Sorry, prices are being raised.

Unfortunately I have to raise my prices from $2.25 to $3.00 per dozen.
If you want to know why, I'll tell you:
I have been keeping a notebook to track all my expenses and my sales, and after a month of record keeping, it turned out that instead of making a profit, I was actually LOSING 75 cents each week.
I am trying to save up for horse-back riding lessons and, well I can't pay someone for that with minus 75 cents. :-(
I know that $3.00 for a dozen eggs might seem like a lot.
In the grocery store you can buy eggs that are cheaper. But, the chickens at Little Rhody Egg Farm (for example) are kept inside a building with lots & lots of chickens crowded together and no space to roam. My hens have everywhere to roam on the property - including visiting me on my porch. And they get lots of love from me.
So think about it, & if you don't agree, just tell me about it in the comments.
Goodnight all.
-HG

A Memorial to Max and Marley

The ducks have come and gone on the farm.
Their names were Max and Marley; Max was the girl and Marley was the boy. Their life came to an end sadly and violently, for they were killed by some cruel beast. The ducks were friendly and I wish that they hadn't been killed. But nature took its course.

This is how it happened:
When I got home from the store with mom one day, I saw only Marley down with the chickens. I walked over to the other side of the house and saw, to my dismay, a headless duck lying on the lawn. I was so sad I could barely shout, "Mom something got the duck!".
The next day, Marley was looking all over for Max, quacking his whispery quack. Sadly, he too was attacked. I found him in the lower field terribly wounded. Mom, Zach and I tried to nurse him back to health. We cleaned and treated his wounds, laid him in a sled padded with hay and a nice warm towel, covered him with more warm towels, and gave him water to drink through a turkey baster, but it just wasn't good enough. Marley's wounds were too severe.
He passed away two and a half hours later.
This post is a memorial to the birds that I was honored to own.

the chicken hawk

For the past 2 days a Chicken Hawk has been pestering and eyeballing my chickens - to eat them and the guinea fowl.
We have seen him/her multiple times. At first, we thought that it was a juvenile bald eagle. Thank google it wasn't! (oops, Freudian slip ) I mean thank goodness.
The Chicken Hawk, otherwise known as the Cooper's Hawk, has been flying around the property and perching on trees in our yard. Earlier this morning, I heard loud squabbling from the chickens and ran to the front windows to see what was causing all the fuss.
I saw a Cooper's Hawk flying around.
When I ran outside, the hawk got frightened and went flying down to the water area.
I lost sight of it after that .

I'm not sure how many of you know that 2 of the guinea fowl have, sadly, passed away (a.k.a. been either eaten or killed). I am not sure whether or not the Cooper is the culprit. Hmmmn.
What do you think?

Everyday Down at the Farm

Many of you want to know what is going on "down on the farm," like how I get the eggs and such.

Most of my days start with me waking up and running downstairs to stand in front of the fire (it's getting cold these mornings in November).

After that, I go in the mudroom to put my boots and jacket on and then, outside to let the chickens and guinea fowl out of the coop; they also roost in the chicken coop with the chickens.
When they are all out (including Henrietta), I scoop about 2 lbs. of grain and scatter half of it on the ground and half in their feeder. Then I go into the chicken coop to collect eggs and fill the water dispenser (if it's empty). Usually, at 8 o'clock in the morning, there are only about 8 or 9 eggs. Most days a hen is in the first nesting box with an egg under her - when that happens, I slide my hand under her wing and take the warm egg and put it in my pocket (I often forget the egg basket).
After I am done in the coop, I run over to the horses and let them out of their stalls.
But before I go back inside, I spend some quality time with my hens.

The start of a business. (and a blog)

Hello everyone. As most of you know, I have a business.
It is an egg business.
I have 16 laying hens, and one of them is, of course, Henrietta. As a chick, she was (unfortunately) crushed by a rock. She has healed well, except for the fact that she limps. And when I say limp, I mean LIMP!

So, back to the start of a business.
I didn't start off getting 14 eggs a day, it started with one, then two, then three, and so on. Now, I end up (usually) with 5 and 1/2 dozen by the end of each week. I like to sell all of them, too.

I hope this blog will help sell eggs and keep people informed at whats going on at Hannah's Henhouse.