It is with a heavy heart that we must inform our valued customers that after careful consideration, we have decided to discontinue raising laying hens on our farm for egg production for the time being. This has not been an easy decision for us, as we understand how much our customers value the high-quality and healthy eggs we have been providing.
Over the 5 years we have been producing eggs we have continued to grow and update the opperation in an effort to make it financially sustainable. Despite our efforts, we have found that increasing our number of hens to meet demand and reach "economies of scale" has not helped. Labor demand has increased just as much, or more, with more hens, organic feed costs have gone way up, and other hidden costs like equipment issues and hen losses quickly push us below the break-even point.
Even with the higher prices on eggs we are now all seeing, we would not be able to sell our eggs wholesale (in bulk) at the prices we would need to get for our truly rotational pastured practices. To give you an idea, we need to sell our eggs for a minimum of $6.00/doz, which means in the grocery store they would be at least $9.00/doz
We are considering a different approach for raising laying hens in the future, one that is more in line with our "Full Circle" vision. This may include a smaller flock of chickens that are bred and raised here on the farm and have dual purposes. Older mama hens would raise their babies until they are old enough to be separated into girls (raised as laying hens on pasture) and boys (raised as meat birds on pasture). Unfortunately, most breeds of chickens currently have only one or the other purpose, which means that when laying hen chicks are sold, almost all of the males are "put down." We would much rather not contribute to that system.
Currently, we will be focusing on our vegetable and pig enterprises, but we may have some eggs available for purchase only on the farm in the future. We will keep you updated on our future plans.
Thank you for your understanding and continued support
Happy Solstice from your busy farmers!
Hello, friends— Scott here! As I write this, the sun is setting… and it’s only 3:30 in the afternoon. I’m eagerly looking ahead to the Winter Solstice: the day in which the Earth’s northern half stops its slow tilt away from the sun and begins to tilt back toward the sun. In ancient times, this was a celebration, as our ancestors looked forward to longer days and new growth.
We have been keeping busy during the non-growing season: Andrew and Heather spent a lot of time organizing the lower half of the barn and making a cozy space for the chickens. The hens are very happy in their winter quarters! They have lots of room to scratch and roost. We like to open the door during the day in case some of them are feeling adventurous enough to roam about in the snow; you’d be surprised by how many of them enjoy the cold air! They are still laying beautiful and nutritious eggs but not very often. Less daylight means the girls lay less eggs, so if you hope to buy eggs from us at one of the winter farmer markets, get there early before we sell out!
Speaking of farmer’s market, we will be attending all of the markets in downtown Green Bay at the KI Center. They are only on certain Saturdays, so check before you go. As this is the off-season, we have only certain vegetables, mostly storage crops such as carrots, cabbage, potatoes and onions. But we also have a great selection of grass-fed beef and pork cuts as well as eggs. The next market is January 12 and we’ll be promoting our CSA sign-up for the 2019 season. Stop by and say hi!
At the farm, we have been working on some of buildings for growing vegetables. Our major priority has been the prop house, short for propagation house or greenhouse. I included a picture below. The prop house will be heated and will allow us to start from seed, all the yummy veggies you look forward to. We got all the posts in the ground before it froze and now we’ve been working on attaching the rest of the supports. Once that’s done, we will cover in plastic and turn on the heater. (There’s a bit more to it than that, but I’ll share those details in another post :-)
We hope you enjoy your holiday season and that the new year (and solstice) brings you heath and happiness!
