We’ve been shopping at farmer’s markets for years, in many cities and states. One of the parts we particularly enjoy is the opportunity to meet the farmers. We’ve found great diversity among the individuals who farm: some grew up farming, others are career changers, and still others begin after retirement. One common thread, however, is pride in their products.
We used to imagine, while shopping the market, that someday we’d have something to offer. Yesterday was that day – we sold chicken and duck eggs. We would have liked to have had meat to offer, too, but sales of farm-processed chicken/duck/rabbit isn’t permitted at farmer’s markets here. To our surprise, patrons sought us out based on the market’s email that went out yesterday introducing us and our products, and our duck eggs sold out right away. (Note to self: bring more duck eggs next market! The two now-broody ducks, Piper and Pru, aren’t laying and insist on sitting together on an empty nest – they’d better get back to work soon!) Continue reading “Our First Farmer’s Market (As A Vendor)”
In addition to the Black Copper Marans eggs we put in the incubator a couple of days ago, we just started incubating some American Bresse eggs. While we have, to this point, raised dual-purpose chickens primarily for eggs, these are intended to be primarily meat chickens.
Phoebe’s 8 eggs began hatching on Sunday. Our first clue was an empty eggshell sitting in the main section of the small coop we use for brooding: it had the “freshly hatched from” look, with the dried membrane and reddish tint inside. We tried to peek into the nest box section, but she was having none of that and puffed up so we couldn’t see beneath her.
As the pullets begin to lay, we keep finding oddities in the nest boxes. Today’s find is one we haven’t seen before – not a rubber egg, a giant egg, a fart egg, or eggs with seams, wrinkles, or striations – this one looks like it has a stem.
The adult Muscovies have been lodging in the chicken coop for the past couple of weeks. It’s amazing that they knew it was time to leave the small coop to Phoebe, who only has a week to go until hatch day; one evening, we went to round everyone up and we discovered that the adults had all just moved into the chicken coop. Clever creatures. Phoebe’s in the “grumpy broody” phase, and they must have known it was coming.