An Old-Fashioned Egg Basket | Chickens in the Road

Feb
10

I was recently gifted with this beautiful egg basket.

It’s enormous.

Look what happens if I put one egg in it.

The egg is so lost! It needs friends!

Did you notice that egg is blue? I love it when the chickens give me a blue egg. My Ameraucana hens (sometimes called “Easter-eggers”) lay pastel-colored eggs. The occasional blue egg is exciting because I mostly get green ones. Light green ones. Dark green ones. The brown eggs aren’t just brown, either. They come in all sorts of Crayola shades of brown–Burnt Sienna, Tumbleweed, Cedar Chest….

I love all my pretty eggs.

I love my new egg basket, too, but–

–what you see here are 16 eggs. They don’t even completely fill up the bottom of the basket!

How many eggs do you think this egg basket could hold? 50? 100?

Why has this egg basket come into my life? What if I start getting 100 eggs a day? What if the egg basket has powers? My grandchildren will be talking about Granny Suzanny who paid her mortgage selling eggs on street corners and how they always had to eat boiled eggs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner when they came to my house. I’ll pave our dirt road with crumbled egg shells. I’ll wear hats made out of meringue. People will call me the crazy egg lady. No one will know that it was THE BASKET.

Or it might just be a big, sweet basket that will make my hens….

…..LAUGH.

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2-10
1:44
am

Hold it, hold it, hold it! Save some of those egg shells! Don’t use them all paving the drive. Place one egg shell under each of your tomato plants!

I have a basket like that. Mine is oval and I rec’d it for Mothers’ Day. I love it, but no way will we ever get enough eggs to use it for an egg basket. Holds a lot of magazines, though.

Cheryl

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2-10
1:47
am

BTW – Tomorrow is the last day for the giveaway on Prairie Maid, if you want to join in, click on my name.

Cheryl

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2-10
1:59
am

I think my chickens would laugh also. All 5 of them! We have 2 baskets just like that and we put potted petunias in them and then hang them on an old wooden single tree. We then hang all that on a very strong tree limb. The little house wren likes to nest in them so we have to be careful when watering. Love the beer bread. I made it while my son was visiting and he took the recipe and a loaf pan home with him.

Tea4too0

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2-10
3:10
am

Took one look at you great basket and am now wondering just how a calm basket made it’s way to West Virginia. Did a search to be sure YEPT clam basket. Will hold a lot more clams than eggs since they don’t break as easily. Love the colors of you eggs, mother nature sure makes beautiful colors.

Sue

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2-10
5:19
am

I wish my grandmother had owned a basket like that. One weekend morning she sent me to get the eggs as a youngster. She had a woven type basket and I can remember collecting the eggs and heading back to the house. As I jumped the creek instead of taking the footlog across the creek, the basket hit the side of my leg and I dropped all the eggs in the creek. We didn’t have a good breakfast on that Sunday morning. Love the pics and hope your staff gets on the ball to fill that basket up.

Box Call

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2-10
5:29
am

That’s a great egg basket! You were lucky to receive it! I hope it stays full for you. Maybe it is a harbinger of things to come?

Runningtrails

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2-10
6:04
am

Granny Suzanny……….I don’t know soumds like a character……..”Mrs. Doubtfire” ish ….or Capt Kangaroo(Although wasn’t he a lush?) Granny Suzanny, Clever Clover and The Bountiful Basket….. You have a complete cast, Jack and Pokey, The Soda siblings…..The wise old curmudgeony Dookie….
The brave and valiant Rat Dog….. The Crooked little Hen sage…..The Giant Puppy, I am not sure if she would be the muscle or the comic relief. That picture of her in the snow was pretty funny.

Granny Suzanny and her Meringue Hats…..

wkf

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2-10
6:04
am

I used to have an egg basket like that but it was a little bit smaller. I got it cheap at a farm sale. I didn’t have chickens at the time to fill it but it was unigue so I kept it around for a few years until selling it one day. I hope someone today is USING it.
I had chickens until about 3 years ago when a neighbors dog came down everyday and would kill one of my little bantam hens and then one day my rooster, Rooty-Toody, was gone too. I’m not ready to start over again with the Bantys, not until the neighbors move or I can figure out what to do about the dog. These neighbors have always ben bad: before, during and since.

Billy

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2-10
6:09
am

Love your egg basket..I hope one day it does over flow Granny Suzanny!!
Hugs Granny Trace

Tracey In Paradise,Pa.

