In Praise of Chickens… 

We are fortunate to have as neighbors (not direct neighbors, but just a few minutes from our house), Brandon and Amanda Clare, who are Lancaster, PA natives.

The Clares live in an old renovated stone grist mill built in 1770, and they operate “The House at Climber’s Run”, a vacation rental in an adjoining stone house, also built in 1770.

In their back yard, the Clares keep chickens, and as you’ve probably guessed by now, the eggs in the photograph are from their flock.

I knew nothing about colored eggs, except that they are unexpectedly beautiful, but Amanda has taught us that colored eggs come from different breeds:

- Americana (blue eggs)

- Mystic Maran (dark brown eggs)

- Olive Egger (green eggs, often with brown speckles)

- Cream Legbar (blue eggs)

- Welsummer (brown eggs with dark brown speckles)

- Easter Egger (blue, green, or pink eggs…each bird will only lay one color egg, but with this breed you don't know what color they will be until they start laying).