There was a time—eight, ten years ago—when eggs were "scrubbed from the standard American breakfast" due to cholesterol concerns, according to a recent article in The New York Times, but those days are over. Eggs are back, but they're not coming to you by way of a poultry farm conveyer belt; they're coming from a backyard, a rooftop, maybe even your own living room.
The rise of the local movement, the green movement, even the recession have led both urban- and- suburban-ites to raise their own chickens. You can now order hatching eggs and day-old chicks online from sites like GreenFire Farms and Murray McMurray Hatchery, where you can find chicken breeds—Swedish Flower, French Marans, South American Araucanas, Buff Orpington—laying pretty blue, dark chocolate, or other vividly colored eggs. (Note: color doesn't affect the taste of the egg, but it sure makes them look pretty!)
The reproductive cycle of chickens is linked to daylight, so now that it's spring, backyard chickens all over the country have begun laying again. And like the Times points out, the difficulty over the next few months for home chicken keepers isn't the work of raising the hens; it's keeping up with them. In high season, a hen can lay an egg every day, and if you keep a few hens... well, you can see how many eggs you'll soon have sitting on your countertop. (Time to take a look at The Kitchn's egg recipe archive!) But for those devotees, the taste of a home-raised egg is totally worth the creative menu planning:
Home-raised eggs have noticeably better flavor and texture. The yolks of eggs from well-fed, well-exercised hens are as orange-yellow as a New York taxi. They have what Mr. Bradshaw calls "muscle tone": thick walls and a rich, intense taste... The whites are never runny, and they stand up immediately when you whip them... Even plain scrambled eggs are different: they have a sweetness, a freshness and a richness to them.
Do you keep chickens? Are you thinking about it? Tell us below!
Read More: Straight from the Home Coop at The New York Times
Related: On Why I Pay $7.50 for a Dozen Eggs
(Image: Dana Velden)
How to Make Easy 3-Ingredient Energy Bars at Home
How To Cook Tender, Chewy Wheat Berries on the Stovetop
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Straw Mat from The ...
Must-See Small Cool Homes: Week Two
Beth's Romantic & Retro Residence
The second I have outdoor space I will have chickens. Having been raised with chickens (as well as ducks and geese) I can attest to the fact that properly raised birds really do produce eggs with better flavor and texture. And it's really not hard to keep one or two hens, they require minimal space and some are actually pretty friendly.
I'd love to keep a couple of chickens, if some day I own my own home. There are a few people in my neighborhood with chicken coops in their backyards!
We started an egg collective a year ago, and I wouldn't dream of going back to purchasing store-bought eggs. Our pastured eggs taste better, look better, and they come from happy, healthy hens that aren't dispatched at 18 months, like commercial ones are. Here in Ontario, it's a dirty little secret that the eggs in the stores come from chickens that are raised 100% indoors. That means they can never peck at the bugs in the ground like ours do, and they never ever see the sun.
Giving away your surplus well-raised chicken eggs to friends or colleagues will earn you unimaginable love and appreciation. People get so excited, especially if you have the kind of chicken that lays blue/green eggs.
We ordered eight day-old baby chicks 2 1/2 years ago and haven't looked back! If they are allowed to free range and eat bugs and grass, it just makes the eggs that much tastier. We share them with friends and family and they are always shocked when they see the green eggs!
Chickens also make wonderful pets! Mine will sit on my lap and let me hold and cuddle with them. I'm becoming a crazy chicken lady!
i finally made the jump to backyard chickens last summer. i live in baltimore city, where you can keep up to four hens. got them from the farmer where i do my CSA and we didn't know if they'd all be hens...and they weren't. cock-a-doodle-do at 6:00 in a rowhouse backard - hello. so, we switched out the roosters for two younger hens. drama in the flock for a while, but now we seem to have peace.
the EGGS. oh my. so good. it's actually still exciting when i go out to the coop and there is a freshly (still warm...) laid egg. amazing. i love my girls!
http://charmcitycook.blogspot.com/2011/06/city-peeps.html
http://charmcitycook.blogspot.com/2011/12/finallyeggs.html
i love the kitchn, my fave cooking blog. i reference it, share it, cook from it. all the time.
When I was a kid, we raised hens, and I will do it again when we have the opportunity and space to do so. (Our neighborhood doesn't allow it) The mean time, I buy eggs from a lady at work, coming home with 2-3 dozen a week (She charges $2 a dozen) I do all my baking and almost all my cooking from scratch, so it is easy to blow through a bunch of eggs. This year, she is raising meat chickens as well, and she has reserved 6 for me. I can not wait!
