Chicken and egg lessons

For being a dairy farm family, we sure do talk about chickens and eggs a lot.

Last summer, Monika and Daphne started an egg business partnership. Daphne tends the hens and collects the eggs. Monika packages and markets the eggs. They started with orders from teachers and staff at their schools. Then, during the summer, they brought their eggs to the farmers’ market in town.

Their enterprise was super helpful during our spring and summer flush of eggs. And, it’s proving to be crucial again this spring.

We have even more eggs this spring than we did last year. Partly because we added another group of 4-H project hens to our flock and partly because of our hens’ new palace.

This past winter, our egg harvest dropped off precipitously. The weather fluctuations surely had an impact, but I also quit climbing into the big square bales in the shed to collect from the hens’ self-appointed nests. Most of the hens were still laying – we just weren’t finding the eggs before they froze.

We got by for awhile by using the frozen eggs I had stashed in the freezer two summers ago. Frozen eggs definitely look a little odd once thawed, but they worked perfectly for our weekly pans of egg bake. We also discovered this winter that ground beef seasoned with sage, garlic, salt and pepper tastes just like ground pork when added to egg bake. We used up our supply of ground pork and have a freezer full of ground beef, so that’s what prompted us to give it a try.

The day Monika reported that there was only one package of frozen eggs left in the freezer, I picked up a dozen eggs at the store. That was a tough pill to swallow. Paying $6 for a dozen eggs when you have dozens of laying hens at home felt ridiculous.

The next day we decided it was time to remedy our situation and a plan quickly formed. Using some building materials we had on hand, Glen and the kids turned the straw bay in our heifer shed into a enclosed coop. With protection from the wind, a heat lamp and a set of nesting boxes, our hens now had cozy quarters and a dedicated place to lay their eggs.

We moved most of our hens into their new palace. Within two days, we were collecting more eggs than we could eat. Within a week, the girls were marketing eggs again.

Some of our wilier hens retained their free range status. Interestingly, though, shortly after the flock was split, we started finding more eggs in the nest boxes used by the free range hens. I now suspect that our box-to-hen ratio was the reason so many hens made nests in the bales instead of laying in the nest boxes. Lesson learned.

We’ve learned a few other chicken and egg lessons, as well.

First, don’t do the math. Just like it’s never a good idea for dairy farmers to calculate how much they get paid per hour, it’s not a good idea for small-flock chicken farmers to calculate their profit per carton. Monika keeps a detailed spreadsheet of egg orders and income, but I can almost guarantee that our expenses and the value of our time exceed the four dollars the girls collect for each dozen sold.

Second, don’t count your chickens before they hatch. I know this is the most overused cliché ever, but it was especially true when it came to finding baby chicks for this year’s 4-H project. Avian influenza took a serious toll on the baby chick supply chain. The hatchery we’ve been doing business with for years had limited availability — and in some cases zero availability — for hybrid egg layer chicks. We found another hatchery and placed an order, but delivery was pushed back due to supply issues. So we placed an order at our original hatchery, but on the day Daphne should have received the chicks, no package arrived – with zero communication from the hatchery. On one hand I felt bad for the folks at the hatchery, because they clearly were having issues, but on the other hand I absolutely couldn’t believe that their lack of customer service was reality. Long story short, Daphne was finally able to get both white and brown egg layers from the new hatchery. They’ll be adding eggs to our supply in another month or so.

Third, do keep laying hens for the joy of it. Chickens are delightful. We all enjoy their antics — from the way they chase after each other when one finds a tasty morsel to the way they burrow into the shavings to dust bathe. And picking eggs is like having an Easter egg hunt every day — even when we’re only picking from the nest boxes. Thanks to the multi-breed hybrids added to our flock each year by broody hens, we now have a beautiful variety of shell colors. Sorting eggs into cartons feels like creating art.

Fourth, do find lots of ways to enjoy eggs. As mentioned above, we really like egg bake and have been switching it up with variations like supreme and meat lovers. Most mornings, I pretend I’m a short-order cook in an egg restaurant. Dan likes simple omelets — just three eggs whisked with a pinch of salt, cooked in a covered pan, and then folded over co-jack cheese. Monika likes fried eggs stacked with a slice of Havarti cheese. Daphne likes omelets, too, but with bacon crumbles added. (The same as Glen.) But lately, the girls have been asking for scrambled eggs, so I’ve perfected small-batch scrambled eggs. I still prefer eating eggs for lunch — fried and made into an eggwich with sauteéd spinach, Havarti cheese, and black garlic.