There have been some questions about the eggs that we’re offering as an optional part of the Cool Beans CSA – are they pastured, free range, natural or organic? Since we don’t all necessarily use the terms in the same way, let me just tell you a little bit about our chickens. Judi and follow the same basic practice: our chickens get to run around free during the day. By free we don’t mean a cage door is open and they can mingle in the barn; free means they follow me to the mailbox, drink from Judi’s pond, rip through recently turned gardens in search of bugs, fly (gracelessly, but they seem to enjoy it) or torture the barn cats. (Barn cats quickly learn, the hard way, that they will not win. Ever.)
The chickens are penned up at night to keep them safe from the various monsters that roam our farms in the wee hours. We keep roosters, so the eggs are fertile, and in fact we frequently hatch out a new batch.
When we raise broilers (meat chickens) they’re kept in large, portable pens that move a few feet every day, giving the birds access to clean grass and other greens. All of our chickens are fed grain and eat a lot of greens and bugs.
You forgot to mention that your chickens, for whatever reason, like to sneak through the cat door into your farm stand! If picking up at Katie’s place, just kindly remove them from the cat door and shoo them on their way to go eat bugs.