Have you ever wondered about those farm fresh eggs journey from the coop to carton?
Well, here’s the journey those eggs take from our farm to your table.
It all starts when Todd gets home from work.
His afternoon chores start by giving everybody fresh water. Nobody likes drinking water that’s been sitting all day in the summer.
And he’s breaking ice in winter to make sure everyone has water they can get to.
Then he scratches the chickens (and ducks too). Scratch is a mix of grains and seeds which is like a snack he throws out for them. They enjoy scratching around for it, thus the name scratch. And sometimes he’ll throw out oyster shells for them too. This is a good calcium source that helps keep their shells strong.
During the summer he gets their feed ready for the next morning by soaking it. This helps soften it, making it easier to digest and get nutrients from. This feed is additional if they want it, as they have full run of 2 and a half acres of grass and bugs at their disposal all day long.
Their coops open at sunrise and they are out until dark, when they put themselves up in their coops. Closing the coops at night is how we keep them safe from things like coons & skunks.
This takes care of not only the chickens, but the ducks and turkeys too. We have some animals just for fun.
Gathering Eggs
After watering and checking the feed bins, he starts gathering eggs.
He does this last so he doesn’t want to roust a bird out of the nesting box. They lay during the day and are usually done by 5 or 6:00pm.
In most cases the chicken eggs are all in nesting boxes making it easy to pick them out and put them into baskets.
But we have some chickens that don’t think the fences are meant for them. They fly over and roam our yard, laying in the garage, on the patio or even in the chimenea.
We’ve learned where most of these spots are so we check them daily.
Gathering our eggs daily ensures they are fresh. If we find an egg we can’t say for sure wasn’t laid that day, it goes into the basket that is boiled and fed back to the animals.
The number of eggs we get changes based on how cold or hot it is, whether the chickens are molting or not, the number of hours of daylight in a day and in some cases, just based on the mood of the chicken.
During the extremes of the seasons, hot and cold, laying decreases. The chickens energy is geared more toward staying either as warm or cool as necessary.
When the light begins to decrease during the colder months it’s just natural for a chicken to decrease their egg production. Some farms supplement their coops with light to keep production up. We choose to let nature take its course.
And during the molting season, it takes a lot of protein for a bird to replace those feathers, which reduces the protein needed to make eggs. Molting is painful for a bird too, so that has an effect as well.
The ducks & turkeys lay eggs too.
Ducks lay where ever they happen to be standing at the time. So we find them all over the yard, along fence lines, under the yucca plant, pretty much everywhere they have access too. Those are all boiled and fed back to the animals as a good source of protein as well. Well…that is if the guardian dogs don’t find them first.
Turkeys only lay for a limited period of time in a year. And those are also fed back to the animals as well.
When I say animals. We feed them to the dogs & the cats, and back to the birds, but in a limited number. They are more like treats, handed out sparingly.
Cleaning Your Farm Fresh Eggs
Next we wash them.
There are many farms that wash their eggs with an egg cleaning solution or with a vinegar and water mix.
We prefer to simply use hot water.
Eggs are porous. When a chicken lays the egg, she leaves a protective covering over the egg called bloom.
This bloom seals the egg protecting it from the outside world.
The state and USDA mandate that we wash all eggs we sell to the public. And when we do we wash that bloom off opening the pores to the outside world.
I don’t want anything else getting into those pores.
Most of the time they’re pretty clean to begin with. But we haven’t been able to teach these girls to wipe their feet before stepping into the nesting boxes yet, so if they walked through mud or through a fresh chicken doober, well, then….sheite happens.
I wash each egg individually, inspecting each one for any cracks or other anomalies.
I’m not real gentle with them either. This way, if the shell is thin or weak, I’ll find out in the cleaning process and it doesn’t get into a carton to sell.
That’s not to say it’ll never happen, but the chances are much less that way.
The eggs that don’t make the cut for sale go into a pot to be boiled. Then are fed back to the animals as an excellent source of protein.
Into The Carton
After washing they’re laid out on a towel where they air dry.
Since I’m using hot water, it usually doesn’t take too long.
Then, I put them into cartons, stamp the cartons as required and put them in the fridge for delivery to the store.
If you’ve bought eggs from us previously, directly from our farm, you know I always tried to put at least one of the pretty blue or green ones in the carton.
All the eggs have the same nutritional value, color doesn’t change that.
I love the colors and always thought it was fun to find a bright colored egg amongst those beautiful brown eggs. The state and USDA don’t allow us to do this with the eggs we sell through the store. So we only use the brown eggs now.
We don’t get too many of the blue and green eggs anymore either. But they are pretty cool.
I hope this gives you a good idea of the journey your farm fresh eggs take on our from from the coop to the carton.
It’s all pretty low tech and simple, but we like it that way.
If you ever have any questions, please feel free to call, text or email. We’re always happy to help.