Our hens are laying!

We have 13 "Brown Egg Layer" hens, which are a hybrid cross between a White Rock egg-layer type female and a Rhode Island Red male. They are a hardy layer breed with a very docile temperament that are durable during cold winter months.  We had then shipped here from  Moyer’s Chicks in Quakertown PA  the day after they were born, and raised them since they were little yellow puff balls. 

 Our chickens are truly pasture raised, in fact they could be called daily fresh pasture raised, because every morning we move their run to a new area of grass on the farm, so they always have fresh green grass to eat and scratch in, and all that comes with it. 

(To legally label your eggs "Pasture Raised," "Pasture Grown," “Free Range,” "Free Roaming," and "Meadow Raised," etc. the produce must simply submit a document stating that the chickens have had continuous, free access to the out-of-doors for a significant portion of their lives. 1 That can be a doggy door in the back of a 500 foot long commercial chicken house with 20,000 birds in it. There is no requirement that the chicken ever sees daylight or a blade of grass in its life. It just must have “access” to it.)

 Chickens cannot live on grass alone though, so in addition to the grass and bugs are chickens eat every day in the field, the chickens are given free choice Super Premium Certified Organic Layer feed. Free choice means that there is always food available for them to eat whenever they want. We buy the feed from New Country Organics and have bags shipped directly from the mill.  We switch between a few of their layer feed varieties, but the all are Certified Organic, Soy-Free feed of cracked and milled North American Organic grain that's supplemented with organic kelp and alfalfa, Poultry Nutri-Balancer, and organic flaxseed to increase the omega-3 content of the eggs. 

  We also like to give the birds treats when we can. When the grapes or blueberries are not firm enough for the kids to eat, or they don’t finish all their baby carrots at school, or we have a the ends of a romaine lettuce or bunch of celery (organic only), or the tops of strawberries or apple cores (you get the point) we’ll cut it up into little pieces and let the eat it up. And they really love it!

Chickens are omnivores and love bugs and worms too, so we are digging in the field and come across a few worms, or turn over a rock or a piece of firewood and find a cricket or two, if we can catch them we'll bring them out to the chicks for some entertainment.

We also like to try new things out and see what works for our birds on our farm to make sure we are giving them everything they need for them to make use delicious,  healthy, home grown eggs, A couple things we've doing recently are 1. sprouting organic lentil to give then for a boost of nutrition and freshness in the winter laying period, and 2. fermenting the grain crumbs and little piece that toe r dust the chickens done seem to like as much as the cracked grain, and crumbs that settles to the bottom of thee feed trough. Fermenting it make digestion easier so the conserve energy in the winter. The fermentation bacteria also improve their gut health and introduce more probiotics. More to come on sprouting and fermenting in the blog soon I hope.

Once we've gathered and cleaned (but not washed) the eggs we bring them in and put them in egg cartons that are marked with the date the oldest egg in the carton was collected.   We put them in the carton point side up so the air sack keeps moisture from escaping, and helps keep the yolk centered,

Because we have 13 hens right now, and they will lay about 300 eggs per year, we generally collect between 10 and 12 fresh eggs a day,  That means each dozen will only have eggs collected over two, or very, very rarely three days.  In our experience that means our eggs should last about 2-3 weeks from the date on the carton left at room temperature, or roughly twice as long if left in the refrigerator.  

The FDA does not agree with our experience   though, especially storing at room temperature. Their guidance is: "Store promptly in a clean refrigerator at a temperature of 40° F or below. Use a refrigerator thermometer to check. Store eggs in their original carton and use them within 3 weeks for best quality." Frankly, I wholeheartedly agree with the FDA for factory farmed eggs, regardless of the colorful marketing language on the carton, Factory poultry and eggs are filthy.
Please do wash our eggs (but don't soak them) with warm water and an antibacterial soap before consumption though, especially if the eggs won't be cooked through. There could be traces of bacteria on the shells and we don't want to get anyone sick.

I would never recommend against the FDA guidelines, and eggs will definitely last longer if they are kept cool,. The FDA also mandates that eggs be washed and many are actually pasteurized, so there is a big difference between what commercial producers are up to vs. how we manage our small flock.   

I will say this - once an egg has been refrigerated it has to stay refrigerated until you are ready to use it.  Temperature fluctuations can cause condensation to form on the egg's shell, and water is bacteria's preferred way to penetrate into an egg.  Moisture can draw germs into the egg regardless of whether the bloom has been washed or not.

We've had enough demand, and it's been so cold out, that the eggs are out the door before we need to contemplate refrigeration. We may need to in the future though, so if you want to experiment with room temperature eggs let us know and we will work with you.

We have a live and let live ethos here at farm (except for our pastured broilers), so I wouldn't' tell you how to handle your eggs, but I will tell you what we do:

1. We leave them on the counter at room temperature in an spiral egg rack so we eat the oldest first. Because we pull out the smaller eggs we may have only an egg or two a day so it's important to not let one get skipped over for a few months .

2. If they are really dirty we will wash with warm soap and water immediately and put them in an egg carton in the fridge. These are the ones we eat first when we remember.

3. We wash the eggs with warm soap and water before we eat them, especially if we are making over easy eggs, or if there are old people eating them 

4. We rinse and compost the shells

If you have any questions or comments, or want to get some farm fresh eggs, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. We are always happy to hear from our customers and welcome any feedback you may have.