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2-10
6:33
am

Well, it looks like your hens lay about ever color egg buy white. Perhaps you can put in an order for some “pink” ones for Valentine’s Day. Have you talked about the different colors of eggs the diff size of duck, goose, chicken eggs? There’s an idea for a future post.

Stay warm and happy hunting. Before it is all over, you will have filled that egg basket!

Jan
GDP

Jan

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2-10
6:42
am

I’ve got one of those wire mesh-type baskets that collapses when you set it down. I’ve had it for years and never got to use it as I didn’t have chickens then. I really don’t know who designed it but try to hold the basket and gather eggs when it collapses as soon as you set it down!!??!! It didn’t take many trips to the hen house to ditch that sucker and use my big handy-dandy plastic bowl instead

NorthCountryGirl

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2-10
6:56
am

Lovely basket! If it’s not full of eggs, it would be nice lined with moss and a potted plant. Maybe one that could hang near the chicken house. I just collect eggs into an old quart yogurt container. It’s just the right size for the 6-8 eggs I get most days. But maybe having a fancy basket would encourage the hens that they are working for a class operation!

Chicken motivational techniques. You seem to have lots of them!

Johanna

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2-10
7:06
am

LOL……”Granny Suzanny”, I love that! I bet you’ll have that basket full to the top in no time!

Carmen Smith

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2-10
7:15
am

Just discovered your site and — OMG–I just LOVE it!!! I have been exploring all the different parts and each one is better than the last. Thank you for making such a beautiful and helpful website! Oh, and that gorgeous egg basket! You can bet my next trip to the antique mall will be spent searching for one similar. Even though I am a suburbia gal, I can dream! Chickens and fresh eggs, goats and goat cheese, mmmmmmm…….

Vera

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2-10
7:50
am

LOL, I have one just like it. It sits proud up on top of my fridge next to an antique egg scale and an old chicken feeder made of pottery.

Christine

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2-10
7:50
am

We used baskets just like that when I was a kid. What memories those photos are bringing back. It will take lots of eggs to fill it but then you won’t be able to lift it.
Still crocheting, stuck in the snow here. Are you knitting?

Kelly Walker

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2-10
7:58
am

Love the egg basket. Reminds me of the one Mama had and we would walk around and collect all the eggs. We never did get enough to fill the basket but we came close a few times. Mama had the same kind of chickens that laid the colored eggs and we called them easter eggs too. I really loved our chickens and hope one day to have some of my own. I’ll need a good chicken pen with a wire roof to keep all the varmits out of it!

Deb

Debnfla3

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2-10
8:05
am

Need more hens it seems! hmmmmmmmmm

Roly

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2-10
8:18
am

It is always such a rich experience to read your blog. I would love to see you in a meringue hat! Roads, paths, walkways covered in egg shells is magic!
Enjoy your storm. Will be thinking about you.
Gayle in not-so-snowy-sandy-eggo

Gayle

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2-10
8:22
am

Let’s hope the chickens don’t start laying three eggs a day apiece. That would be frightening. I also have the same breed of chickens and it is like Easter everyday. Congrats.~~Dee

Dee/reddirtramblings

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2-10
8:25
am

Just set it in sight of the hens so that there’s a little “pressure to perform!”

joycee

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2-10
8:35
am

Granny Suzanny, love it! And I have a grand pic in my head of you wearing a floppy, meringue hat!

But the chickies may get the picture when you’re walking back to the house with what looks like a small amount of eggs………..sort of like reverse psychology – it worked for the electricity!

CindyP

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2-10
8:56
am

I love the basket! You get the coolest stuff.

Warmer weather is around the corner and chickens will be more productive. That basket will be full in no time!

Susan

Susan at Charm of the Carolines

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2-10
8:57
am

Okay, where is your artist guy who did such a nice job for the covers of your Goat Romance Books? He needs to whip us up a picture of Granny Suzanny..meringue hat and all….hair trailing out from beneath the hat. I can see it now.

Mary

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2-10
9:05
am

I have an egg basket like that. I have never used it for eggs though. I use it for a trash can. LOL! We are getting around 60 eggs a day right now. I can tell you that your basket will hold a lot more than that! I think maybe 100. I might need to use my basket for eggs this summer when we are in full production. I really cannot even imagine how many eggs we will get once the sun comes back.

Ang.

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2-10
9:06
am

Love the basket! I bought some Ameracauna pullets from an Amish farm last Fall. They were supposed to start laying soon. All the “regular” hens are laying but I haven’t gotten any green eggs yet. The Amish man even specifically told me they would lay green eggs. Did your Ameracauna’s start laying later than your others?

KentuckyFarmGirl

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2-10
9:28
am

KentuckyFarmGirl, no, they started laying on about the same lazy schedule as the others!

