Josh and I love to work in the big garden at the farm- 33 tomato plants plus squash, asparagus, zucchini, chard, peas, and more. But on our last trip out to the garden, we found our squash plants were getting decimated by squash bugs. So we set loose five chickens in the garden for the day and those ladies had quite the feast!
Demand for our free-range eggs has resulted in the Great Egg Shortage of 2010, but not to fear, we just purchased an additional 100 laying hens. The new chickens will be producing their hearts out within a month. Thanks for sticking with us through this trying time – eggs are on the way!
Some of the chickens have been giving out extremely big eggs! We get one or two extra large eggs a day, and a giant egg about once a week. Today we got a new record. Our eggs average about 55mm long and 35mm wide. Today’s record egg is 73mm long and 54mm wide. We will keep you posted if and when this record gets broken.
There is nothing like the lack of sunshine to make you appreciate the fact that sunshine is what we are really selling here at Broadview. Just before Christmas we got a 21″ snow, and then a spell of frigid weather that kept the ground covered for weeks. While we still let the chickens out to play during the day, we found that they do not like snow higher than their heads. The snow covered up all the grass for weeks, and the grass is the vector we use to get the sunshine into the chickens. I noticed that the egg yolks were starting to turn lighter yellow, like grocery store eggs. I started to look around for something green to feed the hens so I could get some sunshine back in those eggs. I found what I was looking for literally in my own back yard. The spring fed stream that flows out of my yard was full of succulent green watercress. A few minutes with a rake yielded a 5-gallon bucket full of sunshine in the form cress, grass and duckweed kept green and growing by the relative warmth of the spring water. I spread the fresh green salad over the snow and the chickens went after it like crazy.
They ate it all, leaves, stem and roots in just a few hours. Over the remainder of the cold snap we took several buckets of sunshine to the chickens until the snow melted and the chickens could once again forage for their greens themselves. They are calling for snow this weekend, and we will do our best to keep that solar energy flowing even if it means redefining the term “Chicken salad”.
Pastured, free range eggs are available from our laying flock effective immediately! We will sell them for $3 /dozen but you are likely to get a few more thrown if for free for a limited time. Stop by the farm at any time to pick up a couple of dozen or order on our website for delivery August 29th during the next buying club sale.
Our chickens live in the “Coopestoga” – a chicken coop on wheels that allows us to move the flock behind the cattle herd. The Coopestoga provides shelter, water, nesting areas, organic grain and free choice suppliments; basically everything a chicken needs to thrive except for bugs, grass, and a little freedom which they find just outside.
Moving the Coopestoga several days behind the herd accomplishes several things. First chickens aren’t comfortable in long grass and the cattle have just mowed it allowing the chickens to be more active and relaxed. Second the chickens harvest many of the parasites that thrive behind the cattle herd. Think of the flocks of birds following the great bison herds or the wildebeast migrations. This is a great source of protein for the birds that ends up positively effecting your eggs. The birds also spread their manure through out the farm eliminating any problems associated with their high nitrogen manure. Finally the birds eat a significant amount of green matter. Their favorite is clover but they eat many types of grasses and legumes. All of this positively effects the nutritional value of the eggs when compared to store bought eggs raised in barns.
The birds are let out of the Coopestoga early in the morning. They eat and forage all day. Around dark the chickens naturally start heading into the Coopestoga to roost. We round up the staglers, collect the eggs, and close up the wagon for the evening to keep out predators. Come out and give us a hand sometime. Its a relaxing experience and a chance to be apart of your food chain. Also remember to save your egg cartons for us.
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