The Cultured Home

Abigail helps blow the eggs for breakfast

The value of my eggs tripled this week.  I just sold a dozen duck eggs on ebay this morning for $16.50, shipping not included.  The best part is that I got to eat them before they sold!

I’m moving into the egg shell business.  Blown goose eggs move out pretty regularly–I’ve already promised to ship off the rest of the ones I get this spring.  The surprise came when I found out that there is a market for blown duck eggs too! read more »

Here is a sequence of photo’s I never expected to get.  I was building nests for my geese (hole+sand+straw+shelter) and I happened to have my camera along.  Good ol’ Splotchy was having contractions, so I snapped these as the egg came along.  This is my 6th spring with a flock of geese, and it’s the first time I’ve seen the event.

A lovely pair of geese.

Contraction in progress

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This hole is 3 inches deep and about 18 inches wide

It’s spring (or nearly so), and that means nesting time.  Now that I’ve finally got the routine worked out for successfully nesting geese, I’ll share it with you. For those of you who just want to see how much I’ve learned from doing this the wrong way, you should skip to the list of mistakes at the bottom of this post.

First is the hole.  I dig out the sod a little more than 12 inches square.

Next I fill the hole back up again with sand.  The sand keeps the eggs much cleaner, allows the rain to drain away from the nest, but still keeps enough humidity in the nest for a good hatch. read more »

A small air compressor is a handy kitchen tool

I love finding ways for my birds to pay their own way!

Spring is coming, and the ducks, chickens & geese have been laying more eggs–good news!  Our surplus eggs (pastured, organic, no-soy, no-corn) have gone to friends.  That “egg money” goes into an envelope to help pay for the feed.

Finding ways to fill that envelope has had my attention for the last couple weeks.  Besides selling eggs, I continue to ship blown goose eggs for $1.50 each, which also helps.  The blown shells go for Pysanka, which are decorative Ukranian-style Easter eggs.  I’ve recently discovered blown duck eggs are selling for $6/dozen, which is a dollar more than I’m getting for them raw.  The challenge is finding a way to quickly and easily empty the contents from the egg.  This is a perfect (maybe) application for power tools! read more »