NMF Chickens - an Eggcellent Story

Chickens exploring fresh pasture.

A question I've often received about our eggs is, "What do the chickens eat?" Our hens go outside nearly every day, hunting for insects, slugs, and tasty plants in their pasture. We also feed them the trimmings and loose leaves generated as we pack out the produce for market. They learn quickly to come running to the person with the bucket of fresh treats. Both of these help to keep them happy and healthy, producing tasty eggs with the bright golden yolks.

However, the foundation of their diet is a blend of ground grains, mostly corn and soybeans, vitamins, and minerals. We've been very pleased with our current feed supplier. For the past six years, John Lapp, northeast of us near the Juniata river, has a small feed mill, and uses only locally grown, non-gmo grains.

We're very happy to have such a great source of feed which is clearly tied back to its origin. With a commodity like corn or soy, everybody's corn is considered to be just like all the other corn, mixed together, and most of the time with no origin information. I've seen this most directly for organic corn and soybeans destined for animal feeds. Shiploads arrive in New Jersey from South America and, as a commodity, it's absorbed into the organic feed supply stream without being distinguished from the locally grown lots or grain from other sources.

The commodity system also makes it difficult to align our feed choices with our values. For example, we could buy organic chicken feed, but it would be almost impossible to ensure that the grain was not coming from the rainforest cleared for cropland in South America. John's mill, using only local, non-gmo grain, and our direct relationship has allowed us to better align our egg production with the local economy, the farmers growing the grain, our values, and we hope, with yours.

Be Well,

Jenni