Suzanne McMinn

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2-10
9:33
am

I have two baskets like that handed down to me from my Grandma Mabel. She had quite the egg business. So much so, in fact, that they featured her in the local paper. They took a picture of her in front of her hen house, and she has that basket on her arms clear full of eggs. She was quite the lady.
I’ll have to get my baskets out and use them for something.

Jo

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2-10
9:41
am

I have two of these baskets. I fill them with flowers for the summer and they are just beautiful to hang. I don’t have eggs and I always wondered how many eggs would fill the dang things. But I love my egg baskets. Neat story…..

Lyda Loehring

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2-10
9:45
am

At first glance I thought…”That looks like the baskets I put golf balls into at the driving range!”
By the way, I made your cheesecake recipe over the weekend and took it to a Super Bowl party…it was so delicious, my girlfriend and I could not stop eating it….”Well, maybe just another little sliver!”

Sally Valentine

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2-10
9:51
am

Suzanne, you have got to get out there and give those girls a pep talk. “Can we fill it? Yes, we can!”

Billy, a savvy neighbor of my mom’s solved her bad dog/neighbor problems by politely calling the neighbors one day and saying “I think your dog is down chasing my chickens.” Which the neighbor of course promptly denied. “Okay,” she sweetly said,”just wanted to make sure it wasn’t yours, since the law says I can shoot dogs bothering my livestock.” The neighbors re-checked and of course the dog had “accidentally” gotten out, but it never did again.

Rash statement? Maybe, although true at the time, not sure about now. Chances are, your neighbors won’t know either. This particular woman probably could have followed through. Those hens are your pets/food/livelihood. I feel if I owned them, I’d have not only a right but an obligation to protect them when necessary. Remember Granny Suzanny’s raccoon pelt? Uh-huh!

debbie

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2-10
10:09
am

Maybe by Spring, the basket will be full. Save the shells for the compost pile, and around the flowers. Don’t think that you would ever get enough for the drive even if they were cement eggs.
Granny Suzanny, what a thought!!

JeannieB

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2-10
10:25
am

When you asked how many eggs did we think it would hold, I thought you were going to make a contest of it and the winner got the basket! LOL TOTAL DISAPPOINTMENT HERE! Just teasing, Granny Suzanny! You’ve just given yourself a nickname you know! That certainly is an authentic egg basket…knock offs of today aren’t nearly that size. Someone “gifted” you well, Suzanne.

Dianna McBride

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2-10
10:35
am

I think I hear a book titles and a whole series of adventures……. “Granny Suzanny and Her Magic Egg Basket”, “The Egg-cellet Adventures of Granny Suzanny”, “Granny Suzanny and the Golden Egg”, “Granny Suzanny’s Great Eggs-capade”…I really could go on and on and on….
P.S. I am LOVE the basket, mine are repurposed wire Easter baskets my kiddos got from their Grandma. They are perfect for egg collections. Love me my green eggs too.

Just Kris

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2-10
11:13
am

The basket is nice but those eggs are gorgeous!!!!

catslady

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2-10
11:30
am

I am loving your eggbasket. And I had one shaped like a hen when we had the ladies laying for us. and I loved the green ones our Americauna (Marigold) laid for us. It was so funny whenever people saw them, they would ask us if they were green on the inside!!! I think they really believed in the Dr. Seuss story of Green Eggs and Ham!!!!! Alas, we no longer have the hens….but ONE DAY…I will again!
If you get this comment today (WED) before midnight…check out the pet for today here. YOU WILL LOVE IT even more than I did.
http://www.petoftheday.com
Always love reading your stuff. I visit quite often. You are an amazing woman. I’m jealous of your farm life…but NOT YOUR SNOW!!!
Oh no!!!!!! Thanks for your blog to visit. :-)

Julie

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2-10
11:50
am

SUZANNE- WE WILL GIVE IT ANOTHER TRY….
YOU MAY BE RIGHT. THE FORM SAID “MAIL (WILL NOT BE PUBLISHED)
SO I ASSUMED IT TO BE MY MAILING ADDRESS.
I APPRECIATE YOUR PATIENCE. YOUR “GOODIES” ARE ON THE WAY.

MMHONEY

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2-10
1:10
pm

What a cool basket, but it’s so big that the temptation would be great to put all your eggs in it.

Sorry, couldn’t resist! And surprised no one else posted it before me!

