Ok, you’re going to get fed up with the eggy puns, sorry! Or maybe I’m not! Rest assured it won’t take long before I run out of them!!
Thank heavens for the better weather that March has currently brought, taking us from one eggstreme to another – from clay mudpits, which Kingsdonians will be well acquainted with, to dry cracked earth in next to no time!
The farm is slowly springing to life and our routines have changed as we started to bring the sheep in overnight so we can tend them better for lambing, and the cows went out last weekend after some extensive fence checking.
We’re starting to let some of the hens out, while working on the accommodation and fencing for the rest to also be able to go out, meaning that as soon as we’re able, they will be out free ranging which we’ll all be much happier to see. We will be adding some white egg laying Leghorn hens to the flock in a few days so are preparing space for them to come into isolation when they first arrive.
We now have 2 fine young lambs, both out in the small paddock beside our home so you may get to see them in the next few weeks while we keep an eye on their progress before letting them out in a larger paddock.
A big shoutout to a lovely local lady, Jenny for loaning us a ram last October who sired both of these lambs and also gave up her time the other evening when we were concerned that number 2 was taking too long to get suckling – typically Jenny’s arrival seemed to be all he needed to finally find the right part of his mum to suck!!
Our egg collection is now around 50-60 per day so we have plenty available in the kiosk at all times.
The kiosk is open dawn til dusk, 7 days per week.
We also now have compost available for purchase beside the kiosk.
Why are they different colours?
We’re often asked why our eggs are mixed colours – I guess if you’ve only ever had supermarket eggs that are a uniform brown and uniform size you may not be aware that different breeds of hens lay a whole variety of different coloured eggs – the rainbow of colours available is quite something, as this photo from the web shows. The content within the shell is the same regardless of shell colour, but we love the variety and I’ve always loved having a blue shelled boiled egg with soldiers 😉!!
Why soya-free?
Some tout soya as being a wonder protein, plant based and good for all sorts of things while others, myself included, have huge concerns about its potential to be carcinogenic as well as being one of the 14 main allergens.
- We do not grow soya as a crop in this country, it’s typically grown in the Americas with Brazil, the USA and Argentina being top producers.
- Vast swathes of the Amazon rainforest have been lost forever in the quest to grow more and more of this plant.
- Almost all of the soya grown is genetically modified to make it tolerant to herbicide use – specifically glyphosate which can be used a rate of 3-4kg per hectare. According to our friend Google this is higher than the 1.72kg/ha recommended rate.
- We have also found articles suggesting that feeding soya based meal to young chicks can negatively affect development of the mucus membranes.
As all soya has to be imported to be used in animal feed, we feel this is at odds with our ethos of wanting to create a locally produced egg.