The story behind your supermarket eggs

There are lots of catch phrases on the front of your supermarket eggs today. Phrases like; free range, cage free, natural, and so on. The truth is none of these phrases are regulated, they are simply phrases put on the package to get you to buy them. When you read cage free, or free range you probably think of something like this. Lots of green grass lots of room

But, this is what really happens

So many chickens crammed into a dark factory chicken house with no room to move much less spread their wings. Oh, and so called "free range" just means they open a door for 45 minutes a day, but the chickens never get to go out.  The fact is that extra money you are shelling out for cage free or free range, is just money down the drain, those eggs are just the same as the standard supermarket variety. Those chickens that lay your eggs will never see the sunshine, never scratch in the dirt, never run around, they live out their productive lives on a space no larger than a sheet of paper. 

   What can we do, you might ask? Well buy your eggs from a farmer, go pick them up, get in touch with your food, after all what we eat becomes a part of us. We should at least see how it is produced. If going out to a farm is out of the question consider a farmers market, there are many that are open year round. You will find that the prices are not that different from those false statements from the grocery store. It's time we all start buying our food from local farmers and producers. The average morsel of food travels an average of1500 miles before it reaches your plate. Think of the gas we could save if we just bought our eggs from your local farmer

Exactly what is a micro-farm?

We have been asked from time to time what a micro farm is, and that's a very good question. If I was pressed into giving a definition it would be this; a farm that produces agricultural products for sale to the public on less than 10 total acres. The federal government defines a small farm as "those with less than $250,000 in gross receipts annually on which day-to-day labor and management are provided by the farmer and/or the farm family that owns the production, or owns or leases the productive assets."

    That's a broad definition if I ever saw one. If that is considered a small farm we are definitely a micro farm. There are lots of successful micro farms around the world, past and present. One of the most popular is the farm of masanobu Fukuoka. It is no larger than 1/4 of an acre and yet he produces enough to feed himself and to sell. There are countless 1/4 acre farms across America that sell their produce to local restaurants. There is a farm on bainbridge island that is able to farm full time on 8 acres of ground. 

   

    There is one term that gets my hackles up, hobby farm. Our farm is anything but a hobby. It provides food for my family and a handful of other families, it's not a hobby it's a way of life.

    It has been a dream of mine to farm since my teen years, I had all but given up until we bought this place. At the time we thought that was more than enough. As we learned and grew we realized it wasn't enough. Farming on just three acres has its own set of challenges. We have to be careful we don't overload the land, too many animals can kill the pasture. We have to always be space conscious, using every corner, and finding ways to utilize land that may not be ideal, such as the pig barn being down in a gully with a path to the pasture. We have to choose ventures that compliment each other. An example is the chickens and the garden. The chickens are fenced in with a hoop house in the garden where they scratch around and spread their own fertilizer. The pigs eat the extra eggs we have in the spring. One of the best books I read when I first began to dabble was "You Can Farm" by Joel Salatin. He inspired us to start where we where instead of just wishing for more, and that we did. 

New batch of pigs need names

Well we where finally able to get the fence and the pig area expansion done. We where finally able to pick up our three feeder pigs, I know what you are thinking "three, didn't you just raise two last year?" Yes but this year we are raising a pig for a customer. 

    Last year we named our two pigs ham and bacon, easy enough right. This year we are drawing a blank, we have named one with floppy ears pork chop, but the other two we need help with. We would like to keep it food related. It's hard to process something called princess. 

Our pigs will be in the old pen until they are trained to electric wire. Pigs are very smart and they learn to respect electric. You might think electric is inhumane, but actually it's the opposite. The electric is to keep them from rooting under the fence. Pigs have a front end loader for a snout and can really do some damage to a fence if its not electrified. It also keeps them contained so they don't get out and wreak havoc on our neighbors blueberry bushes or gardens. The only alternative is nose rings. Nose rings go against our husbandry philosophy that animals should be able to do what God created them to do in the environment He intended them to be in. Nose rings keep them from rooting, and pigs should be able to express their pigness by rooting to their hearts content, just not under the fence

Knee high in sunflowers

                                    

 I really am enjoying the sunflowers in our garden this year. They are big and beautiful. The tallest plant in the garden by far at five feet. I'm not the only one that is enjoying them. We have had just about every species of song bird in the sunflower patch. We have had cardinals, doves, sparrows, blue birds, and one bright yellow bird with blue wings. I have been forced to protect the flowers from the beautiful vocalists if I'm going to have any seeds this fall. We covered the bright yellow heads with knee high stockings. I feel so guilty for taking the songbirds snack, and I have just about decked to remove a couple of the stockings. Guess I need to share with the wild life since they live here too.

