Welcome to the Golden Egg

I have had the good fortune to meet a lot of local folks who are committed to knowing where their food comes from and supporting local farmers. People ask, "How are your chickens raised?" Here is an illustrated answer!

The chickens (about sixty of them) are housed in two different coops. They are fed organic layer feed from a local grain mill. They are allowed outdoors from sun up to sun down. I currently gather between two and three dozen eggs a day. I candle, clean and package them daily.

The hens love these mild days and are out fertilizing the orchard. These girls scratch all over the garden. And the pasture. And the ditch. They are becoming a popular site along HWY 1. *No crossing the road allowed!

The chickens are producing well. They need about 14 hours of "daylight" to stimulate egg production. There is a light on a timer in both coops that pops on at 3 a.m. I don't heat the coops. Their body heat and the breakdown of the litter on the floor generates enough heat to keep them safe.  I give them a bit of scratch (cracked, rolled, or whole grains such as corn, barley, oats, or wheat) in the late afternoon to provide more calories to generate a bit of heat as well. As the sun goes down, they naturally wander back to their coops and hop up onto the roosting bars for bedtime. At that point I close their little door (called a "pop hole") and bid them good night!