Pretty Egg Apron

My daughter bought me the cutest ‘egg apron‘ for Mother’s Day and I’d like to pontificate about it. The first and most important element of this apron was that my daughter bought it to show support of my hobby/interests. She is the best gift-giver in the family; observant of others, willing to spend much more than a typical 14-year-old would want to part with, she doesn’t project her taste on others and she really spends a lot of time thinking through gifts. I love that she got me the apron…it fits right into the way I idealize how things will be.

It’s a cute and sweet idea. It’s not easy finding a gift for a homesteader or hobby farmer. Our interests are hard to understand and our teenagers can be embarrassed by anything mom does. She not only showed me support but she idealized how things would go just like I do!

However, wearing the apron out to the coop would violate the whole issue of keeping the chicken stuff separate from the living area and kitchen. The other problem with trying to use the apron the way it’s portrayed is the logistics of my suburban home. We will only keep the chickens here in the winter, but look at what I have to do all winter to get to them.

Each afternoon I climb over this retaining wall, stand on the arm of this chair and then walk down this sloping lawn to the coop. I’m 90% recovered from my broken leg, but this still makes me nervous.

This winter when there is snow and ice I will go down through the basement, but that has it’s own logistical issues. The first time using the egg apron I forgot what I was doing and tried to come back over that wall with 4 eggs. I caught myself at the last moment and only ended up with one crack in an egg. I also have forgotten while in the kitchen and leaned against the front of the sink, no cracks that time.

Is it a terrible idea? No, it serves a big role when the eggs get dirty either because one hen lays her egg on the ground or because it’s rained and the hens jump into the nesting box with muddy feet. I don’t want my husband or boys seeing the eggs like that because they would probably refuse to eat all eggs. Forever. So, when I come in from the coop I change my shoes in the garage and go into the laundry room to wash my hands. While I’m doing that I put the egg basket under the spout and let them get wet while I put on my egg apron.

Now I can wash off all the offensive mud or other ‘chicken gifts’ and slip each into a pocket to dry while I do the next. When I’ve got all the eggs in their little pockets I saunter into the kitchen and start putting them into a carton. I try to make sure my daughter sees me…she enjoys encouragement as much as I do.

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Our Surprise Rooster

Dealing With a Surprise Rooster

When it became obvious that we had a rooster I hastily built a chicken shanty (calling it a coop would be a dishonest spin on this huge ugly thing I wired together) and moved the whole flock out to the land we hope someday to build a home on. A barn was under construction near the chickens and I visited them everyday. Then I broke my leg and wasn’t able to build any appropriate winter housing for Sunny.

Sunny is the original rooster requiring a ransom. Sunny was a “Surprise Rooster” who got mixed up in a clutch of little chicks that was supposed to be all laying hens. We debated for months as they grew up if we had some roosters in the batch. Some of our hens are quite aggressive, and Sunny was so sweet we didn’t suspect him. We’ve since learned that if a Plymouth Barred Rock chick has a large defined yellow spot on the head it is probably a roo. You can see the big yellow spot that earned Sunny his name in the photo below.

Although I could smuggle my laying hens past the HOA (at least so far so good), a crowing rooster would surely blow the whole covert operation. A good friend came to my rescue and took our Rooster in for the winter. The hunt began for an appropriate gift…but I struggled to find the elusive “Wine Advent Calendar” she so badly wanted. So, I designed and printed out a special label for several larger bottles to let her know how grateful I was. I wasn’t quite satisfied though, and almost bought a quick solution to fill and gift, but decided to go a few steps further (cause she really saved our bacon). This gift hunt made me think about how important it is for us to thank the rare Homesteading Heroes we know who help us out with this somewhat odd hobby. I also realized how different the wish list of a homesteader or chicken enthusiast is. I love to encourage people to pursue self-reliance…and we might as well enjoy it.

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The Perfect Egg Basket Is Farm Tested

I tend to have romantic notions about things. I know they hardly ever work out like in my head, but at the beginning I am always convinced that everything will be straight out of a movie scene. So, when I got this cute basket over a year ago I was so excited to have such an “authentic” and “patinaed” item for gathering eggs. Sheezzz…

Look at it! It is super cute, but it wasn’t built for farm use…that is a decoration, not even a reproduction. When you find authentic antique farm equipment it is robust and made for work. I knew that, I just got really excited and romanticized the idea. In just a few weeks of my kids using it the chicken wire began to break free from the wire frame. No self-respecting grandma would have purchased such a flimsy thing to pick up her eggs!

It felt like admitting defeat, but I swung by the Farm store and got a real egg basket. This is what I love about buying farm grade items…there is no messing around here. Look at the dark green rubber coating. Mine does tip over pretty easily though. In the store I’ve inspected this version that has a wider base, but not a thick rubber coating. Depends on what you value most.

There is no place for grime or chicken fertilizer to hide. Unlike the innumerable hiding places on the decorator basket that constantly got chicken feathers and other ‘chicken gifts’ stuck in the tightly wound cracks. The same problem would have happened with a wicker basket (which was my first idealized vision, complete with little white tea towel inside to cradle the precious eggs).

Here’s the truth: Chickens produce a lot more gifts than just eggs, and you really want as much division between your ‘chicken coop stuff’ and your ‘living area/kitchen’ as possible. No tea towel, no wicker basket with tons of crevices and hiding places for grasshoppers, leaves or even more unpleasant things. I even leave my chicken shoes (especially shoes!) and coat in the garage and change into other shoes before walking into the laundry room. I hang the basket in the laundry room (that hat hasn’t been worn in years, but I probably should give it a wash and store it somewhere else).

Then I can wash my hands right there in the laundry room. I try to never set the basket down in the kitchen and just transfer the eggs to a bowl to await washing. I have a system for when the eggs are muddy or otherwise unclean, but the over-arching theme is to try to have a system that keeps things so clean that my husband never freaks out.

Brass Egg™ participates in affiliate marketing programs, and may receive compensation when you click and purchase from links to retailers. Brass Egg™ of Russell Holdings Group, LLC 2021. All content ©2021 Russell Illinois Holdings, LLC. All Rights Reserved.