Pastured Eggs

Our laying hens are a mix of about 6 different varieties, but all typically produce a large or extra large egg. We presently have a flock of about 135 layers and will soon be introducing 170 new chicks that should be ready to start laying in mid April of 2024. We band their legs with colored bands so that we can identify the chickens by age and cull the older hens when appropriate. We have a gentlemen in N Louisiana that buys our cull chickens and sells them to a chicken soup plant in Arkansas which is a “Win” for everyone.

The layers are allowed to roam within an electrified poultry net (about 1/4 acre) and graze on grass, bugs, worms, etc.  Their portable coop and their electrified fence is moved approximately once a week to make sure there is plenty of fresh clean forage to eat and so that their manure and urine is not concentrated in one area of the pasture for soil health.  These same pasture areas are also rotationally grazed by our sheep & our cattle. The layers are also given garden and kitchen scraps and have access to the same feed that the broilers eat which comes from a local Arklatex Feed mill.  Each night, the layers retire inside their portable coop and are locked up by an automatic door with a timer for additional protection from predators.  When morning comes, the door opens and they begin their new day.  Being a laying hen on our farm is a pretty good gig.

If you ever had a bad day and it seems like nothing is going right, isn’t it nice when your dog greets you at the door when you come home? Our chickens are the same way. When they see us coming with food or especially a treat of kitchen or garden scraps, they’ll see us coming from a 1/4 mile away and they get so excited they can hardly stand it. Simple pleasures!