Farm Fresh Eggs

Much to our surprise and joy the hens have started laying eggs. It all happened quite quickly and as with all other ventures on this farm it gave us a neat story to blog about. We were coming home after church and as usual the hens had gotten onto the porch. As my wife likes to say she can now relate to the old ladies in the movies that would shoo away hens with a broom from the porch. Anyway these guys would normally go scurrying off into the rest of the yard and allow us to pass but one of the hens did not move an inch. I remarked rather candidly that :She looks like she is about to lay an egg”. Of course I did not have the slightest clue that my skills as a fortune teller were so in tune. Anyway we scurry all the kids inside to take an afternoon nap and as usual 5 things were left behind in the car. I step out onto the front porch and what do I see but an egg and no hen. I must have squealed like a little girl b/c Logan came rushing out to make sure I had not fallen and we both looked very excitedly down at our new little treasure. Since this was the first egg we both pinky swore to wait and enjoy it as a family and suffer thru the store bought eggs for a while. Almost like clockwork the rest of the hens started laying and thankfully they all figured out that their home was a good place for egg laying. I really was not looking forward to the idea of having an Easter egg hunt on a daily basis.

We are now getting 4-6 eggs per day and as the season winds down we don’t expect those numbers to increase very much. Unlike the conventional egg farmer we do not use artificial light or coup them up in cages,. They are free range and lay according to the season which means as the days get shorter they will lay less often which is perfectly fine with us. This allow us to enjoy some of the best eggs you have ever had. The other interesting thing is that the shells are very tough to break. We feed out hens a free range mineral of oyster shells and grit which apparently is not give to your grocery store eggs.

Anyway it has been way to long for a post but I can promise there will be more coming. We have started our winter rotation for our cows and have yet to feed a single bale of hay and yet every other farmer in our county has to crank up the diesel tractor and lay out some. Ah the smell of profits in the morning. Or is that something on my boots? Also we will be sharing our seed buying adventures. Planting season starts in earnest in February and we look forward to growing fresh food well into August.

Until next time all of us from little feet farm are wishing all of you a happy holiday season.