one in the center, the little one, was laid by Sweeny, the girl in the front in the picture above.

Now.... about those pickled eggs. Why pickle them? Why not? I have yet to have a silkie decide she needs to set eggs so I save them for a week, just in case. Every Sunday I take all the eggs from the previous week, hard boil them and pickle them. I get 3 eggs a day on average from my 5 silkie girls, giving me around 18 + a week. Sometimes more, sometimes less.
Let's start this how to with the jar. I will use nearly any glass jar that I can close air tight. In today's case it's a roasted peanut jar. This is one of the larger ones, right at a quart, will be a nice fit for 18 eggs. We shall follow the jar on this journey.

So, while those eggs are boiling, get your apple cider vinegar warmed up. I use 2 cups with 1/2 tsp pickling salt (not iodized salt please), and 1 tsp sugar, in a sauce pan over a medium low burner. I put the spices in the jar itself. 1 Tbsp onion flakes, 1 Tbsp whole pickling spice (that's this week's recipe, I vary what I use/add, no two batches are the same with the exception of the pickling spice).
Once the eggs are boiled and peeled and still warm, pack them in the jar, just don't cram them in and break them. I just drop them in as I unpeel and rinse them, no shells wanted in the jar.
Then you pour the warm vinegar mix over them and jiggle the jar to get out all the little air bubbles. Cap it tight and toss in the fridge for a week or so before eating. Yep the fridge, I'm too chicken to try leaving these out on the counter or canning them. Tastes the same I swear!
Last week's batch, I actually had 30 eggs from the silkies so I made an extra jar. They are tainted with hot sauce and tsien-tsien chillies (jar on the left).
Now that we have a taste for the pickled eggs, and trust me a jar of 18 only lasts a week, all the girls will decide to set the same day and we won't get any silkie eggs for at least a month while they hatch and raise their broods!

What about chickens?

Ever thought about where your eggs come from? No, they do NOT spontaneously appear at the store. They are NOT manufactured in a food processing facility. They are made by chickens. Hens (female chickens) lay one egg a day at most even without a rooster around and NO the eggs aren't baby chickens, especially if there isn't a rooster around. Even if you do have a rooster, it doesn't mean you have a baby chick in the egg. For it to have a chick in it the hen has to sit on it for 21 days, incubating it so that the egg develops into a chick and that's only if it was fertilized by a rooster.

I get the strangest questions about chickens and eggs, if you really want to know more do a little research or visit www.backyardchickens.com

Now, about my chickens. I've just started back into chicken ownership. I have 3 Easter Egger pullets (EE's), 3 New Hampshire Red pullets (NHR's), a mixed breed hen, an EE chick and three mixed breed chicks. I have more mixed breed eggs and 3 silkie eggs in the incubator, set to hatch near November 6. My hen has stopped laying due to molting and the 3 NHR's should be laying big brown eggs any day now, the 3 EE pullets.... well I should be getting blue tinted eggs come spring.
Here are my 'girls'

Red the treat hog:
Bertha, the shy one:
Josephine, the crooked comb
Esmeralda, she only tolerates me for treats:

My 3 EE's, who are still terrified of me. Top row left to right, Freak and Panic and the bottom girl is Mayhem:And last but not least the 6 week old chicks, top to bottom Seven (EE), Karate Kid (mutt), Danielson (mutt), and Miagi (mutt):


If all you've ever heard about chickens is that they are stupid, loud, nasty, filthy, dirty creatures that don't deserve a spot in your yard.... Well you need to think again. They are only as 'nasty' as their owners let them get. Most hens aren't loud, roosters on the other hand can be. Stupid I'll give you but it's all a matter of perspective. Having chickens give you eggs, entertainment, and bug control. Look into chicken ownership and participate in the 'Slow Food' movement, though I'm not sure who would consider a chicken slow.........