Mystery of the midnight dinner guest

We have a real life mystery folks. It all started a few days ago when the lid of one of our feed bins kept winding up on the floor of the supply shed.  The first time it happened I assumed I must have forgotten to put it back. After it happened again I suspected our farm cat, simply because he takes refuge in the shed when it rains. The lid is not easy to remove, you have to lift up on one side to remove it. I put about a two pound rock on top of it, that took care of the problem for a day or two. Then I found the rock on the ground and the lid tossed to the side, man whatever this is it is definitely persistent. So this time I put a large cinder block on top of the bin. A couple days later sure enough the block was on the ground and our midnight dinner guest helped himself to another meal. This time I noticed something

Teeth marks! And pretty big ones at that. We decided to put a small radio in there to scare them away, along with those rascally crows, argh! 

     Maybe we can borrow a trail camera from someone and get a look at this midnight marauder. Thanks for reading and God bless

A Day in the Life of a Micro Farmer

I thought I might share with you a typical day for me. My day begins at 3:30 Am. I wake up and get ready to face the day, I eat two eggs and pork sausage, both of which came right here from the farm. At 4:08 I go outside to check on the animals and to move the layer tractor, which is a 8 foot by 8 foot pen with no floor so they can eat grass and bugs all the while protected from predators. They get moved to a fresh salad bar twice a day.

After I move the tractor it's off to work I go. I return to the farm at approximately 2:05 pm and I immediately begin my afternoon chores, my little helper in tow

I go to the storage shed and measure out the feed for all the animals. The layers get fed once a day and the broilers are fed free choice, which means they have access to feed via a feeder. The broilers are fed free choice so that they can grow as quickly as possible. If the layer flock is fed free choice they will be lazy layers. At 2:15 I make my way to the layer tractor as I pass by the main garden I notice something in the squash row

Little squashes, if squashes is really a word, this is a female bloom you can tell because of the baby squash it is attached to. These squash plants have both male and female blooms but only the female bloom produces squash. As I pass the main garden and come to our expansion garden I notice the sunflowers are growing like crazy.

A other thing I noticed' as you can see is the grass growing in this garden, I've got to get at it with a hoe. There is a story behind this grass; a few weeks ago I over seeded rye and fescue in the pasture which is uphill from the expansion garden. Shortly after we scattered the seed it came a big rain and washed all the grass seed you know where.

At 2:30 I finish feeding and watering the layers and moving them to fresh grass, and collecting 13 eggs, and move on to the second batch of birds. the next tractor is filled with a Rhode Island Red rooster and the RIR hens. They are for breeding purposes, all the eggs we collect from them are incubated.

At 2:40 I make my way to the third and final tractor that houses our broilers, nine of them to be exact. They get fresh water and get their feeder topped off, and moved to a fresh salad bar. At 2:50 pm I'm finished with the chores. I finished off the day by watching my nephew play baseball.

Eating high... Low on the hog

Here in the south we have a saying; "eatin' high on the hog", it means your doing pretty good, that life is good, it's similar to saying "walking in high cotton" since in a good year the cotton would grow real high, and subsequently on a bad year the cotton would be short and stunted. Anyway back to the hog, eating high on the hog means that you are eating meat from the top of the hog, meaning tenderloin or pork chops, this is the best part of the hog, and the most expensive cuts. So to eat "high" on the hog means your eating the best part.
    Most of you know we raised 2 pigs over the winter. We took those pigs to the butcher, and we just  received our meat this past week. This morning we had a pork fest, we had bacon, sausage, sausage gravy with biscuits, and our fresh eggs. Michelle (the boss) looked at me and said "we are eatin' high on the hog this morning" I thought about it and said "no, we are eating high... Low on the hog"  but as far as I'm concerned bacon might be low on the hog, but its tops in my book.

Raising chickens part three; Which do I choose, the chicken or the eggs or somewhere in between?

