Poultry Update! Thanksgiving Turkeys and Fresh Eggs

We have expanded a few parts of the farm. In 2024 Brice spent significant time moving and restoring a small barn to house our laying hens. We’ve gone from 20-25 laying hens to over 200. The main goal is always to provide a local, quality product you can’t get in the store. The other goal was a business for our kids to start gaining an income on the farm.

I enjoy getting the baby chicks and providing care until they are “functioning adults”. It takes approximately 6 months for a chick to grow enough to lay eggs. And those eggs are small at first-it’s another month before we feel they are a good size to sell.

The kids hear a lot at Farmers Markets “well I get them from a neighbor for $1-2/dozen”. We are happy for you and hope you are grateful to that neighbor! They are likely raising for themselves and selling extras. Doing it as a business is a whole different ball game. My last order of 35 chicks was over $200. Do the math on that investment-it’ll take 40-50 dozen eggs to pay that off but it’ll be 6-7 months to wait. And I’m not factoring in: feed, water, critters (mink, weasels, raccoons-all can wipe out hundreds of chickens very fast). Birds in cages don’t have that risk nearly as much. Plus-we have eyes on every chicken daily. We get asked often about bird flu. I can guarantee we can spot an ill chicken quickly.

Our price isn’t subject to the egg market, it’s based on our cost. That gets tough for us. When eggs are high in the store I’m always getting calls and texts. Then suddenly I’m sitting on 30-40 dozen eggs and I go check the store-sure enough, the price has lowered. It’s hard to run a consistent business when some folks only come around if it saves money. I’m not disrespecting them, nor do I blame them, but like any store you hate to sit on inventory. I don’t raise our egg prices in response to the stores. This past spring when stores were at $8-9/dozen we stayed at $4-5/dozen.

Another poultry side is meat chickens, aka broiler chickens. I love raising meat birds. I believe with my whole being that free range (in our garden and on grass) makes the best meat. For their health we supplement with oregano oil, vitamins, and ‘broiler booster’. They are provided sun and shade, shelter at night, fans in the heat, dry bedding in wet conditions. I’m up at 5 am making sure they are all up and moving before I head to work. They are put in shelter around 930 pm and allowed a normal sleep/wake rhythm. If I hear it storming I wake up concerned for them-this isn’t asking for sympathy but for perspective. In the 8 weeks we have broiler chickens on the farm I rarely get a regular nights sleep. It’s the nature of the business that we generally don’t stay anywhere overnight or out late, usually we have to leave one of the kids’s ball games early, to get home and make sure they are taken care of. It’s certainly not without sacrifice.

The unfortunate part is that in our years of doing this chicks have gone from .80 cents to over $3 per bird. Bird flu and issues with post office deliveries have raised the prices. The chicks now need picked up or delivered via SpeeDee (this was new this year). We like to butcher on our place to save time/money in transport to a butcher. This didn’t work this year as the business that butchers on our place had to stop taking appointments due to a back injury. The cost also depends on how many I’m selling-if I get enough orders to raise 300 I can ask a lower price than if I’m selling 150 (essentially the same labor, more to sell under 1 transportation cost, 1 feed grinding cost, etc). But-if I order 300 hoping to sell at a more attractive price and don’t get them sold, I have no where to store them-we’ve had this happen even when we sold under $3/pound.

The day I took the chickens to butcher (3 hour round trip) I had a good conversation with the customer ahead of me. I told him I’d purchased $600 crates to transport birds as we found some will pile and perish in the trailer. He had just purchased a $700 freezer to transport birds on his 5 hour round trip drive. I said “not bad”…to which he said “but when do you get ahead, spending $600-700 here and there”. Butcher day Brice took 200 chickens to Bagley, I took 150 to Missouri valley, we spent nearly $1500 to butcher and that’s not including our gas. And the stress of doing it in stormy conditions…I hated the birds being uncomfortable. There’s also the expense of storage for the drive home, ice to cool the birds, and the cleanup of sanitizing everything once we get home.

As we’ve grown my time to communicate has dwindled, much of that being our 5 kids have also gotten busy and many messages are replied to by them while I’m driving them somewhere. So our biggest change this year was making a website, included here. It still needs some finishing touches but it’s getting there. We are trying to save time on the communication of information aspect so we can do what we really enjoy doing-working outside and focusing on our family. Thank you to Chad Wittrock for the website work!

If the prices look too high, we understand. Big producers can do it cheaper. Maybe we could butcher our own birds and reduce prices but we currently don’t have the set up, or frankly the time. Do know that our logo is on the area little league field and local celebrations as we do show our appreciation for your business by giving back. If Costco has cheaper chicken that’s awesome-I haven’t seen their logo at our baseball field, nor their CEO helping coach. We can’t sell our eggs for less, but know they were gathered by our kids and washed (when requested) in a clean sink by caring hands with a watchful eye.

As far as turkeys, poult price has gone from $5 each to $8 each the past couple years. I don’t have prices yet for this year. Last year I was lucky to get any at all due to bird flu. We do have 50 reserved this year. Turkeys are at our farm for 4 months. We have eyes on them daily as well-mostly because they like to come peer in our front door

With all of our birds-the feed is mixed right here by Brice. His rations are based on their age and needs.

