BEAR CREEK FARM & RANCH

 FARM FRESH EGGS

Our laying hens come to the farm at one to two days old from the hatchery.  The hens live out their life on our farm.  The chickens are under heat lights for the first few months of their life.  Laying hens take longer than the meat breeds to grow.  The hens will begin to lay eggs between 5 and 6 months of age.  They will lay for several months and then go into molt, where they slowly replace their feathers.  During this molting time, they do not lay eggs because their energy goes into making new feathers.  We do NOT starvation molt our chickens (or remove their top beaks) because we believe this is cruel, however, both of these practices are allowed, even in “organic” chickens raised for eggs.  If you want to avoid eggs from farms that do these things, the best way is to talk to, and get to know, the farmer that raises the chickens you get your eggs from.

At Bear Creek Farm & Ranch we have 4 major breeds of chickens for laying eggs, Buff Orpington’s, Black Australorp’s, Barred Rock's and Araucana’s.  The color of the egg shell is determined by the breed of chicken.  The Buff Orpington’s, Black Australorp’s and Barred Rock's lay brown eggs and the Araucana’s lay blue to green eggs.  Each individual chicken will lay a specific shade of their color. 

The laying hens have chicken houses they go into at night for protection from predators.  They naturally want to go into these houses and roost to sleep.  This is where their nest boxes are located.  In the morning, we open the doors and let the chickens out.  They wander around, scratching the ground, eating pasture, weeds, bugs & worms.  however, chickens are grain eaters and still need 70% of their diet in grain.  To make sure our eggs are high in nutrition and taste,  Our feed is comprised of whole grains that are non-GMO (genetically modified organism).  Our chicken feed is almost the same for our laying hens as our meat chickens, with additional calcium for the laying hens.  As is with our meat chickens, the laying hens never receive hormones or antibiotics.   Since 1997, we have never used chemical herbicides, pesticides or fertilizers on our farm.  We use only natural methods to fertilize and to keep weeds & pests under control.  The chickens actually help us with this.  They fly, and run to us when we bring them garden & kitchen vegetable and fruit scraps.  They are happy chickens!

Eggs are collected through out the day, washed, graded, weighed for size, packaged, dated and refrigerated.