DISCLOSURE: THIS POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS, WHICH MEANS I MAY EARN A COMMISSION IF YOU CLICK A LINK AND MAKE A PURCHASE. FEEL FREE TO CHECK OUT MY DISCLOSURE POLICY FOR MORE DETAILS.
Raising chickens is fun, and it makes us feel like real farmers. We just got a shipment of 82 chicks in the mail, and you’d better believe picking up a cheeping box of fluff balls from the post office is the cutest thing in the world. In celebration of our new feathered friends, let’s chat about our birds and their eggs.
Pasture Raised
Our girls are pasture raised in the spring, summer, and autumn months. When we have hogs on the farm, the birds are rotationally grazed behind them. (Click here if you want to see what I mean.) Since we’ve decided to forego our swine companions this season, we’ll be rotationally grazing the chickens at their own pace. This benefits the fields through the fertilization of chicken poo, and it benefits our girls by providing a continuous supply of fresh grass to nibble.
A Space of Their Own
We’ve learned we need to keep our hens contained within an electric fence because if they’re allowed to roam free A) they take over our yard and destroy my flower beds, B) they surreptitiously hide nests of eggs, and C) Samson, our Great Pyrenees, plays a little too rough. (Let me prove it.)
Health Benefits
Getting our girls outside to frolic freely in the sunshine creates a healthier egg for at least two reasons.
Regular exposure to sunshine allows our hens to produce egg yolks rich in vitamin D3. (Check out the results of this study demonstrating that “the vitamin D3 content of egg yolk was three- to fourfold higher in the groups" of hens "that were exposed to sunlight compared with the indoor group.")
A diet of fresh grasses increases the vitamin E and healthy fats in our eggs. (Read a bit more about how "pastured hens' eggs had twice as much vitamin E and long-chain omega-3 fats, 2.5-fold more total omega-3 fatty acids, and less than half the ratio of omega-6:omega-3 fatty acids.”)
Colorful Eggs
We choose to raise breeds of birds that lay blue, green, dark brown, light brown, and white eggs. The color of the egg shell doesn’t change the flavor of the egg, by the way. We just like colorful eggs because it’s fun to create an ombre effect in the carton.
Read More!
