{January 2010}
It's been almost a year since our first (big) flock of chickens on the farm laid their first egg for sale. Let me say that it has been a really fun year, filled with ups and downs, lots of learning, along with everything wonderful and challenging that goes with raising chickens. If it's possible to feel like a pro chicken/egg farmer, I do. There is always more to learn but I am confident with every aspect of the process now.
When the first 60 chicks arrived in late August 2009 we knew that in about 6 months we would have lots of eggs to sell. We have a great location that gives us a great deal of land but also 'busy road' access so we set up shop in our breezeway and let the customers help themselves. I have to say that the honor system has been a wonderful experience. We have made true friends, shared lots of laughs, persuaded local politicians, provided some with their first ever fresh egg experience and even helped people start their own flocks! It's awesome. We were robbed once this summer during a string of farm stand robberies where the majority of the local farm stands were hit. They only got $5 but they left behind their cat. It's a long, funny story for another time but having a kitty hostage helps a lot when you are trying to catch a criminal. Up until the robbery we had a glass jar that people would make change from. After the robbery we switched to a wall mounted lock box. It wasn't a big deal. In retrospect that was probably how we should have set it up in the first place because we sell out every single day! We never advertised or anything, word of mouth spread fast and our eggs are delicious, some have even said "the best they have ever tasted".
But then this September, it started to feel like a lot of work for me and while we were selling out of our eggs we were really only making a bit of 'egg money' after paying for costly organic feed. We had also added 20 more chicks in May 2010 who would pick up the slack for the older girls as their egg laying cycle slowed down. In all I was caring for around 100 birds including a few meat birds. It was kind of a lot. So I decided to sell roughly half the original flock and things seemed a bit more manageable.
After that, because my egg production was down, not only were we selling out of eggs but we were pre selling out! Sometimes I'd be sitting there with a basket waiting for a hen to lay an egg while a customer was waiting in the driveway! When people really wanted eggs they would purchase by the egg! If I only had two left, they'd buy those two! I would always try to just give them the two eggs but they still put their $.80 in the box. If I could have gotten a loan and ordered 1,000 more chickens and some help I bet I'd still sell out of every single egg. Being in the middle-size flock range was just awkward. I told Greg we either had to go really big or shrink it down. Because we have a young family we chose (for now) to shrink it down.
And then, this Fall, the Great Molt came. All chickens go through it. Sometime, usually in the Autumn, after a hens first year of life they start to shed their feathers for a new set. They stop laying eggs for about as long as it takes to grow the new feathers in which can mean a few months. After they molt their production drops dramatically and a farmer has to decide how to manage their flock. We hadn't quite gotten to that point yet but we had accounted for the decreased production. As planned our Welsummers and Amberlinks (the May babies) reached maturity and started laying eggs around the same time. We went a little further down in egg production but the younger girls were picking up some of the slack in the meantime.
Then something horrible happened this first week of the New Year. A weasel got into our coop and decimated our flock.
I haven't even really been able to bring myself to do a full head count but I counted my younger hens and I only have 6 left. 6 hens. I am choked up and in tears just typing that. In all of the years that we have been keeping chickens I have never had anything like this happen and only once before has a critter breached our coop. We have lost many hens to predation through the years, picked off one by one by one predator or another. On the morning of January 1 Greg walked into the coop and found 12 dead (but not eaten) birds. We battened down the hatches but the next morning there were 2 more dead. Most of the dead were our young hens. We are devastated. The emotional loss is huge as is the financial loss. I'm sick just thinking about it.
What this really means is that we are basically out of the egg business for now. I love my birds so much and I feel just awful about this whole thing. I miss them and I miss their eggs. I love my customers too. Today I had to return some pre-buy money and I felt so bad. This afternoon I collected one solitary egg. Right back where I started from last year. So that is it. That has been our year in the egg business. I had no idea that it would end this way. In spring I am sure we'll build our flock back up again but I just can't think about that right now. It's a sad summary but this is the way things can be and often are on a farm. I may be a little quiet here for the next few weeks as I shift my daily purpose here and there, figuring out the next steps. I hope you'll bear with me. xxoo Spidey
{January 2011}
