McMuffin or McNugget? It's Their Choice

How do you name a chicken? Well, first, we tried to think of famous chicken names but we didn’t get much beyond “Chicken Little”, “Little Red Hen” and “Foghorn Leghorn.” Aborting that route, we took a detour on the various meals we might enjoy. Now, keep in mind, these lovely ladies were bought for the purpose of laying eggs. But, as was stated in their contract, if they didn’t lay many eggs, they would pay their rent as the guest of honor at a nice chicken dinner. So, in the end, we decided to give each chicken two names. Their first name would be an egg dish that we could enjoy if they hold up their end of their bargain. Their second name, however, reflected a chicken dish that would be equally, if not more, savory. The choice as to which name they would live up to would be theirs. So without further ado…please allow me to introduce…

Deviled Hot Wings – Identifiable by the red string on her leg, this beauty queen is quite vain and bit stuck up, but maybe rightfully so as she is by far our top egg layer. However she refuses to lay her eggs inside the fenced compound and instead chooses to jump out to lay on the concrete front step of our house. Maybe that’s just so that we know which are hers. What a drama queen.

Eggnog Kabob – Eggnog (characterized by the white rope) is known for the gargantuan eggs she pushes out almost every day. She had a rough start laying only one egg in the first week and a half, but has really come around these last couple weeks. Hoping that the egg size is a dominant gene, Eggnog no doubt has some breeding opportunities in the not too distant future.

Omelet Cordon Bleu – Otherwise known as “Cory,” this blue-banded chicky is a decent layer, but her consistency and egg size are nothing special. Maybe that’s ok, because I really like Chicken Cordon Bleu. She may be a breeder one day simply because she seems to have some good meat on her.

Sunny McNugget – Sunny-side-up bears the yellow band and although her consistency in laying eggs could improve, her egg size is nice (second only to Eggnog). Sunny is a free spirit. Before I built a fence for the chickens, she was always the one wandering far from the house and getting attacked by the big rooster that lives next door (my chickens unfortunately have been de-beaked which means that they can’t defend themselves from others with beaks – this may make breeding difficult/deadly.) Sunny is smaller and was picked on a lot at first, but now she seems to have toughened up and has earned the respect of the others.

Quiche Teriyaki – Terry’s orange rope reflects her personality, she is feisty as all get-out! She isn’t a big bird, but she is known to pick a fight with whomever is nearby. She also wins the “most likely to be the stupid chicken pecking my toe” award. Her egg size is below average, as is her consistency. Anyone have a good Teriyaki recipe?

Over-Easy BBQ – Bearing the green rope, Over-Easy is interesting. She is definitely the whipping boy of the herd, constantly picked on and never stands up for herself. She can only eat and drink when others are not looking and until recently, she was not known to have laid any eggs. Because of this, she was on the menu for a nice birthday meal that we would be enjoying near the end of this month.  However, today, less than 48 hours before the ax fell and the BBQ began, I was caused to second guess. You see, while working on something this afternoon, I was annoyed by one of the chickens hootin’ and hollarin’ from inside the fence. In checking, I saw Over-Easy pacing back and forth like she wanted out. It is not unusual for me to leave Over-Easy outside the fence for a while just to give her a rest from being picked on; but this time, I set her on the ground and she took off running behind our house. I followed here and sure enough, she quickly nestled down in a spot that was obviously familiar to her. About 15 minutes later when she got up to go, I investigated and found this:

That’s right…six eggs…all of which must be credited to her account, thus possibly changing our menu for the birthday bash. We’ll see.