If you follow the nutritional research on chicken and eggs, it seems that it changes over time. But then again, the body's chemistry is still very much a mystery. I remember a time when people were advised to avoid eggs due to high cholestrol and then recently I read that eggs were back to being good for you because the eggs do not contain harmful cholestrol. The same goes with chickens but then again most chickens nowadays are given all kinds of medications as well as interesting types of feed. I am also unsure of all these GM eggs - you know those eggs that claim to have Omega as well as other supplements. Nutritionally, eggs contain the highest quality protein you can buy which has just the right mix of essential amino acids needed by humans to build tissues. It is second only to mother's milk for human nutrition. In addition, eggs have thirteen essential vitamins and minerals. Egg yolk is the major source of the egg's vitamins and minerals. A large egg contains only 70 calories and 5 grams of fat. Egg yolks are one of the few foods that are a naturally good source of Vitamin D.
Hence, I embarked on my own journey of - rearing chickens and producing eggs. As the basic principle of SHL is to stick as closely as possible to natural farming, the chicken currently get to run around the farm all over the place, including sometimes entering the house! They have also started to become a nuisance to my newly planted crops, scratching the soil around it causing for the roots to be uncovered as well as at times, totally destroying the plants. I started with 28 chickens and chicks, 3 of which were rooters, and of different ages, ranging from a month old to about 1 year old, all "kampung chicken". In about 9 months, I now have 50 chickens and chicks.
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| Corn feed |
The chickens spend the day scrounging all over the farm for food and I supplement their diet with corn and rice as well as over-ripe papayas and bananas and leftover farm produce such as tapioca and sweet potatoes. As I do not use pesticides on the farm, I do not have to worry about the chicken consuming harmful residues. I enjoy watching them as they feed, especially the baby chicks and how they avoid from being stepped on by the bigger chickens and they look so cute :)
The chickens are free to wander all over the place, gathering their eggs was a challenge, mainly due to finding the location. I knew that they were laying the eggs somewhere as from time to time, I would see the mother hen with newly-hatched chicks, happily strolling and being quite noisy.
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| Nest found |
Sometimes, I was lucky to find the nest but as the hen was already sitting on the eggs, I didn't take the eggs as I wasn't sure how long the eggs had been laid. At other times, I managed to locate the nest early enough so I was able to collect the eggs. With over 2 acres of land available to them, and the challenge of keeping the grass and weed to a minimum, there was a lot of hiding places for the hens. I am striving to produce organic eggs of which the main item that may disqualify me is that I do not know if the corn that I feed them contain pesticides, fungicide or herbicide.
The eggs are a popular item at my Sunday market stall and often the demand outstrips the supply. I have my regulars and also off-and-on, those who want them for health purposes. To maintain the freshness of the eggs longer, it should be refrigerated as eggs age more in one day at room temperature than in one week in the refrigerator. I get satisfaction from being able to produce eggs free from pesticides and additives. I have people who ask it I will sell my chickens - for the moment, the answer is no.
My compromise to providing them with as natural a setting as well as to protect my crops and to improve egg collection efforts is to build a chicken run of 20'x15' with "apartments" for the hens to lay their eggs. This project is underway which is targetted to be completed by this week. From then on, the plan is to have them all housed in there, with scheduled "roaming" time to enable them to "exercise" and enjoy the scenery, so to speak. This will also help me protect them from the eagle that once in a while, will choose one of them for its meal. My goal is to be able to produce 60 eggs per week and then determining the growth path for this produce once I have achieved the target production. So the adventures at SHL continues.......
If you follow the nutritional research on chicken and eggs, it seems that it changes over time. But then again, the body's chemistry is still very much a mystery. I remember a time when people were advised to avoid eggs due to high cholestrol and then recently I read that eggs were back to being good for you because the eggs do not contain harmful cholestrol. The same goes with chickens but then again most chickens nowadays are given all kinds of medications as well as interesting types of feed. I am also unsure of all these GM eggs - you know those eggs that claim to have Omega as well as other supplements. Nutritionally, eggs contain the highest quality protein you can buy which has just the right mix of essential amino acids needed by humans to build tissues. It is second only to mother's milk for human nutrition. In addition, eggs have thirteen essential vitamins and minerals. Egg yolk is the major source of the egg's vitamins and minerals. A large egg contains only 70 calories and 5 grams of fat. Egg yolks are one of the few foods that are a naturally good source of Vitamin D.
Hence, I embarked on my own journey of - rearing chickens and producing eggs. As the basic principle of SHL is to stick as closely as possible to natural farming, the chicken currently get to run around the farm all over the place, including sometimes entering the house! They have also started to become a nuisance to my newly planted crops, scratching the soil around it causing for the roots to be uncovered as well as at times, totally destroying the plants. I started with 28 chickens and chicks, 3 of which were rooters, and of different ages, ranging from a month old to about 1 year old, all "kampung chicken". In about 9 months, I now have 50 chickens and chicks.
The eggs are a popular item at my Sunday market stall and often the demand outstrips the supply. I have my regulars and also off-and-on, those who want them for health purposes. To maintain the freshness of the eggs longer, it should be refrigerated as eggs age more in one day at room temperature than in one week in the refrigerator. I get satisfaction from being able to produce eggs free from pesticides and additives. I have people who ask it I will sell my chickens - for the moment, the answer is no.
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