BS: Hens and Eggs...What If....

Subject: BS: Hens and Eggs...What If....
From: Sorcha
Date: 20 Mar 05 - 02:43 PM

Trying to find out just how old an egg needs to be before it will peel properly when hard cooked. Firecat didn't know, so she asked Badger. He waid, just put the hen in the pot and don't worry about it.

NOW, I want to know what would happen if the hen was really about to lay an egg and you did put the hen in the pot???? Would you get a hard cooked egg?

Subject: RE: BS: Hens and Eggs...What If....
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 20 Mar 05 - 02:44 PM

We really gotta find you a hobby don't we sorch...

;-P

Subject: RE: BS: Hens and Eggs...What If....
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 20 Mar 05 - 02:48 PM

Eggs are soft as they are laid, but only for a second or so, so if you boil the hen you're obviously going to get a soft boiled egg.
Giok ¦¬]

Subject: RE: BS: Hens and Eggs...What If....
From: gnu
Date: 20 Mar 05 - 02:51 PM

If you boil a hen without cleaning it, I would think the feathers would be the firth problem.

Subject: RE: BS: Hens and Eggs...What If....
From: Rapparee
Date: 20 Mar 05 - 02:52 PM

My grandma used to do that a lot. She raised hens and even a rooster or two in the backyard chicken coop. Got lots of eggs and the occassional chicken for Sunday dinner. She'd grab one of us kids (usually my youngest brother, Ted) and we'd catch a chicken for her. Then we'd hold it while grandma cut off the chicken's head with her little red hatchet. She'd draw the bird, pluck it, and roast it with a stuffing of sage, home-made bread, and I don't remember what all. As for putting the hen in the pot, I sort of suspect that you'd get an egg. A plain old egg, uncooked and uncleaned, and a messy pot. That is, assuming you could keep the ol' hen in there to start with. They can get right feisty.

Now, if you put a fire under the pot, I can't tell you what might happen, except that you'd be giving the hen one heckuva hot foot.

Subject: RE: BS: Hens and Eggs...What If....
From: Sorcha
Date: 20 Mar 05 - 02:56 PM

Well, I'm not planning to try it, but yes, kill and pluck.....would the egg pop out when you killed her?

Subject: RE: BS: Hens and Eggs...What If....
From: Ebbie
Date: 20 Mar 05 - 03:00 PM

That reminds of a long lost memory. Once in awhile my mother was mistaken when she culled the hens for non-layers and while we were butchering we'd find several neatly formed and encased eggs in the egg tract. As Rap said, the shells are soft and leathery- kind of like turtle eggs - until they've been exposed to the air. Oddly the eggs are formed from the outside in- the shell gets larger and larger until it is ready for the trip.

Mom was always rueful- laying hens were a prized commodity.

Subject: RE: BS: Hens and Eggs...What If....
From: Sorcha
Date: 20 Mar 05 - 03:05 PM

Thank you Ebbie. Can you recall if the eggs in the tract were edible?

Subject: RE: BS: Hens and Eggs...What If....
From: Ebbie
Date: 20 Mar 05 - 04:18 PM

I don't know if they were edible. For all I know, Mom added them to omelets, but I don't really remember. I do remember opening one with a knife just to see what was inside. It was mainly yolk, as I recall.

Subject: RE: BS: Hens and Eggs...What If....
From: Sorcha
Date: 20 Mar 05 - 04:29 PM

This page says that unlaid eggs are used for things like biscuits, baby food etc. Also tells the horrors of 'battery hens'. I didn't know they were de beaked!

Subject: RE: BS: Hens and Eggs...What If....
From: Rapparee
Date: 20 Mar 05 - 05:12 PM

My grandma never debeaked her chickens. Nope, she used the beaks in the morning oatmeal -- which is why my grandpa often felt a bit peckish.

Subject: RE: BS: Hens and Eggs...What If....
From: Bill D
Date: 20 Mar 05 - 05:18 PM

to Turkey in the Straw

"Oh, we had a little chicken, and it wouldn't lay an egg,
So we poured hot water up and down its leg.
And the little chicken cried and the little chicken begged,
And the little chicken layed a hard-boiled egg."

Subject: RE: BS: Hens and Eggs...What If....
From: Ebbie
Date: 20 Mar 05 - 05:19 PM

hah hah, Rap.

Reminds me of the old joke: (from the kitchen: Mama, do I have to eat my egg? (from the other room.) Yes, of course. Eat your egg and let's have no more fuss about it. (Silence, then): Do I have to eat the beak too?

Subject: RE: BS: Hens and Eggs...What If....
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 21 Mar 05 - 03:36 AM

Sounds like 'the curate's egg' cartoon from Punch.
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: Hens and Eggs...What If....
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 21 Mar 05 - 10:52 AM

yes the eggs in the tract would be edible. Yolks are fully formed before they break free of the ovaries and enter the oviduct. The whites and shells are then formed around them as they descend the tract.

Subject: RE: BS: Hens and Eggs...What If....
From: Ebbie
Date: 21 Mar 05 - 01:50 PM

Debeaking is not generally quite as horrendous as it sounds in that article.

Basically, the premise is to remove the 'pecking' part of the upper beak. It is done because chickens tend to pursue any bare or bloody spot on neighboring chickens often pecking the flesh to the bone.

A de-beaked chicken looks odd because the the ends of the upper and lower beak no longer meet but I have never heard anyone suggest that it remains painful, and I'm not sure how anyone would know. It is certainly no more painful to perform than the de-horning of a bovine.

Subject: RE: BS: Hens and Eggs...What If....
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 21 Mar 05 - 01:59 PM

correctly done de-beaking is as painless as trimmiing your fingernails.

Subject: RE: BS: Hens and Eggs...What If....
From: Firecat
Date: 21 Mar 05 - 05:16 PM

I blame dad for this!

Subject: RE: BS: Hens and Eggs...What If....
From: Col K
Date: 21 Mar 05 - 05:31 PM

Firecat, You blame Dad for everything.

Subject: RE: BS: Hens and Eggs...What If....
From: Sorcha
Date: 21 Mar 05 - 05:35 PM

Well, I thought it was a valid question, and I found out the answer! So there! I can't help it if I'm just weird!

Subject: RE: BS: Hens and Eggs...What If....
From: Rapparee
Date: 21 Mar 05 - 10:23 PM

My brothers and I once fed my grandma's chicken on gunpowder and nitroglycerin. Them ol' hens'd lay an egg, and the explosion would boost 'em clean into orbit. Then we collected the eggs to use on the Fourth of July, only Uncle Jack tried to fry up some for breakfast. The least said about that the better -- but the poor guy did give one burp and blew himself pret' near to St. Louie. They scrambled a whole wing of jet fighters at Scott Air Force Base when he showed up on radar, too.

Subject: RE: BS: Hens and Eggs...What If....
From: Bobert
Date: 21 Mar 05 - 10:32 PM

Put 'um in cold water before peelin'....