Every morning on my into the office space I am greeted by a few ladies who can’t even be bothered to look up at me as they busily point their head downwards.

The farm is home to80 Hybrid laying hens that have free run of the farm. These hens are characterized by their light brown feathers and soft white tail feathers and like their dominant colour they lay brown eggs.  The hens can be found in the drive shed, the gardens and wondering near the market, constantly scouring for another bite to eat.

As soft and beautiful as these ladies may be they can sure ruffle one another’s feathers in the chicken coop. While visiting the farmer’s market one afternoon, Leslie shared with a colleague that our hens were not getting along so nicely this summer, unlike in past years.  A suggestion was to include a treat for the hens which is the ends of the popcorn from the Kettle Corn.  Once a week we scatter some kettle corn for the hens to enjoy and sure enough there have been less ruffled feathers!

It is the laying hen that gave way to the expression “Pecking Order”.

The Eggs

Earlier this season we posted a picture of some PeeWee eggs. Take a look at the size of our eggs this week!

The hens typically start laying eggs around 16 weeks of age and as they mature the size of the egg increases.  Their first year of life yields the highest production of eggs.

Each hen averages laying 1 egg a day, which is collected each morning during our farm chores.
Once we have a basket full of beautiful brown eggs, each egg is carefully washed and candled.

Bedtime

When the night is near our ladies need to head home and be put to bed. Every evening the chickens make their way back to the pen and are ushered into the coop to be secured for the night to avoid predators. The chicken pen and coop are kept near the Farm House to keep foxes, coyotes and other predators at bay.

Enjoying our Eggs

Forsythe Family Farms fresh eggs are only available on the farm as per the Egg Marketing Board. To sell our eggs off site would be a costly investment of using a licensed grading station. Fortunately a local farm in the area does have a grading station and is home to some beautiful laying hens making egg shares an option to our CSA members.

If you would like to purchase some of our hen’s eggs please make a visit to the farm.

Your Stay and Play Visit to the farm is free with your CSA Membership

You are welcome to visit the farm 7 days and enjoy the daily activities on the farm.