photo of the week

🌿The Lineup🌿

Want to know who of our lineup lays what? Here is a fun color egg chart labeled with the breeds. Represented here are all of the chicken breeds we are breeding in 2019 with the exception of the Alchemist Blues which are taking their swweeeeeeeet time in starting to lay 😉

🌿I believe they will lay a blueish/greenish but time will tell. Their color will be revealed any day now!

🌿Egg color and blue egg color in particular is a tricky thing to capture on film. Too overcast or too bright and the colors look different. We try to do our best when taking photographs but nothing is as fun as seeing the eggs in person 😊 This chart is a nice representation of everything side by side so you can pickup even the different hues in the cream eggs.

🌿💫 What’s the best tasting egg? The Marans get my vote, they do not lay at as high of a frequency as the others and as a result their yolks are really rich!

💫Who lays the most eggs? The Heritwge Welsummers, Sage Eggers and Double Silver Laced Barnevelders.

💫Who lays year round? Our Double Silver Laced Barnevelder.

💫Who is the biggest bird? Our Golden Laced Orpington.

💫Which breeds can be purchased as female chicks? Azure Eggers, Cream Legbars, Alchemist Blues, German Bielefelder 🌿

🌿And So It Begins🌿

This week I stepped into the hatching shed and cleared the space of its winter slumber. The ladies have begun to lay and everyday we are seeing new colors emerge that we will be enjoying for the 2019 season.

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I looked over the eggs collected, cheerful little gems, filled with the possibility of life and took a deep breath. I said a good long prayer over our eggs, our birds, our land, our infrastructure, our family, the folks who help us, and all of the people who support us.

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You see, breeding chickens and hatching eggs is so much more than that simple act for me. We provide jobs for folks, we preserve genetics, help with local food security and biodiversity of life all over the United States. We educate folks on connecting with the traditions of the past. We connect families with their land, help close loops in their lives, help reduce carbon footprints – one egg, one conversation at a time.

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Our genetics, our soil, our air, water and energy is concentrated in the eggs we collect everyday. All that is hatched and then sent out to all of you. A little piece of me is in every life we bring into the world and ship out.

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I ended my prayer, loaded the eggs and turned on the incubators. The deep hum of the fans brought back all of the memories of seasons past. The fans whispered the promise of life to come in just three short weeks. Three weeks and the sweet smell of freshly hatched chicks will fill the air, the sound of peeping and and scrabble of little curious feet scampering about the brooder.

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We are so honored each year to get to share this journey of the creation of life with you all. Thank you for your support of us and for recognizing the need for humane treatment of chickens. We could not do what we do without you! ❤️