For more years than I can remember, we have raised chickens for eggs and meat here on our farm. As our older sons grew up and took jobs off the farm, we continued to raise meat chickens, but we eventually gave up raising chickens for egg production. We teamed up with Rademacher Bros Eggs about 3 years ago when they bought our laying flock, egg-mobile, egg production equipment, and customer list. When our new store opened two years ago, they began supplying dozens of beautiful, brown eggs for our customer’s to enjoy.
Our daughter, Elizabeth, has been involved in our farming operation since she was a small child. You have probably meet this hard working young lady if you have visited the farm. Now that she has completed her high school studies, she plans to have an even more active role in our farming operation. One of her first goals was to bring egg production back to the farm.
With that in mind, she started 50 Barred Rock pullets (female chicks) in Januaray which were moved onto pasture this spring. They are housed in a portable hen house, affectionately called the “Eggmobile.” Seth spent many hours during the winter and spring building his sister a new and improved Eggmobile. One of her favorite features is the roll-out nesting boxes from HenGear. These nesting boxes keep the eggs clean and make egg collection a breeze.
The hens free range during the day which gives them access to fresh grass, bugs, sunshine, exercise, the ability to scratch, and allows them to just be chickens. They are surrounded by portable netting to protect them from predators. At least once a week Elizabeth moves her hens to a new area of the pasture. Because of this clean healthy environment, the chickens have no need for antibiotics or other medications which are routinely given in commercial poultry operations. Their feed is custom blended here on the farm and is of the highest quality, fresh and non-GMO.
If you’ve never tried pasture-raised eggs, you are missing out! Pasture-raised eggs not only taste better, but they are much better for you. They have so much more good stuff in them like Beta Carotene, Omegas- 3, as well as Vitamins A and E and much less of the bad stuff like cholesterol and saturated fat. To find out about these benefits and more, hop on over to my blog post, Benefits of Pasture-Raised Eggs.
Her eggs are available in our farm store. Check our Products Page for details about eggs and store hours.