Homemade Mayonnaise

Here at Hundling Farms we have found a way to avoid the suffering of the high egg prices in the stores. Brice moved an old shed and remodeled it to be a new home for our chicken flock. So—only 15,000 more dozen or so and we will be at our break even!

When this idea was in its early phases we had been discussing trying a new breed of chicken. We have had chickens on the farm for many years, Orpington’s being my favorite for their looks and for showing at fair, Rhode Island Reds my favorite for being productive layers, but we needed to solve the problem of not having eggs in the winter. Chickens are photosensitive as well as sensitive to temperature, so the lack of daylight and extreme cold in the winter has always left our nests empty. I like to incubate our own chickens and thought it was possible if I had chickens ready to lay just as winter started - that would be key in maintaining our supply. What I did not consider was that a majority of what I hatched would be roosters. I’ll have to write about that adventure and the endless chicken soup available here next time…

Brice had talked often about Leghorns. We had looked over the years and bought a few here and there, but decided to take the leap and purchase 50 of them. The goal was to have 100 laying hens in the shed, but I did not want all of one breed, especially Leghorns. Why not all Leghorns? One, I like the look of brown eggs. Leghorns lay all white eggs. Two, they aren’t known as friendly chickens. They have little interest in human interaction (reference the photo below where the white chicken is trying to get away the minute I walked in the shed to take a photo). Three, I like to let the chicken’s free range. Leghorns are very ‘flighty’. It’s difficult enough to keep them safe from critters, and another difficulty if they won’t go in their shelter at sundown. They also tend to be noisy-but we have peacocks and guineas as well so we are used to that. However, the goal was egg production so these were certainly the way to go.

For the other 50 I opted for the ISA chicken. They are resilient to extreme cold and hot, rain and hail. And they do this without discomfort-though like any chicken a good coop with clean bedding is best practice. They are not as photo sensitive as other breeds so will maintain egg production through the winter, though do need supplemental light to do as well as Leghorns. They are more friendly, they lay brown eggs, and to me they look more like my other ‘farm chickens’. ISA chickens do not like the wind as well so a good shelter is a plus.

Sadly, with both breeds being high egg producers their life span is not as long. This was another part of our discussion before this project…what are we going to do with all these hens when their day is up? Lots more chicken noodle soup possibly! Because of this, plus the recent demand for farm fresh eggs, we have 60 more hens that hatched about 4 weeks ago in a tub in the garage until they are big enough to join the others. That way every 8-12 months we have fresh hens laying.

This shed has roll out nests, which are handy for collecting eggs. No need to reach under the hens to get the eggs, and they are usually pretty clean. So-add another 5,000 dozen eggs to the break even price to accommodate the equipment inside the shed.

I still have a second shed on the farm for ‘my chickens’. The kids literally call it ‘moms shed’. My incubator is full again from those hens production, and I always like to see what hatches out. My daughter is the expert at candling them for me, and one of our sons is the gentle caretaker. When we find out again that they are mostly roosters that are going to cause havoc in the yard—well, we will deal with that at that point.

I have many recipes to include for these eggs, we have learned to use them many ways! But my recent favorite is homemade mayonnaise. I wasn’t sure if it was like meringue and wouldn’t work with farm fresh eggs, but it certainly did.

Homemade Mayonnaise

1 large egg

1 T Dijon mustard

1 T red wine or white wine vinegar

¼ t fine sea salt

1 cup safflower oil or vegetable oil

1 t fresh lemon juice

Add egg to small bowl of a food processor and process for 20s. Add the mustard, vinegar, and salt. Process for another 20s. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Turn the food processor on then begin to slowly add the oil in tiny drops until about a quarter of the oil has been added (this is critical for proper emulsification). When you notice that the mixture is beginning to thicken and emulsify you can be a little less strict. With the process or on, continue to add it slowly, but increase to a very thin stream instead of drops of oil. When all of the oil has been added, scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl and process for an extra 10s. Taste mayonnaise for seasoning then add salt, lemon juice or extra vinegar to taste.

Recipe: Protein Bites

This simple recipe is a family favorite, especially during honey harvest time! I recommend using fresh honey in these Protein Bites if you can.

½ cup peanut butter

¼ cup honey

1 cup oats

½ cup toppings (raisins, choc chips)

Optional: Chia seeds, protein powder

Mix and put in fridge for 30 minutes, roll into balls of desired sizes. Store in fridge.

The Hundling Twins

In the Hundling house we have 2 members who call June “birthday month”. They have to call it that because between ball games it probably takes all month to get a days’ worth of celebrating in! 

Our youngest 2 of our 5 are a set of twins. The story of this discovery is one of my favorites. I had an intuition that something wasn’t the same as it had been with the other 3. I kept thinking it was because I was ‘old’ or as the doctor would tell me ‘advanced maternal age’. One lovely day in November 2016 we headed to a doctor’s appointment. My husband, Brice, came along as we had a family member to visit in the hospital that day as well, and I had convinced him to replace our living room green shag carpet, so he agreed to stop on our way home and check prices. 

