Chickens
Our chickens are given free access to pasture from dawn to dusk, so that their diet and daily routines more closely resemble what nature intended. Not only does this create healthier and tastier eggs, we believe it makes for happier birds. We don't give our chickens antibiotics, steroids, hormones, or vaccines, and only supplement their free-range diet with free-choice quality poultry feed and oyster shell. Just like the rest of our animals, each one of our chickens is considered a part of the family, and we try to spend time every day to make sure that every one of them is getting the care and attention they need to live out a happy life here at Grateful Akers.
What we sell
Though in the past we regularly sold chicks, laying hens, roosters, and meat birds, currently we are only offering eggs for sale on a regular basis (a new child & increased hours at our day jobs have forced us to cut back on hatching). While we hope to revive the hatchery some day, for now we're focusing on the sale of eggs and sheep. We are still hatching on a limited basis, so if you're looking for chicks feel free to check in with us to see what we have available, as we will be selling live birds from time to time. To see what we have available for sale right now, check out our farm store by clicking the link the the right!
Farm Fresh Eggs
Our hens lay many different colors, shades, and sizes of eggs, so most customers receive a random assortment of what was laid on the day of purchase. A typical egg carton will include a mix of medium to large brown, blue, green, and white eggs.
Our laying hens have unrestricted access to pasture from dawn to dusk, allowing their diet to reflect what nature intended. We supplement their free-range diet with Omega-3 enriched layer feed and oyster shell, to ensure that our girls stay healthy and produce high quality nutritious eggs. We never give our birds antibiotics, hormones, vaccines, or steroids, allowing them to produce both natural and nutritious eggs.
Unless customers request otherwise, we wash all eggs on the day of sale. Most of the eggs that we keep for ourselves remain unwashed until it's time to eat them. Unwashed eggs have a natural antibacterial coating called 'bloom', do not have to be refrigerated, and will stay fresh much longer than a washed egg. Washing an egg removes the bloom, shortens its shelf-life, and requires that the egg be refrigerated until eaten. Once we wash your eggs and hand them over to you, we recommend that you put them in the fridge within a few hours. If you would rather purchase unwashed eggs, let us know ahead of time.
We sell eggs for consumption at $5 per dozen. For availability and purchase information, check out our farm store page by clicking the link above.
Hatching Eggs
While most of the eggs that we sell are for eating, we now regularly offer fertilized eggs for those who wish to hatch their own chicks. At this time we aren't confining any of our flock to separate breeding pens, so any eggs we sell will hatch a mix of Easter Eggers, Olive Eggers, or Sage Eggers. Hens that hatch from these eggs will either lay sky blue, olive green, or sage green eggs. Occasionally we order and hatch pure-bred eggs from other breeders, and sell any extra that we are unable to fit in our incubator.
We never wash eggs that are going in the incubator, and strongly advise against it. The embryos within hatching eggs are protected by the bloom (a natural antibiotic layer deposited over the shell during laying), and washing it off is almost certainly a death sentence for life within.
Depending on the type and seasonal demand, we sell hatching eggs from $0.50 to $5 per egg. For availability, current pricing, and purchase information, check out our farm store page by clicking the link above.
