Duck Eggs Galore!
We find ourselves with a surplus of duck eggs this week, so if you have never tried them this is the time. We are putting them on sale for $4 per half dozen, and $7 per dozen. You can add them to your share, or pick them up from the farm stand order.
Delivery Continues
Deliveries are going to continue for the rest of the month. We want to thank everyone for your patience as we work out the kinks. Hopefully we can see farmers markets starting up again in late June or early July. We are going to continue to deliver for free until the end of April and then reassess how things are going then.
We ask that if you have used a land line in your profile that you email and let us know, or just put a note in your delivery notes section that you are using a land line. That way whomever is doing deliveries will know to call instead of text.
Spring Is Coming!
The thaw is well on the go at the farm. Our dugout is filling up, and the farm is a wet slushy mess! We are hoping things dry out soon so we can get moving on projects. Like every spring we are brooding out a new batch of laying hens to replace those that are aging out. They are hanging out in our garage right now until they are big enough to stay warm and make a go of it in the barns on the farm.
The type of hens we raise, ISA Browns and Sex-Sal Link Browns, have shorter life spans and laying periods than your typical heritage breeds. These ladies are bred to lay, and they lay a lot. The down side is they get old faster. We keep them on farm for about 18 months, after which point their laying rapidly drops and health issues rapidly appear.
We had considered going with heritage breeds, but the economics of feed costs versus their egg production makes it very hard to break even, let alone make a profit. So we decided to go with a more standard industrial laying hen.
Our hope is to turn our laying hens into high quality bone broth, but we are looking for a processor who will take on older hens. Most will not over concerns around salmonella or e-coli contamination. This would be a concern in hens raised in battery cages or industrial densities, but on our farm the hens free roam, get pasture time seasonally, and are kept at lower densities.
Locally Yours,
Marcus, Sarah, Sam, Boaz
