Many families, like my cousins in Cunningsburgh, keep a half a dozen hens to provide eggs for their own use. The 3 lasses love to look after them and each has their own hen – they all have names and are a bit like family pets – they are ‘clapped’ and made a fuss of. They can even identify which hen has laid which egg: Elsa, the white hen for example, lays long pointy eggs I am told.

When the family goes away and the hens’ routine is interrupted they very definitely sulk and instead of getting about 5 eggs in a day, caretaker Granny only gets one!

Eggs are a relatively economical source of nutrients: protein in particular but also a wide range of vitamins and minerals essential for health. For full information go to www.egginfo.co.uk.

Eggs are easy to digest, good for bairns and older folk with more delicate digestive systems and versatile because of the many ways that they can be cooked and used.

Shetland home produced eggs are widely available throughout Shetland. There are several larger producers whose hens lay all year round : John’s eggs come from Whalsay and are sold in Blydoit’s fish shops and the Giffords from Bressay sell their eggs in Scoop Wholefoods as well as shops from Yell to Sumburgh. They each keep over 250 hens – free range and able to go between the hen-hoose and the outside pen and all checked by the Environmental Health department.