Now that you know which breed is for you, we need to discuss what to purchase. There are basically five choices to choose from. 1) hatching eggs, many hatcheries and breeders sell fertilized eggs for you to place in your own incubator to hatch your own. I would not recommend starting here, incubating can be challenging for the experienced breeder, much less the novice. 2) Chicks, This is where most people begin their chicken raising adventures. They are inexpensive, and there are tons of breeds from which to choose from, not to mention they are extremely cute! If you choose to raise your own chicks it will give you the opportunity it watch then grow up and bond with them as they grow. However there are some challenges when raising chicks, but with the right know how everyone can brood baby chicks , yes even you kids with adult supervision. It's a great way to teach them about being responsible, and learning about life and death. There are several places to buy baby chicks, you can choose to buy them at your local farm store, but be forewarned, these birds are sold as "straight run" which means they are not separated by sex, so you might just come home with a whole bunch of roosters, these chicks also sell at a higher price than mail order hatcheries and local breeders, and there is a limited selection. You can decide to buy from a reputable mail order hatchery. They have every breed under the son, and you can order by sex, females sell for a slightly higher price than roosters because females are a little more desirable. This is important if I you can't have roosters in your area, or only want one rooster to avoid fighting, boys will be boys. it's important to shop around, because some hatcheries have large minimum order quantities, while others will let you buy one or two at a time. There is just something nostalgic about going to the post office to pick up your chirping cuties. I once ordered 28 baby chicks from a hatchery in Iowa, they all showed up at my local post office alive and chirping up a storm, when I called to check if they had arrived I could here them chirping over the phone, I bet the mailman was happy to see me take these chicks home. Another place to purchase chicks is at the local sale barn or flea market. If you do decide to go hat route do your homework, there are some reputable breeders with good stock at these places, but they are outnumbered by lesser breeders that are there to make a buck and offload some sick animals. Just remember the old adage is true "you get what you pay for". If you go to these places make sure to wash your shoes before caring for your own animals, because you can carry some bad bugs and diseases on your shoes. Many chicken raisers refuse to visit these places because of all the diseased animals you find there. I learned this lesson the hard way when I purchased several chickens for a "unbelievable deal" by the next weekend all the birds had died and even infected some of my other chickens. Buyer beware. Probably the best way to purchase chicks is from local reputable farmer/breeders,  they have the best quality stock, and they really love the animals in their care. Besides, we need to support our local farmers as much as we can.
3) the third way to buy chickens is as "ready to lay pullets" these are juvenile hens that are just about ready to start laying eggs. This is also one of the more expensive ways to get into chickens, they usually range between 10 and 25 dollars each, but at this age you will be able to see exactly what you are buying, where as with chicks you can't tell if it will be a good hen or a cull hen. There are some hatcheries that sell these birds, but the best way to find them is with a local farmer/breeder. 4) you can choose to buy hens, females at least one year old, this is not a very good way to purchase chickens, you will either get a "lazy layer" or birds that have been culled from large layer houses, most of these large egg operations sell their birds after one year since hens usually peak at a year or two.

Hope this helps as you prepare to start your chicken raising adventure.

Raising Chickens; chapter 2 continued

There are a few things I left out when considering which breed is for you, and that's my opinion, for what it's worth, on the best breeds in each category. If you are considering raising chickens from the egg layer category, for sheer number of eggs, try the White or Brown Leghorn.You will get better than 300 eggs a year on average. There are some disadvantages to the Leghorn breed, as with every breed. The Leghorns are known to be pretty flighty in other words they are easily alarmed and can be a bit stand-offish of humans, the leghorns that I  raised in the past have been the most cantankerous chickens I have ever owned. Some have been able to overcome this flightiness by handling their birds a lot, this never worked for me, it just seems to be a product of their breeding. The best bird for egg laying in my opinion is the Red Sex Link, which is a hybrid breed derived from a Rhode Island Red rooster and a White Leghorn hen. This is my breed of choice, the drawback here is that because they are a hybrid breed they will not breed true. The sex link is called that because they can be easily sexed at hatching due to the distinct colorations of the male and the female. My birds are very friendly and gentle, I would recommend them to anyone starting out raising chickens. 
   If you are considering raising a meat breed, or as they are commonly called "broiler-fryer's" I would recommend the Freedom Ranger, they are very hardy birds that do well in all climates, and they are not wrought with all the leg and heart abnormalities of the commercial standard Rock Cornish Cross'. These breeds have a very good feed conversion ratio of around 4-1. That means for every four pounds of feed they eat, they will gain one pound. Also they reach maturity between the ages of eight weeks for the Rock Cornish Cross, and eight to twelve weeks for the Freedom Rangers.
    If you are looking for a breed that is the best of both worlds in the dual purpose category, I would recommend the Rhode Island Red. They lay lots of eggs, and they make an excellent bird for your table. These birds are once again climbing in the popularity polls with fanciers and breeders, as I write this I can think of two breeders that raise and breed only Rhode Island Reds. The Red Sex Link also makes a great choice in this category, they lay more eggs than most other breeds, save the Leghorns, and they dress out a little under a pound less than other dual purpose breeds.
    Now I will be up front with you, I have never raised any exotic or fancy breeds so I don't have any expertise in this field, but I do have acquaintances who do. If you want to raise exotics I would recommend Silkies, they are adorable little fuzz balls. Their feathers lack the barbicells that hold the feather hairs together, and so they are covered with a silky fur like feathering. There are lots of clubs and shows that are just for Silky fanciers. If I where to ever raise an exotic, it would probably be the Silky.
  I hope this information helps peak some interest as to what breed is for you. Besides, who says you have to pick just one?

