EGGS
I love eggs! Eggs are truly delicious and nutritious and I still get a thrill collecting the eggs from the ‘girls’ every day. They are beautiful and the hens that lay them are real characters. We also mustn’t forget Teddy the Americana rooster who protects them, calls when treats are being delivered and struts his stuff around the yard, he’s quite the guy.
It is almost a year since my laying hens were born. The end of July ’11 was when they arrived at Kinderhook Farm as part of a bigger batch of hen chicks that they had ordered. At that point our chicken coop was not ready so they were brooded there until October when they moved over here permanently.The coop went from a crumbling pile of timber that had once been a pig sty to a beautiful coop which we nicknamed the chicken palace thanks to Eric who rebuilt it to our design with a few features of his own.
I chose the breeds I did based on several things -
1. were they cold hardy? It gets pretty cold here in Winter so we couldn’t have any fancy combed breeds as they are more likely to get frost bite although a couple have slipped in and we will just have to keep an eye on them
2. were they high production breeds? I did not want egg machines, I wanted good solid old breeds that would enjoy the free-ranging environment that I have here
3. egg color, I wanted a dozen of their eggs sitting in a box to look special like little jewels in a case. As a result we have blue/green eggs, white eggs, dark brown eggs, pinkish eggs and an infinite number of shades of cream, beige and tan
We have Speckled Sussex, Cuckoo Marans, Dark Cornish, Blue Hamburgs and Americanas in the original laying flock. I now have also another two batches of hen chicks that were born at the end of May and the beginning of August ’12 which I got as day old chicks which are growing to increase the flock. I have some new breeds too which will be interesting to compare with the ones we already have. Some we got more of and some we chose not to order again. In the new growing hen chicks we now have Blue Spash Marans, more Speckled Sussex, more Americanas, Rhode Island Reds, more Blue Hamburgs, 2 Buttercups, 2 Creve Coeurs, a Golden Laced Wyandotte, a Lakenvelder and Silver Leghorns. I have been warned that having hens is an addiction…ordering chicks becomes like going to the candy store. I am trying to show restraint though as I am trying to grow a viable business so longevity is the goal. By the end of the year I will hopefully have 60-70 laying hens. The teenagers as we call the first batch and the younger chicks are so cute. We have become quite attached to them already. Naming them has been difficult but we are figuring out their characteristics as they grow and a number of them will be named. Martha, our eldest daughter, and I have been spending extra time with them getting them to be more friendly and used to human contact. Some of them are super friendly now which is very fun to see.
A well as expending the flock I also took the decision to become Animal Welfare Approved (AWA) this year. This certification ensures that animals reared AWA enjoy the most humane of upbringings. This was important to me and an increasing number of consumers who source their food through the AWA website. My farm and I were audited and provided all the relevant information and we were subsequently approved for both the hens and the meat birds which is fantastic, I am really proud and glad to be part of an organisation that is making a difference in how our farming is conducted.
The next project on the books is to build a mobile coop for them next Spring. It will allow the area around the Winter coop to regenerate and to be used as a brooder in the Spring for chicks. Progress reports and photos will be posted here as we go along.