Egg knocking in Cottonport is a fifty year tradition and is attended by hundreds of people from all over the state. 

Long-time egg knockers Pappy Juneau, John Jeansonne and Jack Roy explain that the town’s tradition of “knocking” eggs at Easter-time began about fifty years ago at a Cottonport Bar where hundreds of people watched as contestants vied to see who had the “champion” eggs. 

They explain how these serious egg knockers go through several hundred dozens of eggs during the season in their search for “champion” eggs.  Testing is done by knocking the eggs on your teeth for hardness, until you narrow the eggs down to “about five dozen good eggs.”  It started out betting a beer on the strongest egg then it changed to cash.  Not only the participants bet, but the on lookers bet also.  The bets are sometimes as small as $1 on an egg and as large as $100 over one week-end. 

The search for the championship egg starts in February, going through 500-600 dozens eggs to decide on the five or six dozen “champion” eggs.

Eggs get harder and harder to find with fewer people willing to raise chickens theses days because, the cost to raise chickens is more than what they get out of it.  Better eggs are produced by chickens that are allowed to roam at will, as opposed to those kept in cages and fed daily.

Egg knockers explain that chickens who are fed daily lay eggs more frequently than the chickens who are left to roam about feeding themselves.  “They don’t lay that often, so more shell can build up on the egg.” 

Although both guinea and chicken eggs are used for knocking, guinea eggs are usually preferred by novices to the sport, because “nobody can really test them.” 

Egg knockers explained that since the guinea eggs can’t be tested, novice egg-knockers can better compete with the more experienced egg-knocker.

Easter egg-knocking activities usually begin on the Friday before Easter, winding down Sunday morning in an “official” contest, where cash prizes are awarded for the winning eggs. 

Juneau went on to Alexandria where he was on the Bill Day radio show with his championship egg where he competed with other “champion eggs” and ended up winning.  He was the Grand Champion Egg-Knocker that year.

 

Submitted by Sharon Lemoine Juneau  sharonl@kricket.net  March 25, 2009 as part of her efforts to promote “Knockin’ on the Bayou” Easter Festival which is posted on the News Page.