Now that its December, (finally, my favorite time of year) the cold weather has returned! After growing up in Colorado, I really miss the cooler weather, especially when temps in the Arizona summers are consistently 100+. This year has been a rough one, record temperatures across the state, but also buckets of rain. Our monsoons this year also broke records, and things have been greener here than I've ever seen. The water also brought about loads of bugs, and I was not such a fan of that aspect. I have longed for the day when the bugs would die, and I could actually walk outside without feeling like I'm melting! Finally! That day has come!
However, with the colder weather everything slows down. The garden starts to die off, it's harvest time, and then things get quiet. This happens for our chickens too. Since this was the first year we have been consistently selling eggs, the sudden drop happened without warning and came rather unexpectedly. Like, we knew about it... but we didn't see it coming. Egg production dropped from several a day, to maybe 1 or 2 a day. And sometimes, we didn't get any. But this is completely normal for chickens. They lay a lot less in the winter for a few reasons. The cooler temperatures bring about their molting season, which means all their feathers start to fall out until they are replaced by new ones. This helps them buff up for winter, but it also takes a lot of energy and protein, that would normally go toward laying. We have so many feathers everywhere from our current headcount of 15! Some of these feathers are absolutely gorgeous rooster feathers, too.
The second big reason their laying slows down is due to the darker days! With fewer hours of sunlight, it alerts their bodies that the time for laying eggs is over, because after all, who would want to have tiny babies out in the wild when its freezing outsite? And roosters, too are impacted by these changes. Their need to pair with hens is much lower, but come spring time that will resume. All this to say, we might get 1 or 2 eggs every now and then this winter, but for right now our hens are taking a much needed break!
Now, there are ways to increase their laying again after they molt, by increasing light in their coop and giving them more 'daylight' hours. We don't believe in doing this, because like humans, hens only have so many eggs that their bodies can produce. By forcing them to lay it will, in turn, reduce the number of years they will continue laying. We prefer to let nature take its course in this aspect. Because we have much fewer eggs for sale, we will be suspending egg sales temporarily until their laying resumes. We will likely have a few small batches that become available, but not nearly as much as before! We will keep everyone posted when egg sales return!
However, some of you may have noticed that I have posted an unusual product on our Shop page!
Yes, Lemon Curd! We are offering a few new culinary products this winter, as well as some brand swag and holiday stationary (coming soon!).
Stay tuned, and thank you as always for supporting our small business! We love our customers!
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