One thing I have realized in dealing with interested "non-chicken folks" is that they simply do not know about egg production. I answer questions like:
- - "How many eggs a day do your chickens lay?"
- - "What do I do with these eggs? How do I keep them? Can I eat them the same way I do store-bought eggs?"
- - "So how are these different than store-bought eggs?"
- - "How many roosters do you have? What, you mean you don't need a rooster to have eggs?"
- - "I never knew eggs came in all these colors. What breeds lay all these different colored eggs?"
I write all this to say that many folks have only thought about chickens as egg machines. They simply do not know how many eggs to reasonably expect from a chicken, or how the process really even works.
I personally think it's very cool that people get excited about home-grown eggs. There are lots of ways to inform people about your own little operation, and once people understand what you can/can't do with regard to egg production, most people are very nice about it. I always try to remember that I am an ambassador for suburban farming, and the more folks I can teach, the fewer will be calling to complain about what they do not understand.