The staff started doing the ultrasound and just as regular as can be the doctor said, “there is baby #1, and there is baby #2”, as if this was information we already had. I’m not sure if I would describe the moment as joyful…more like a stunned silence. 4 kids was pushing the limit for us…we had not considered 5. Admittedly-I had always thought twins would be wonderful and fun. At the time we were excited, also scared. Brice decided we didn’t need to look at new carpet that day after all!

They are truly one of the best parts of our lives. They turned 8 this month and we are so blessed to watch this unique relationship. Sometimes it’s A LOT-imagine your 2nd grader having a friend over 24-7, a constant sleep over. Other times I admire them so much. They are constantly on the lookout for each other, defending each other, playing together. They certainly each have their own ideas and interests but typically always with the other in mind. 

When I was pregnant I would get a lot of questions, mostly “are they identical”. I did not know a lot about any of this. Usually that person would press on and say “well are they in the same sac? Have you tested to see if they are identical? Are they the same gender?” and I’d say “I don’t know I’m carrying two babies and I’m completely stressed out and now you are making me want to cry because my fuse is short and the doctor says I’m an old mom and I have to go buy another car seat and crib so please stop drilling me with questions I can’t answer I want to lay down”. Just one long run on sentence like that on repeat! Joking, joking. 

So, I learned that Identical twins are from 1 egg, and may or may not be in 1 amniotic sac but they will share a placenta. Fraternal are from 2 eggs and are in 2 separate sacs, each with their own placenta. A boy and girl set of twins is always fraternal, as they are not sharing the same DNA due to one being XY chromosome and the other XX. Identical twins are always either both boys or both girls. One can also do ‘official’ DNA testing to confirm. We have been told ours are fraternal as they each had their own sac and placenta. But others have told us we will never absolutely know unless we do the DNA testing. There is a genetic link for fraternal twins, but no proof that there is a genetic link for identical twins. The incidence of identical twins is less than fraternal. 

How often does this happen? At the time I was pregnant I had found out that twins account for 1 out of every 36 pregnancies, and the older the mom the higher the likelihood. A quick ‘Google’ search today shows twins are 12/1000 deliveries globally, and 33/1000 in the United States. The frequency has increased over my lifetime. In 1980 the US rate was 18.8 twins per 1000 live births (18.8 twins is 9.4 sets, just to make sure we are all on the same page). The US has one of the higher rates in the world, but the highest is in Central Africa. Other random trends about moms who have twins: they tend to eat a lot of milk/cheese/yogurt products (due to a specific protein found in dairy that stimulates egg production), they tend to be taller, and they tend to be older.  When delivered there is generally a 17 minute difference between the delivery of each. 

Aside from all the facts about birth, I am fascinated by their relationship. Research shows that 40 percent of twins develop their own language. Its usually a short lived phenomenon as their language is developing. Twins do bond in utero. There are 3-demential images of twins reaching for each other as early as 18 weeks. At 8 years old ours wrestle often in their waking hours, but still reach for each other in their sleep. 

Twins are a fun live experiment on the nature versus nurture debate. One of our twins is very independent, says ‘yuck’ when I kiss him. The other is a snuggly as can be. One hates spaghetti and corn, the other would eat them daily. One is usually up for trying new things, the other must watch his twin do it first. One lives in pants, the other in shorts. 

A random fact I did not know until writing this was that mothers of twins tend to live longer. This fact was stated in several sources, but no specific research as to why this might be. I still think they might be taking years off my life! 2 boys and their ideas and my fear of heights-lots of farm stories I could tell about the places I have found them!

Melanie’s Sourdough Recipe

“Feeding” the starter: I use 1/3 c water and just under 2/3 cup flour. Want to feed every 1-2 days, if it’ll be longer than that put in fridge and feed when you are ready to use it. Some say to discard some starter instead of constantly adding to it-I make it frequently enough that It stays at about 2 cups of starter.

Recipe (I double this)

½ cup starter

1 ¾ cup luke warm water

3 7/8 cup flour

Heaping ½ tsp salt

1: Combine water and starter

2: Add flour, mx, cover 30 minutes

3: Add salt, cover and rest 30 minutes

4: Stretch and fold every 20 minutes, 3-4 times (I actually only do this once because I usually forget, and I don’t do it by hand-just use my mixer with bread hook, but can do by hand)

5: Cover and let sit 3-6 hours until double in size (my routine is to mix this up in the evening, let sit

overnight to rise. Sometimes it doesn’t double in size but it still works)

6: Fold and roll, rest 30 minutes, repeat (I skip this step as well but some say it helps make more sour)

7: Refrigerate overnight (I literally just put it in the fridge after it rises, I put a damp cloth on top so it doesn’t form a crust)

1: Preheat oven to 450 degrees with dutch oven inside to pre heat (I also have used glass bread pans)

2: after preheat can line the dutch oven with parchment paper or flour. Put dough inside

3: Bake 30 minutes with lid on, 15 without. If don’t have a lid just bake 40 min