Eggs

With around 250 laying hens, I manage to get lots of eggs every day.  I find egg gathering one of the most pleasant tasks on the farm.  The chickens clucking away in the hen houses adds a certain hypnotic hum to to the farm.  Some chickens stand up to let me collect the eggs from underneath them in the nesting boxes, others peck my hands as I reach in, and a few others — let's just say I still haven't lost any fingers!

The eggs are collected routinely throughout the day and minimally washed and packaged.  They range in color from white, buff, brown, dark brown to blues and greens.  The flavor and richness of the eggs is a reflection of the lives my hens lead:  days filled with fresh air, sunshine, and the freedom to range and forage hillsides and creek beds.  

Control is just an illusion

Who knew the path to enlightenment was a road full of chickens?  With the first hen house, I was adamant about the hens sleeping in their house at night.  However, a handful of Black Minorca hens thought otherwise and insisted on roosting in the trees outside of my back door. For about a week, I vainly attempted to pluck them out of the trees and lock them up in the hen house.  Of course, my attempts to do so sent them scrambling to other branches and one hen, in particular, always seemed to end up on the roof of the hen house staring down at me.  (I'm convinced she was mocking me.)  Now the "renegades" as I call them sleep every night in those trees and have been joined by a few other hens. They are the first sight I see in the morning, usually rummaging around in my front yard or catching the first light of day on my porch.

Jack

I like to say "we all work for Jack" (aka el Jefe).  He manages to keep track of every-thing on the farm and is always the first to let me know when something is amiss, such as the sheep have managed to burst through a fence and into the wrong pasture. He also seems to enjoy buzzing past the chickens, watching them squawk and flap in indignation.  Now that spring is here, the ewes and lambs spend their days on the hillside pastures.  Jack runs the perimeter of the hillsides at the close of every day to help bring the sheep down to a pasture close to the house.  This keeps the lambs safe from coyotes at night.