Our chickens are laying like mad. When chickens first start to lay, they lay many but smaller eggs. As they mature their egg production goes down, but the eggs get bigger. We have had a lot of rain this fall (thankfully, as we are still suffering under a drought) and the pastures are very green. The chickens live in a mobile chicken house that is moved every three days.

This is mutually beneficial to the chickens and the pasture. The birds eat the new green grass and seeds and the ground is aerated and fertilized. See for yourself. Here is a section of pasture a few weeks after the birds were on it. It is so green.






The magazine, Mother Earth News did nutritional analysis of eggs from four flocks of pastured chickens and then did a comparison of the results to regular super-market (factory produced) eggs. Their results,

“revealed that compared to supermarket eggs from hens raised in cages, our free-range eggs contained only about half as much cholesterol, were up to twice as rich in vitamin E, and were two to six times richer in beta carotene (a form of vitamin A). For essential omega-3 fatty acids (vital for optimal heart and brain function), the free-range eggs averaged four times more than factory eggs.”

You can read the whole article at: http://www.motherearthnews.com/eggs/testing

In fact, I recommend it. It discusses in depth how much of the foods in the food supply have been declining nutritionally due to industrial farm practices.

--jackie leigh