I was all hot to trot about getting chickens as soon as we bought a house with a yard - I even signed up for a local chicken email list, attended council meetings and signed petitions when I learned the house we wanted was in an area with chicken laws in flux...but now that we've settled, I just don't know.
I love the idea of home-grown eggs, but am not sure about the amount of maintenance, medical care, flock drama as CharmCityCook mentioned, emotional toll of the fact that we live in a high traffic raccoon and hawk area and...what do you do when their laying life is through? Would it be emotionally ravaging to eat them? And are you even legally allowed to kill your own poultry? (Sorry, I don't mean to offend those who love their chickens, and maybe I would love mine like pets as well, I just...don't know!) As someone who killed several goldfish growing up and haven't been able to stomach taking on the responsibility for a fish ever again, I'm just afraid of little animals who can't tell me what they need. What if I make a big investment in an Eggloo or whatever and my dog turns out to be a chicken killer? Aaaugh!
We got chickens last summer and I love it! We still eat every egg we get and haven't had enough to share with others, unless someone lucky comes for dinner. I eat them every single day and they are so versatile--it really made me eat much less meat and I wouldn't go back. They are great to have!
@ Tasterspoon
I have a dozen or so ducks of various breed, also in a high raccoon/hawk/owl area. They free range in our backyard and garden during the day (with plenty of trees, tarps and such for cover) and get locked into their quacker box at night. Unfortunately we have lost a few to hawks during the day but we don't find out until we do a head count and search everywhere before giving up. We've never found any remains if that helps. On the plus side, snakes apparently hate ducks and give our yard a wide breadth which is a lovely plus when you have to worry about copperheads and rattlers. The eggs from a duck tend to be larger than chickens but every bit as tasty and the ducks are much more pleasant, the local children love hand feeding them cucumbers and tomatoes.
@ Tasterspoon: you can send them to a slaughterhouse to be killed & butchered for a nominal fee. We haven't eaten any of our hens though we'll have to face that question when ours become older. I have eaten spent layers before and all they are really good for is soup because their meat is unbelievably tough. Another option is to keep the hens around as pets - and they can continue to act as organic pest controllers, waste management experts and fertilizer producers for the garden ;)
Eggs from chickens allowed to scratch around for bugs are nutritionally superior to conventional ones, as well. Around here, people leave a cooler at the foot of their driveway with a coffee can on the honor system, though I have plenty of coworkers to eat mine. Remember to let fresh eggs sit for about 2 weeks before hard boiling, or the membranes will be so tight against the whites that you'll peel half the whites along with the shell! Does anyone have a secret for boiling fresh eggs successfully?
Also remember that eggs that have never been refrigerated or washed don't need to be refrigerated - and they taste so much better at room temp!
I WISH we could have chickens where we live... some day (soon hopefully!) my dreams will come true though. In the meantime we buy from someone locally (just outside of town, where it's allowed) who raises ducks, geese & chickens amongst her llamas, horses plus turkeys & a pig this spring! I am certainly coveting my neighbour lol!
I can't wait to have hens! Learning about the horrors that factory farms inflict on chickens (from mutilating male chicks at hatcheries to keeping egg laying hens from engaging in natural behaviors and suffering in battery cages) has really made me rethink eating eggs. I have been trying to find a guaranteed cruelty-free farm to buy eggs, but I the best cruelty-free farm will be my backyard some day soon!
The best thing to do with an old hen is to make broth. The older the more delicious and more nutritious
Here is my take on making broth:
http://themodernhomestead.us/article/Chicken+Broth.html
My husband has posted an enormous amount of good information about raising your own on the website .
Re boiling fresh eggs so they are easy to shell.
So far I have two pretty good methods for this:
.
1. Put room temp eggs in pot. I use a visions with a cover because it boils sooner and I can see precisely when it starts. As soon as it does start to boil, turn off heat. Or if you use a regular pot, bring to boil,then cover and turn off heat. Set timer for 15 min. When timer goes off, immediately immerse eggs in ice water tapping the shells gently to crack them starting with the flatter, not the pointy, end. You want the cold water to get under the shell and cause the egg to contract. When thoroughly cooled down, they should peel easily.
2.this takes more time. Put room temp eggs into boiling water. Enough water so that it will continue to boil when the eggs go in. Boil gently for 8 min. immediately remove from pot and set on counter till thoroughly cooled. Then peel cracking the flatter end, where there is usually an air pocket, first.
With these methods about 9 out of 10 eggs peel easily
NOM NOM Plaeo had a recent post on this with a slightly different method using pin prick. I plan to try it soon. Maybe this method will yield 10 out of 10
http://nomnompaleo.com/post/7332351633/perfect-hard-boiled-eggs