Our First ...... Goose Egg
Remember little Harry, Larry and Mo with their Mum, Mother Goose the Hyline hen.
They got bigger and bigger until they towered over their Mum. But she did what all good Mums do and taught her offspring what to eat, where to sleep and what was good chicken etiquette, she was slightly alarmed when they started bathing in buckets, paddling in water, eating grass in preference to layers pellets and running around with their wings outstretched.
But she nurtured them until they were almost grown up before turning her back on them and sitting on some regular sized eggs. They in turn took over guarding their friends the chickens with gusto. Wandering round as a trio at all times, never far from each other for long and if one should stray a couple of honks from the others brings them all back together.
Just recently Harry has fell in love with me, seemingly I am her new Mum and she follows me around in Chicken World whenever I'm there doing my chores. It's hard to clean out a henhouse with a goose neck wrapped around your ankle, or fill up a feeder with a goose nibbling at your wellies, but I love it she's so affectionate and now either her, or one of her sisters has laid us an egg, our very first goose egg, we are chuffed.
Here it is next to a hens egg.
And here it is next to a bantam egg.
Here they are all together.
And here's Suky who didn't know what all the fuss was about.
And here's my breakfast this morning .... scrambled hens egg on the left hand side and half a scrambled goose egg on the right. Slightly different in texture and almost the same in taste (the goose egg was fluffier with a slightly deeper eggy taste), but both lovely and fresh and yummy to eat.
Now I'm absolutely full to bursting and sat here sipping a black coffee.
Happy Weekend.
Sue xx
Well done on your first goose egg. I was interested to see the comparison in egg sizes, I may be having some chickens next year & bantams may suit the space better.
ReplyDeleteBantams eggs are SO tasty and they are such lovely little birds to keep. We have Lavender Pekin Bantams and Black Maran Bantams. The eggs have a larger proportion of yolk to white and are lovely for any use, in baking just use 2 bantam eggs for every hens egg called for in the recipe.
DeleteAlso the birds are easy to keep, proportionately quieter, cleaner and cheaper to keep than a full sized chickens and, contrary to popular belief, both sizes of birds get on fine with each other.
Sue xx
Im counting on it when it comes to my turn, also next year.
DeleteCongratulations on your first goose egg. It looks huge! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, and it was....I'm sat here absolutely full up, I'm supposed to be helping LH move Chicken World along to the next patch of fresh grass but I need to let my breakfast go down first.
DeleteSue xx
I have never had a goose egg but loved duck eggs when I used to keep them. It's amazing how quickly geese grow - love your honky tonk women
ReplyDeleteLove it.....'honky tonk women'...must remember that one :-)
DeleteSue xx
Bet you are so glad they were laa ladies - think of how many eggs you will be getting!
ReplyDeletesorry, meant to say all ladies rather than laa ladies!
DeleteWe were really lucky that they were all girls.
DeleteI quite like 'laa ladies', perhaps they should be la la ladies :-)
Sue xx
Well done on your first egg
ReplyDeleteI am collecting some bantams this afternoon, 3 are black orpingtons and 3 are mongrels interesting facts about the egg taste
all you need now are some quail to show the full range of egg sizes :)
'Mongrels' aww your poor little girls....cross breeds are called Hybrids, much more refined...lol :-)
DeleteActually your hybrids will give you more eggs, pure breeds tend to only lay for a couple of months each year, with maybe the odd egg every now and then for the rest of the year.
Good luck with them, it's always lovely bringing new birds home.
Sue xx
Well done on your first egg - it looks huge! :)
ReplyDeleteHaha....it was, at first we thought 'poor chicken that laid that one' and then the penny dropped!!
DeleteSue xx
We had our goslings around the same time that you did so I'm having a strong word with them this afternoon ;-) x
ReplyDeleteHaha...no pressure on them then!!
DeleteSue xx
How wonderful and to have an affectionate Goose must be a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteSometimes.....not so much when I'm trying to get jobs done quickly and she's under my feet and getting in the way, but I don't mind really - all she wants is a cuddle :-)
DeleteSue xx
Wonderful! Son 1 and I loved having a gander at those different-sized eggs...
ReplyDeleteHaha.....
DeleteSue xx
Even tho I fancy myself a bit of a foodie I've never tried a goose egg, might give it go now if I see one! x
ReplyDeleteIt's funny I've never seen them for sale, maybe I haven't looked hard enough. I used to have a stall at the Farmers Market in Aylesbury and I was sometimes next to the guy that sold Ostich Eggs, now they were BIG!!
Delete1 Ostrich egg = 24 hens eggs and you have to drill them open with a Black and Decker!!
Sue xx
they make the best sponge cake EVER!
ReplyDeleteWhen we had Mr and Mrs Ossie, she laid really well and I reckoned one goose egg equalled 4 hens eggs.
Well done those goose girls!
Lots of love as always xx
As this was a first egg maybe it was a bit smaller than normal, it was still big though, I was guessing at twice as much egg content as hens eggs, but remembering how uncomfortably full I was after breakfast you may be right at 4 times the volume.
DeleteSue xx
I have a friend who makes decorated goose eggs and sometimes has lots of eggs to collect from a farm; they need carefully 'blowing' with a pin hole at each end, stir the egg to break it up inside the shell, then come out of the other end (excellent for omelettes or scramblies) Then the shells are washed and dried, ready for her to decorate. She makes beautiful, delicate ornaments using tiny dolls, swans, teddies, stagecoaches, etc. as well as miniature clocks. So you might well find a ready market in supplying similar crafts-people!
ReplyDeleteWe tend to feed the shells of eggs we use back to the birds, we crush them and dry them out, this helps with their calcium levels.
DeleteI have seen decorated eggs and they are beautiful.
Sue xx
Congratulations Sue! This is wonderful news.
ReplyDeleteSft x
It's lovely isn't it. We were so proud of them.
DeleteSue xx
Lots of recipes in my head with all those eggs xxx
ReplyDeleteLol - I always have recipes in my head, we are getting about 9 eggs a day at the moment :-)
DeleteSue xx
Yum, this is the third post in a row that I have read that mentions eggs ~even though it is now suppertime, I am definitely going to cook it up breakfast style.
ReplyDeleteAnd how darn cute that Hyline hen raising those geese (now I have to look see online what a Hyline hen is? ) We have a lovely flock but not sure my hens would handle that situation well.
Hylines, were named after the company that developed them. They are a hybrid hen bred to be able to lay 300+ eggs per year and are nearly always brown in colour. Our only other Hyline is our last surviving rescue hen, she's quite an elderly lady now and living out her retirement.
DeleteMother Goose (the geese's Mum) seems to spend most of her time sitting on eggs, whether they be real ones laid by the other girls or the rubber ones we have in the henhouses. She's just a natural born Mum.
Sue xx
Love those geese. Congrats on the egg!!
ReplyDeleteThey are nce aren't they :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you.
Sue xx