Raising Chickens Part 2; Choosing a breed

As I said in the last chapter up until the 20th century there where only about 13 breeds of domestic chickens, now there are hundreds, and all those choices can leave us a little confused. Basically all chickens can be divided into four self explanatory categories; egg layers, meat producers, dual purpose, and exotics, or as I like to call them; fancies. If you know what you want to do with your chickens you can easily pick a category that suits what you are looking for. Let's break down these categories a little

    First there are egg layers, these are birds that have been selectively bred to produce lots of eggs. In most instances these birds are a little on the scrawny side and wouldn't make a very good meat bird, they are generally egg producing machines. Some examples in this category are; Leghorns, Minorca's, and Ancona's. My favorite breed is also in this category, the red sex link. Although they defy the rules because they lay a whole lot of eggs, (second only to the Leghorn) but they also make a fairly decent meat bird, so I consider them a dual purpose breed. The Leghorn is the industry standard for egg layers. In fact, just about every white egg you buy in the store was laid by a white leghorn, they will lay more than 300 eggs a year. By the way this would be a good place to dispel an old chicken myth. Most people, including myself at one time, believe that country or fresh eggs are always brown. This simply is not true, the egg color is based on the color of the skin of the hen that lays it. White skinned chickens lay white eggs, brown skinned chickens lay brown eggs, and green skinned chickens lay green eggs.(yes there really are green eggs. Some people will argue with you that brown eggs taste better than white eggs, but they taste the same. This all started years ago when the prolific White leghorn became the egg industry's go-to bird, they raised them en masse in battery style cages on a bare bones diet, the result was lots of uniform white tasteless eggs for the masses. While at the same time in the rural and farm world dual purpose birds like the Rhode Island Red became the bird of choice because they still layed a lot of eggs, but at the same time made a good meat bird. This was important to the farmer because he could butcher his excess pullets (young hens) and cockerels (young roosters) and these chickens got all the fresh air, grass, and bugs they wanted. This resulted in rich delicious eggs, so people began to equate brown eggs to better tasting eggs.

White Leghorn

                                

    The second category of chickens are the meat breeds, these breeds are bred to gain weight and do it fairly fast. The most popular meat breed today is the rock cornish cross, they can go from egg to table in as little as eight weeks. Most of the chicken you buy in the store are rock cornish cross'. Other examples are the Australorp, the Cornish, and the Orpington. One problem with the rock cornish cross is that because they grow so fast their little bodies have a hard time keeping up. their hearts can fail, and the breed is rampant with leg problems. There is another up and coming breed I have heard of that seems to do well is the Freedom Ranger, they can forage like other chickens, and they don't have near the problems the rock cornish crosses do but they take just a bit more time to reach maturity.

Rock Cornish Cross

Freedom Ranger

   The next category is the dual purpose breeds, they are breeds that still lay a good amount of eggs while at the same time make a good meat bird too. Examples in this breed include; Rhode Island Reds, Plymouth Rocks, and New Hampshire, and in my opinion the Red Sex Link.

Rhode Island Red rooster

  The last breed category is the exotic breeds. examples include; Silkies, and Cochins. If you want to raise some really pretty birds this is the category for you. They won't lay many eggs, but they will wow you with their good looks. Which ever breed you choose I am sure you will get years of enjoyment out of them.

Silky

Raising Chickens Part One; Introduction

Let me begin this topic by saying I am not a poultry expert, what I do know about them I have learned by getting my hands dirty, making more than my share of mistakes, listening to people who raise chickens, and reading books from people who really are experts. Every chicken farmer and every backyard fancier has their own opinion about how to raise chickens. If you get ten of us together, and ask a question, you will probably get ten different answers. That being said, you may disagree with me on several things, but that's alright, the main thing is that we share a common passion for raising them, and that is what's important.

