Free Range Eggs

Why did the chicken only go half-way across the road?....She wanted to lay it on the line....ha..ha..ha..

Now available at Happy Hollow Farm Market located in Public Square - Carrollton. happyhollow@eohio.net

DBN Organic Farms is creating a small-scale organic egg product system that is very different. Our goal is to create a mutually beneficial relationship that respects the chicken’s right to a reasonable quality of life. Unlike institutional farms which cull their layers annually as their egg production begins to decline, we have made a commitment to our chickens that they can live out their lives in a free range setting regardless of their egg production. (Recently we heard the record lifespan for a chicken is 34 year…we might have to set up a chicken trust for after we’re gone at that rate.)

Anyway, our hens are fed organic laying mash produced at OEFFA www.oeffa.com certified Curly Tails Farms located in Frederickstown, OH. Also unlike institutional eggs farms which confine their hens to small cages (the size of a car battery), our chickens have free range of the fields and white pine forest near our current home. This helps to supplement their diet with some high-protein bugs and other pests. They get special treats like over ripe vegetables from the garden, fruit and yummy piles of weeds.

To minimize the effects of medication on the entire flock and wasted eggs production, we also do something novel--medicate only the chicken that is sick. Now this took some doing…first of all, most medications are packaged in amounts to put into 250 gallons of water. A single chicken drinks less than one pint per day, so this means that we had to figure out the single chicken, single dose amount…which is about the size of some spilled table salt. Next we had to figure a means to get the medication into the chicken. After many iterations, we have landed on mixing it with tomato sauce, putting it into a small syringe that has the end cut off, and squirting it into the chickens mouth. Lots of work right, but it is worth it. Believe it or not, the chickens that we have brought back to health this way have remained some of the friendliest chickens we have.

In addition to eggs that are fresh and have the firmest, yellowest yokes you have ever seen, the chickens provide us with great by-products like manure from their coup, pest reduction, free, but definitely uncontrolled rototilling, and plenty of entertainment.

At this point our production is pretty limited, but as we gain more experience and feel comfortable that we can increase the flock safely.

So what have we learned...

• Unlike most other livestock, free range chickens need to be fenced out of highly vegetated areas like your flower gardens. Known as the "chicken tractors", chicken can scratch and peck their way through beautiful flowerbeds as quickly as any rototiller. With our sloping landscapes in Carrollton, they also can move all your perfectly laid mulch to a neat pile at the bottom of the bed. We also found that a simple 2' high poultry netting fence staked with 1/2 inch rebar works great.
• 50% of the expensive organic laying mash ends up in the bottom of the coop. Our guess is that free rangers get use to having larger food nuggets from the yard and woods and therefore only want the bigger grain pieces in the laying mash. They throw all the little stuff to the side to get at the cracked corn and wheat. We are working with our supplier to have the laying mash ground as coarsely as possible.
• Roosters are very flashy and neat looking. Their crow can give you that real farm sound, but unless you are going to rear your own chicks, t

Eggs and Acorn Squash