We acquired five more laying hens yesterday, so our total bird count is now up to 33. Out of those 33, 13 of them are layers. That many hens ought to give us more than enough eggs for our family, and we'll probably have a surplus that we can sell. We'll see.

It was kind of cool getting home with the five new birds yesterday. It was after dark and the kids came running out, all excited to see their new farm birds. I took them out of the container they were in, one at a time, and had Brandi help me clip their wings before we dropped them in their chicken tractor. (We'll keep them in the tractor for a few days to let the other flock get used to their presence, and then we'll slowly integrate them into the flock.)

I emailed a Mennonite hatchery in Pennsylvania yesterday and I'm waiting to hear back. They're one of the only hatcheries in the United States that is currently hatching Freedom Rangers. Freedom Rangers are broilers (meat birds) that thrive out on a free-range pasture. Unlike the quintessential American meat bird, the Cornish Cross, Freedom Rangers weren't bred to sit around and eat feed all day, but they were bred to get nice and meaty!



Anyway, Brandi and I want some Freedom Rangers as a nice compliment to the Cornish Cross chickens that we currently raise. The breast meat on Freedom Rangers isn't as massive as the breast meat on the Cornish Crosses, but, supposedly, the meat is every bit as flavorful. (In case anyone is wondering, Cornish Cross chickens are the kind you buy in the grocery store; they're an American innovation, and their advent has brought cheap, big, juicy chicken to the masses. The Cornish Crosses eat primarily feed, but, in a situation like ours, they have access to fresh grass and bugs, so they're considered to be more "natural" than Cornish Crosses from factories. They also don't live on their feces 24/7 like they often do in commercial chicken houses.)

That's the bird update for the day.