Karen in Ohio

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2-10
1:15
pm

Thanks Suzanne. My gals were lazy all winter too. They have finally decided to earn their keep and I’m getting 12 to 14 eggs a day. I have 22 hens so there’s still a chance that I didn’t get “dud” Ameraucanas! Until they decide to gift me with those blue and greens I will just enjoy their fuzzy little faces!

KentuckyFarmGirl

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2-10
1:50
pm

KentuckyFarmGirl-Easter Eggers are notorious for not laying in the winter. A lot of time pullets will hold off until the following spring to lay even. They make up for their laziness by laying beautiful eggs!

Ang.

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2-10
2:19
pm

Along with all the work, you seem to be having a great time with your farm.

When I was growing up, my mother had what she called her egg apron. It had big pockets where she put the eggs. I don’t remember ever breaking any during the collection.

Shirley

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2-10
4:00
pm

Simple and beautful! Those pictures make me miss my grandparents, they had a farm.

I found you on Facebook, Network Blogs.

LaTonya

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2-10
4:31
pm

I know I’M laughing so the hens must be busting a gut.

Kris

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2-10
4:40
pm

I love your stories!

Estella

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2-10
5:22
pm

It’s a beautiful egg basket! Hopefully “the girls” will be inspired to fill it with pretty colored eggs very soon
I think you should make some of those delicious and dainty meringues that they make in England and Australia for afternoon tea…and eat them. Never mind wearing them
P.S.: Forgot to say solid post!

kerri

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2-10
7:03
pm

BEAUTIFUL EGGS!

Tabitha

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2-10
7:24
pm

I don’t have any chickens, but I’ve always wanted an egg basket.

Jessica

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2-10
7:26
pm

I love your blog….the pics are so beautiful….I’m a new blogger….In the spirit of Valentine’s Day I wrote my son the story of How his mommy met his daddy ..very romantic

Michell Kaul

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2-11
5:05
am

My youngest LOVES brown eggs. When we lived in Germany the guy at our Commissary would throw out the brown eggs he found because he thought they were bad and no one wanted them. That was until we got there and Brady would stand there at the eggs whining for the brown ones. He was just big enough that he could see through the ends and tell which ones were brown. At least here in SK we can get the brown ones.

Your beautiful brown eggs just made me remember so I thought I would share.

JoLinda

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2-12
1:37
am

You should get a second one so that all your eggs aren’t in one basket! (ok…that is terrible, I know)

Brian

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2-17
12:19
pm

I finally got my first blue egg yesterday! Wooowhooo!

KentuckyFarmGirl

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2-23
2:53
pm

I believe that basket is from an egg washer. My grandmother raised chickens and sold eggs (not on a street corner, but to pay the mortgage) more years ago than you are alive. We would (gently) put the eggs into the basket and insert that into a tub of water that gently swished the eggs to clean them. We did that before we packed them into cases. LOOOOONNNNNGGGG time ago.

Maggie

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3-1
10:49
am

This made my day! And that is wonderful that you got the beautiful egg basket! I will be getting chickens this year. I had them previously, but neglected to lock the chicken house one night when I fox made off with ALL of them in one night. Milk goats (2) have joined us since then, and I trade milk for eggs, but I can’t help it! I want my OWN chickens!

Yolanda

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3-3
2:45
pm

I have two baskets like yours They are from my grandmother. I also have a much smaller one from her which I use when gathering eggs. I use my big baskets for carrying small plants to the annual plant exchange in fact not me but my baskets are remembered each year at the plant exchange I also use them when picking tomatoes and corn.

Henrietta Gulish

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3-24
10:04
pm

Suzanne Mcminn,
My grandmother told me how to pick hens when your going to
set eggs. I’ts not perfect but close. Pick only eggs that
are oval. store with smaller end down in an egg carton while
collecting enough eggs to set.If one end of the egg has a
point it is not a hen. My husband did not beleive this but
I only had to set one turn of eggs to change his mind.
Give it a try
Kay Mullenix

Kay Mullenix

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4-3
10:48
am

I have a wonderful old egg basket, too, but no eggs to beautify it. Maybe this year.

lward

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4-24
10:31
pm

We are on the prowl for several old wire egg baskets as we too will be having lovely colored eggs fresh from the farm to fill them! Beautiful, thanks for sharing! http://www.homesteadersdaily.com

Ginger

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3-22
12:06
am

I have several Egg/Clam baskets in my husbands, grandma’s shed. A friend recently asked me if I would trade her for a cell phone or I could buy the cell phone for $15. LOL! I brought the basket home and have done some research. Needless to say, I don’t think I’ll be swapping anytime soon for a cell phone. It’s wiser for me to hand her the $15′s for the phone than swap for the basket.

Jessica Persinger

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