| Tish's Eggs | | Print | |
We have Fresh Farm Eggs for sale, just $3.00 a dozen.We’re easy to find, located at 2732 County Road 310, just off 362. Second driveway on the right, you’ll know you’re there when you see the Texas flag waving proudly in the front yard. From the Whitehall store head south on 362, if you’re coming up Hwy. 2 then make a left at 362. After a while we decided that they were big enough to come out of the coop and explore the yard. About this time I decided I needed a few more chickens and I placed a second order. During that first summer we lost half of our flock to predators. We also realized that our original coop wasn’t big enough to hold all the chickens so Steve transformed two of the stalls in the stable into a larger coop. The new improved coop had a roosting area complete with 7 nest boxes and an adjoining open area with a screen door that led to the outside. The floor of the roosting area is covered with a deep layer of wood shavings that help keep it clean and collect all the droppings. The next year I decided I wanted chickens that would lay chocolate brown eggs and some that would lay the blue/green eggs. I placed an order for 10 Silver Cuckoo Marans which lay the chocolate brown eggs and 12 Easter-Eggers, a hybrid chicken that has the blue egg gene. Of course the coop was once again too small. We used the original coop as a nursery keeping the new baby chicks there until they were 2 ½ months old. During this time Steve turned the third stall of the old barn into an additional roosting area with another 7 nest boxes. He added lights so that I didn’t have to put my hand inside of a dark nest box without know if a snake was inside or not. We’ve had more than one large rat snake make off with a chicken egg and that is not a pleasant encounter. Late this winter a friend offered me 6 more hens that a neighbor of his no longer wanted. I took them in using the original coop to quarantine them for 2 weeks. By the end of 2 weeks, being safe, warm and well fed, the new hens started laying eggs again. We now have a grand total of 41 hens that reward me with a beautiful basket of blue, green, brown and chocolate brown eggs every day totaling over 2 dozen eggs per day
I think you will agree that fresh farm eggs are the best tasting eggs and especially when they come from such well pampered hens. And for those of you who are a bit squeamish, rest assured that none of our eggs are fertile as I do not keep a rooster with the flock. |
When Steve and I first moved out to WhiteHall I announced that I wanted to keep chickens. Like all good husbands Steve started working on the world’s greatest chicken coop. While the coop was being built I researched chicken breeds to learn which ones would be a good match for our farm. I settled on Silver Laced Wyandottes and placed my first order for 12 chicks. Shortly I received an early morning call from our post office saying my chicks had arrived. At first we kept the chicks inside the house in a large cardboard box. As the chicks grew so did the box. Finally the chicks were old enough and it was warm enough for them to go outside. We moved the chicks into the finished coop and watched them grow. I pampered my chicks by giving them strawberries and watermelon and found that they consider raisins to be almost like candy. Even the neighbors were saving cantaloupe rinds and garden greens for the girls.
The girls and I have a great system….if we don’t eat it they get first shot at all kitchen scraps. They also get everything that’s left over from my vegetable garden. In return they provide my garden with wonderful manure which I add to the compost pile. 