Before we can learn how to raise chickens we need to learn a little about Gallus domesticus, That's science mumbo-jumbo  for chicken. All chicken breeds originally came from one breed; the wild jungle fowl. These birds looked a little like a brown leghorn only scrawnier and with less eggs. In 1868 there where only 13 breeds of domestic chickens, fast forward to today we have a whole lot more, and the number is still climbing.

   Chickens are Omnivores like pigs and humans. They eat meat; including insects, and worms. Chickens have even been known to eat small animals like lizards and salamanders.Chickens also eat grass and other vegetables, as well as grains. In fact it would probably be easier to tell you what chickens don't eat, but come to think of it I can't think of anything at the moment. When you go to the store to buy your feed if you look at the label you will see it contains everything a omnivorous chicken needs; protein, fiber, and grains, hence the name complete feed.

   Chickens are gregarious creatures, meaning they like company. A chicken should never be raised alone because everybody needs a buddy. Your birds will form a flock, and in that flock they will establish a pecking order, in other words its the hierarchy of the flock. If you have a rooster that is lower in the pecking order than a hen, that rooster is said to be hen-pecked, he don't wear the pants no more if you know what I mean. Sometimes this process can seem violent to you, but its neccesary to keep the peace and its not as bad as it may seem. Every time you add a new bird to the flock, the process will start over. Oh, and one more thing about the flock hierarchy, make sure you are at the top, your the head honcho, not some jack leg rooster.

    The important thing I want you to know is that raising chickens is fun, it's very enjoyable for the whole family, they are very gentle, content creatures. The great thing about raising chickens is that it does not have to cost a lot of money, chickens are very inexpensive and easy to care for, we will talk more about this in a later chapter. I get a great deal of satisfaction from taking care of my flock; watching them interact with me and each other, listening to the happy hen sounds, and the roosters crowing in the morning, feeding them, collecting the fresh eggs for my family, and yes, even stocking my freezer with fresh poultry.    
    
     If you are considering buying a few chickens for you back yard, then go for it. If you wait untill you know everything there is to know about chickens you will never make it. Go ahead, dive in and get your hands dirty... Just make sure you wash them when you are done, hehe.

It's Been A Loooong Time

I must first start with an apology, it has been so long since my last post and many of you probably thought we dropped off the face of the earth, but we are still here. A lot has gone on since my last blog; the hogs are just about ready to go to the proccesors, out of the ten chicks we hatched back in October, we put three hens in with the other birds, and the rest we sent of to freezer camp, and the hens are still laying like gangbusters.
     For years I raised chickens and did not really want to fool with actually killing and eating them. The reason being all the plucking we would have to do, it just sounded to me like too much work, that combined with lack of any experience processing chickens just kept me away from it. That is untill my neighbor showed me how to skin a chicken (yes, I said skin, like skinning a rabbit) there is no plucking whatsoever and a bird can be processed from coop to freezer in less than five minutes! So, when the day came the boss and I set up a little processing station which consisted of a homemade killing cone made out of chicken wire, a sturdy table, a water hose, and a cooler filled with ice water. Now I know some of you are wondering "what in the world is a killing cone??" Most of us have heard about ringing a chickens neck, or going queen of hearts with em' (Off with their heads). A killing cone is a funnel shaped device where you put the chicken in the big end and his head stick out the small end, it holds them securely so you can dispatch the animal humanely.

 While the chicken's head is hanging out the bottom of the cone, you take a knife and cut the carotid arteries on both sides of the neck, the chicken will expire in seconds. We found most of them took about 90 seconds to expire. Many people ask me; "why don't you just wring their necks, that's what grandma did", that's fine there is nothing wrong with doing it that way. The reason we decided to use the killing cone method is that it removes all the blood from the animal, and reduces undo stress on the birds.

    The skinning operation is very straight forward, and simple you just place the chicken on its back, pull up the skin about mid way on the breast and make a cut being careful not to cut the meat, place your fingers in the slit and pull, its just like taking off a pair of coveralls, once you get down to the wing tips and feet just cut through the joint, remove the neck, and behold you have a "neked" bird as we say it here in the south. From there we eviscerate the birds, I won't elaborate on that right now, give a good wash down and place it in ice water. Very easy and very tasty, we cut the breasts off the bone and voila boneless skinless chicken breast. The rest we ground up to use in dishes you would use ground beef for. You can even roast em' naked like that, the only downside to that is the exterior of the bird will get a little dry. Well I guess I have shocked your system enough for today, I originally wanted to post a blog telling you about our upcomimg series of blogs on how to raise chickens, so now that you know that I guess I can sign off. Thanks for reading and God Bless.