Our heritage breed laying hens:
Here you can see some of our heritage chickens. We have Black Astralorps, Buff Orpingtons (gold colored), Barred Rock (grey/white speckled), and New Hampshire Reds (reddish brown). We also have some Americaunas and Top Hats for fun. The Americauna's are the ones that lay the colored eggs! We try to put one colored egg in the corner of each carton! Because of our different breeds of chickens we have a variety of different shades of brown eggs.
2023: We no longer raise our chicks ourself, but we buy them, so now we just have brown layers.
Our chickens are fed GMO free grain, that is made by a small mill locally on farm. We feed a mixture of wheat, flax, peas, alfalfa, kelp, probiotics and only a small amount of soy. They need this for protein, otherwise they won't lay eggs. If we could find a way of avoiding soy we would, but at this moment it isn't possible, without becoming astronomically expensive. One thing, we want you to be aware of is that with GMO free feed there will not be GMO soy in the ration.
2023: We no longer raise our chicks ourself, but we buy them, so now we just have brown layers.
Our chickens are fed GMO free grain, that is made by a small mill locally on farm. We feed a mixture of wheat, flax, peas, alfalfa, kelp, probiotics and only a small amount of soy. They need this for protein, otherwise they won't lay eggs. If we could find a way of avoiding soy we would, but at this moment it isn't possible, without becoming astronomically expensive. One thing, we want you to be aware of is that with GMO free feed there will not be GMO soy in the ration.
Our dark yolked eggs are very flavorful because of the greens they eat, but we also believe it is because of the healthy grains they receive. When we switched to using certified organic grains in 2011 we saw a definite jump in egg production! Some of our old layers that were getting tired, jumped up and joined the laying game again and laid well for another 1/2 year.
Our laying hens are free to wander in and out as they please. In their chicken run they are able to peck at the ground to find worms or bugs. We rotate the area where we provide greens for them as they eat it, so they always have fresh grass available. We will also throw weeds into the run for them to peck at. They come running as soon as they see us approaching! We also provide perches for them to roost on at night. There are nesting boxes for them to lay eggs in that are filled with either chopped straw or wood shavings.
Our brown eggs are gathered around noon each day and then washed with hydrogen peroxide and then stored in a cooler at 3 to 4 degrees.
We sell either inspected or un-inspected eggs.