top notch grade A

Now that the girls are a little over a year old,

and have been laying for about 8 months --

their eggs are starting to feel pretty substantial....

Substantial enough to juggle with.

(And it's very tempting to try when you're walking in from the coop with a hand full of eggs...!)

 I don't exactly recommend trying egg juggling at home,

unless you have plenty of eggs to spare and don't mind a mess.

Bootsy is a very good juggler and even she made a big splat!

The dogs always have fun licking up our egg mishaps, though. 

But I digress yet again: 

Curious creatures that we are,

we'd like to know how our girls' eggs hold up to the industry standard.

So I splurged on this Kuhl Jiffy chicken egg scale. 

It looks simple and fun enough.

It lists the actual ounces and then tells you

if your chicken's egg would be considered

S M L or XL

I'm certain that Brahmy's double yolker awhile back

was definitely an XL.

Maybe XXL!  But there's no measurement for sumo eggs,

and eggs that big also won't fit into a carton.

Soon we'll know how our homegrown eggs rank!

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I've also been reading a bit about "grades" of eggs.

I thought "grade A" had something to do with size, but it doesn't at all.

It's about the firmness of the white

and the position of the yolk

and the quality of the shell...

Grade AA is the very best

and while I'm definitely biased,

I'm sure our totally spoiled and wonderful chickens produce grade AA.

Though I imagine most Farmer's Market + backyard / homestead chickens

produce grade AA simply because their quality of life

is so far superior to the commercial / factory setting.

Grade A, a notch below AA - is what is typically sold in mainstream supermarkets.

Grade B is generally not sold in supermarkets in the forms of fresh eggs,

but instead they're sold as miscellaneous 'egg products' such as whites in a carton, and in commercial applications (think processed foods), etc.

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Just for fun, here's an old swingin' tune that makes me think of the chickens...

You'll figure out why if you take a listen.

 'Top Notch Grade A'

by Al Reed