Big Mama's monster eggs
TALENT does not always guarantee an easy life, even if your job is something for which you were built.
If she could talk, Imbil's "Big Mama", whose talent is laying super-large eggs, would probably agree.
"Ouch!" she would probably add for emphasis.
Big Mama's eggs, more than half as big again as most, must go close to breaking records.
And, looking at her relatively tiny body (larger than many hens but not by that much), you would have to suspect they go close to breaking more than that.
At 118g and 119g, her latest two double-yolker contributions are more than half as big again as a more average 73g effort from a chook of more average ability.
Troy Wolgast is proud of his monster-egg layer, one of about 300 birds he keeps on the family property.
"I sell eggs all the time," he said.
"I buy the best grain and we always end up with plenty of roosters to put in the freezer.
"We don't need to buy eggs or chicken," he said yesterday, perhaps without needing to.
In addition to about five breeds of chooks, he also keeps quail, turkeys, ducks and, of course, Big Mama, who seems to think she is half emu.
"Wow," he said yesterday, still amazed by the size of the cackle berries he finds every day.
"That's a big egg. And she'll probably lay another one tomorrow.
"And it will probably be a double-yolker too.
"I also breed chooks and sell them through the hardware store, which increases their sales of chook feed as well," he said, obviously proud of the highly productive hobby which he works on at the end of each 12-hour day on the dairy farm where he makes his living.
