It is Sunday afternoon on a wet and cold winters day. Over the last year, the boys have been selling their free range eggs at the farm gate and to the Caravan Club members staying at Greystone farm. This morning we looked at the money collecting jars and realised they were looking very full. We decided to add up the money the boys have earned over the last six months. Spurred on by a substantial increase to their bank funds they have now decided to purchase some more point-of-lay hens in the Spring. They are hoping to sell more eggs and thus increase profit. Farm children learn about money in, money out and profit from a young age!

In order to accommodate more hens, the old chicken house needs cleaning out. The boys are taking out all the old straw and muck and putting it into the bucket of the Merlo. The Merlo will drop the muck into our Farm Yard Manure (FYM) pile, which will be spread onto the fields once the morning frosts reappear and the muck spreader can get out on to the fields. Once the shed is cleaned out the boys will disinfect the shed and leave it empty until just before the new hens arrive. The day before the hens arrive the boys will take some straw and spread it on the floor of the house and lay it thickly in the nest box. I often find people are confused between straw and hay. Straw is yellow and is a by-product from the wheat, barley or oat harvest. Whereas hay is made from dried grass and is green colour.

Our preferred breed of chicken is a Speckledy hen as they are so gentle, long lived and produce the most beautiful large brown eggs. The ladies each lay about three hundred eggs a year. In the light summer days the chickens lay an egg roughly every twenty-four hours, but in the short days of winter they only lay every other day or so, or even stop laying altogether. An egg is made up of lots of different layers which I found fascinating when I first learnt about it at university.

Our free range egg yolk is a deep yellow colour, the fabulous colour is due to the varied diet of the birds. The very yellow yolk makes a fantastic Victoria sponge.

A good cake needs a good free range egg in it!