Butts up, heads down ... chickens foraging in the pasture.

Year round we market organic eggs produced by pastured and truly omnivorous hens. You can find our eggs at the Skowhegan Farmers Market and at the Barrels Community Market in Waterville year round.

It is also possible to pick up our organic eggs straight from the farm. We do not have regular farm store hours at this point. So drop on in by chance or call ahead to pick them up: 207-858-3033.

EGGS ARE A SEASONAL FOOD! A simple concept most folks don’t realize. Industrial hens are fed one kind of ration year round, so the eggs always look the same and we have forgotten how eggs change with the seasons. Spring and summer eggs from pastured hens have a gorgeous electric yellow yolk because the hens absorb the chlorophyll and many vitamins from the diverse, omnivorous diet…grasshoppers anyone?

In the fall and winter, these naturally raised eggs change. The yolk color pales a bit and the intense nutrition moderates as their access to pasture wanes. To make up for their lack of pasture, we supplement their winter diet with storage crops dense in vitamins such as beta-carotene, provide them with rich hay to pick at, free-choice kelp and occasionally flax seeds.

Our eggs still beat the industrial competition even in winter!

Tad the calf joins the Blue Wheatons outside the barn when the spring sun warms the rocks.

Our Hens Through the Year
In spring and summer, our hens have 24-hour access to pasture where they forage on insects, seeds, invertebrates, grasses and forbs. We rotate them to fresh pasture on a bi-weekly basis to keep their “salad bar” stocked, to let the previous pasture rest and to reduce exposure to their manure. In their shelter on the pasture, we offer them free-choice, certified organic feed and supplements including kelp, flax seed, cracked corn, oyster shell, crushed granite and, of course, lots of organic veggie scraps.
     We prevent illness and parasites by allowing access to dust baths amended with diatomaceous earth and treating their water monthly with organic apple cider vinegar. They are not given antibiotics as chicks, but rather, we put them on a deep pack of clean bedding and give them a natural boost of apple cider vinegar and molasses in their water for the first 10 days. This fortifies their gut against disease and provides a boost of energy and nutrients to get them off to a healthy start.

The photo above is Napoleon Dynamite. He rules the roost. He is a six-inch tall Blue Wheaton, and his specialty is providing comic relief.

The Five Freedoms of Animal Welfare

• Freedom from hunger and thirst
• Freedom from thermal and physical discomfort
• Freedom from pain, injury and disease
• Freedom from fear and stress
• Freedom to express normal behavior

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In the late Fall when the pastures stop growing, we move our hens to their winter shelter. We allow them to free roam around the farm as they please during the afternoon when the weather isn’t howling. This shelter is based on the deep pack system. We add 6-8 inches of litter and as the hens drop manure, they scratch it into the litter, which begins to compost. The composting action generates heat to keep them warm.

You can often see a hen burrowing into the litter for a warm “bath”. We add more litter as needed to keep the floor clean and to keep the carbon to nitrogen ratio appropriate for sustained composting. We continue to supplement their feed with winter root crops and squash from the garden and all the yummy extras like kelp and flax.

We love to hear their racket…kut-kut-kadaket.

In the photo below, a Black Australorp chick sleeps in an egg carton.