Our flock of 35 free range chickens roam around the farm as they like and return at night to roost in the chicken house. We have a rooster or two here and every day they breed the hens. A few of our hens become "broody," which means that she devotes herself to sitting on a clutch of eggs; most often she will find a hiding place separate from the rest of the chickens to do this. She is not fussy about whose eggs she sits on - and on occasion we switch the eggs around, adding some from hens we especially like! After 23 days of sitting, the new mother will display her offspring and for some weeks she keeps them close to her. Eventually the young chicks strike out on their own and join the flock. And of course our chickens produce bright orange and delicious eggs- truly golden eggs.

We also raise roasting chickens; these chicks arrive as day-old birds without feathers, and are kept in warm quarters under a special light until they are old enough to go outside to our chicken tractor (picture on right).  Each day, this 10 x 12 A-frame is moved about 10 feet to clean grass. The chickens thrive in such clean, grassy quarters. They are slaughtered locally in 8 weeks and sold at the farm as frozen roasters. Delicious!