Bok bok! Our egg rainbow...

Another one of the "crops" we plan to offer starting next year is eggs. But we won't be giving people just any egg, like the white or light brown ones you see in the grocery store. Different breeds of chickens lay a whole assortment of different colours and hues, so we're planning on marketing our own eggs as "rainbow dozens". Our eggs are going to come in a wide range of colours, in a range of whites, browns, pinks, and greens. Right now, we have hens laying both green and brown eggs. You can see a picture of our four girls below.

From the left, you can see Peeper, our speckled Sussex. Next is Beetlejuice, a black Ameraucana, and Beaker, a partridge Ameraucana. Finally there is Chaunti, a partridge Chantecler, and a total babe at that!

We were especially excited about starting to keep Chantecler's on our farm because they are the only breed of chicken from Canada, and because it is classified as endangered by Rare Breeds Canada. We want to help keep the breed alive. They were bred in Quebec and Alberta to be exceptionally hardy in our cold climate and to keep laying more consistently throughout the dark winter months. We also like our green egg layers, the Ameraucana's for the same reasons. Well, also because they are beautiful creatures with great personalities!

Here are the breeds of chicken that will make up our flock this next year:

- Chantecler, Ameraucana,  Australorp, Sussex, Plymouth Rock, Maran, Brabanter

The Australorp, Sussex and Plymouth Rock are all brown egg layers, laying a eggs in a variety of shades of brown, the Maran is a breed of chicken that lays dark, chocolate brown eggs, and the Brabanter is a very rare breed in Canada that is one of the few cold hardy white egg layers. We will be getting all of the chickens for our farm from local breeders.

Now that our hens have started laying, we have all kinds of beautiful eggs to eat at home. The green ones, and some of the smaller brown ones in the picture are ours, along with some of John's eggs as well. Between our two farms, we hope to start offering our egg CSA share sometime around January 2012.