If you know your farmer and support true food, you know that spring brings a great many changes to what's available on the farm. Mini eggs are part of the annual spring bounty.
So it takes about 6 months for a baby chicken to mature and start laying eggs at full size. Right around 4 months of age, the baby chicken will start becoming an adolescent. The red comb on top of her head will get bigger, and her floppy red waddles, below her beak will turn bright red.
Ah, it's a sad day as a chicken mama when my baby chickens turn from nice, well-behaved children to ornery, hormonal teenagers, squawking and creating a ruckus. This change happens right as they start laying eggs for the first time.
Did you know that a chicken's first eggs are very tiny, mini-sized eggs? They're so cute! They're probably about half the size as normal eggs. They only last for a short while, that 2-month period. These mini eggs are technically called "pullet eggs". They're named that because young hens are called "pullets".
Mini eggs taste the same as regular eggs, but they're superior in several ways:
The mini egg shells are crazy hard! On several occasions, I've dropped them on concrete. That's a funny thing to write. But I handle all of our eggs, which, over the years, has led me to handle and pack well over a million eggs. Funnier is that the mini eggs often don't break, nor even crack from being dropped at counter height all the way down to a concrete floor.
More to the point, I believe these rock hard shells preserve the contents inside. Mini egg's whites are super tight, meaning if you crack a mini egg into a pan, it's going to hold together in a tight disk-shape. The yolk is going to look like a tight, small bouncy ball.
It really mixes things up if you eat eggs every day. You can make more tiny fried eggs. The consistency really is special! I bet they would make stellar poached eggs. Kids love how small they are.
Mini eggs are a special spring treat; give them a try! Know that you are supporting nose-to-tail eating, fresh from the farm.
