But why are the eggs gone?
Please note, the title is read in the voice of Captain Jack Sparrow.
We know, we know— everyone loves a farm fresh egg! We do too.
Eggs were actually our first introduction to homesteading and farming way back when we lived in the suburbs. Kenneth built a chicken tractor and we had five laying hens on our small corner lot. We loved having fresh eggs every day and extra eggs to share with our friends.
When we moved to the farm and decided to farm full time our egg birds were one of the first things we expanded. At one point we had 150 laying chickens on pasture. Before we sold meat or honey, Kenneth built our egg sign for the front yard and we sold eggs to passersby.
Photo (L): Kenneth and Merrick in front of our suburban chicken tractor. Photo (R): Our egg sign on a snowy day.
“So,” I hear you thinking. “If you love eggs so much why aren’t you selling them anymore?"
The truth about eggs is they are just way too much work. For our egg operation (which included feeding, moving, washing, packaging) it averaged an hour a day, seven days a week.
The life of a dozen eggs starts by picking up chicks at the post office. Then the chicks go into a brooder for 6 weeks. While in the brooder they need to be fed and watered daily and checked on multiple times a day. At about 6 weeks old they move into the pasture.
When the egg birds go out on the pasture they still require a lot of input. They must be fed and watered daily, eggs are collected daily, and every week or so we move their paddock to fresh grass. Moving the paddock involves taking down, transporting, and setting up electric fencing as well as moving the chicken shelter.
Once we have the eggs in hand (or basket) it’s time to prepare them for sale. We wash, candle (check for defects using a bright light), weigh, and sort each egg by size. Our eggs are then packaged in egg cartons that we stamp by hand. Our eggs are then refrigerated to await our next market. Multiply this by multiple markets a week and you can see how the hours add up!
As we look toward the future of Wilde Rose Farm we knew we needed more hours in the day to expand our honey production. Without a magic wand, the hours had to come from somewhere. The somewhere they’re coming from—our farm, fresh eggs.