Chicama Run Family Farm

Ok, so people ask us a lot what our animals are fed. This is coming from the current awareness of various issues with food production and with the big commerical farms and just the public reading more.

Yes, we use a commercial feed for our chickens. Why? Simple.... price.

Let me first explain that we do NOT pump any of our animals with feed. Our free range chickens prefer to run around and find food - but it's there in case it's icky hot or cold or wet outside and they want to eat. They are fed outside so they need to move to get it.

Our broiler chickens are fed a limited amount, but they are moved to fresh grass each day. Instead of it taking 8 weeks for a chicken to grow, ours take 10-12 weeks. This is because they don't have food set up in front of them all day. Even many non-GMO farmers will fill up the feeders so the chickens eat constantly throughout the day! This means they don't really move at all - there is no reason for them to.

Lately I looked at some pricing of other farmers eggs and was shocked and knowing that egg prices will be going up scares me even more. I was finding eggs at $7+ a dozen!! I know everyone wants the "best" for their family - but I will be flat out honest with you..... I could not afford to pay $7 for a dozen eggs. It takes 2 dozen to make 1 breakfast for my kids. That doesn't include the eggs I need for the rest of the week!!

When we raised our egg pricing to $5.25/dozen we hadn't raised the price in over 2 years and it was a 24¢ increase. It was hard for me to increase the price over $5 but it had to be done.

So this goes back to what I said the other day - it's what you feel you can do for your family. I know that our birds are happy running around eating a bunch of other things OTHER than the feed so I feel happy with the eggs. It's a compromise, because from day 1 - I always wanted our farm to be AFFORDABLE to families. Putting it out of reach for more of the public may work for smaller egg farmers, but when for our farm, it just doesn't make sense.

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