It was some eight years ago that our chicken journey began. We knew absolutely nothing when we brought our first chicks home, but as the weeks and months began to pass, we learned tons about their habits, food, water, and how to protect them. All sorts of things that we never even knew we needed to know. And of course, because both Kim and I have an all-in kind of mentality, as we did research on chickens, we realized that they could lay eggs in all colors. I’m pretty sure up to that point I knew most factory-farmed eggs were white and then there were brown eggs you could get at the store as well. I guess I just never paid attention to the fact that there are chickens that lay eggs in greens and light blues, speckled, and really dark chocolate brown. But once we discovered this fact, we decided we needed one of each color that we could find.

So as we added to our flock, we got an Ameraucana that laid really pretty green eggs, a wacky chicken we named Berry Blue that laid pale blue eggs, a Chocolate Maran that laid eggs the color of a Hershey’s chocolate bar, and a few Welsummers that laid beautiful terracotta-colored eggs. We couldn’t, however, find any chickens around that laid olive-colored eggs. As we dug deeper into the different varieties, we found (at least online) that they existed. One spring, we even walked the Ag area at the state fair, where there are tons of poultry and livestock, and chatted with some of the students that were showing animals. No one had heard of a chicken that laid olive eggs. Most of these folks raised animals and didn’t seem concerned about egg color. (Which incidentally has nothing to do with how the eggs taste at all. They are all identical once cracked open.)

We did at some point get a couple of pullets (those are older chicks, almost ready to lay eggs) that had the possibility of laying olive eggs, but their eggs just turned out to be really pretty greens, rather than true camo-green eggs. But this year, we finally got some! Kim pre-ordered these chicks from a local breeder, The Zen Hen and the Honeybee, sometime in the spring of 2024, and we had to wait an entire year to get the new chicks (one of these new ones was the recent chick of fame, Henson Boone) and then wait about 6 to 8 months for them to lay eggs. Oh, but it was worth it! Look at this rainbow!

We added a few other breeds that we found at the local feed store, and now we have a lovely supply of eggs in all different colors. And even though we’ve been collecting eggs for years, finding that first olive egg was a real treat. It just doesn’t get old opening up the egg boxes to see what is inside. You never know what you are going to find.

That’s the beauty of nature. Whether it is flora or fauna, it never gets old. Finding eggs in rainbow colors or watching flowers bloom for the first time in a season, there is just something about it that makes you feel better. And it’s that feeling that we are celebrating this weekend with a Wellness Weekend. Plants make you healthy and plants make you happy and being around them just feels good. So let’s amp it up with Yoga in the Garden, Saturday at 9:30 am and a Singing Bowls Meditation at 11:30 am. And if just strolling the boardwalk and finding some fresh flowers for fall is your thing, you can do so with a fresh coffee in hand from Quail Run Coffee, they’ll be at the nursery from 9 am to 2 pm, and a tasty sourdough treat from Spellbound Sourdough, who will be at the nursery from 10 am to sellout. And I know how I’m starting my Wellness Weekend: with some fresh cooked eggs collected from our beautiful olive-egger hens.