Gallery: Backyard eggs fill the baskets with color

There's no need to dye eggs this time of year when there are chickens in backyard coops throughout Minneapolis doing the job just fine. Devon Anderson and Michael McNally of Minneapolis have three hens, including Laura, a barred rock hen who's peeking out of her coop. They collect eggs ranging in color from blue and brown to cream. Phyllis Kahn raises hens on Nicollet Island, and one of them produced this peach-speckled egg. A cuckoo Maran kept by Dan Brady and his neighbors in northeast Minneapolis gave us the brown-speckled egg. The small, cream-colored egg is from the barred rock hen kept by Scott Horne and Margie Siegel of Minneapolis.