chickens
laying hens for egg production
We raise a variety of (mostly) heritage breeds of chickens, including Barred Rock, Copper Maran, Olive Eggers, Welsummer, Silkie, Rhode Island Red, Barnevelder, Wyandotte, and Ameraucana. Most have been raised since chicks; some hatched on farm. They free-range during the day, and tuck into their large coop at night, on rainy days, to lay eggs, or when we need to hide them from bobcat / coyote / fox raccoon in order to break the pattern of predation.
We have raised a small flock for several years, but have recently increased our flock size to 80+ in order to meet the egg-eating demands of our members! Email us to join our Egg Share Program for a weekly dozen of eggs, or swing by the Green Valley Marketplace for an a la carte carton of eggs.
Also keep an eye out for the occasional frozen meat bird for sale in the meat freezer. Most of the breeds we raise are heritage breed / dual-purpose breeds, meaning they lay a good amount of eggs, but also put on a good amount of weight (rather than birds that have been bred to be just good at laying eggs or putting on muscle mass). So most roosters we raise, whether because approx 50% of on-farm hatched eggs will be males, or because we intentionally purchase unsexed chicks from a supplier rather than let baby males be killed at birth, we process for meat at 5-6 months old.
