From: Ryan McCaffrey, Equestrian Director
Buying eggs supports student on-campus jobs
When you buy eggs from us, those eggs have been touched by student hands and you’re supporting on-campus job opportunities for them. What role do birds and their eggs play on the Ranch? There are multiple.
We don’t keep our chickens under lights in the winter so they cycle down their production for winter. Increased egg production is one of the first–and tastiest!–signs that spring is around the corner. Our chickens free range on our pastures. All year long we move their mobile coops several times per week following the flerd’s (=flock of sheep + herd of cattle) pasture rotation. The chickens help scratch through the large animal manure, eating insect larvae to help reduce the fly population. A reduced fly population reduces the spread of disease. Fly stress can also limit grazing which slows weight gain in our meat animals so keeping flies at bay is important. Scratching through the manure also helps the manure decompose more quickly to build soil. Additionally, they deposit their own manure along the way to help fertilize and build the soil. Better soil helps nourish better plants for better grazing for our cattle and sheep.
For our ducks, they’re in a stationary coop next to our horse barn. We have muscovy ducks which are known for their appetite for adult insects. If you came to our barn, you’d wonder, “Where are the horse flies?” With the ducks on patrol, it’s uncommon to see a horse fly around our horses.
While we don’t get eggs from them, another bird we support is the tree swallow. We have multiple tree swallow houses around our pastures. An adult pair of tree swallows can eat 8,000 flies per day. They’re like aerial acrobats flying and darting through the pastures as they eat. Using a variety of birds has helped us greatly reduce the amount of chemicals we use on our animals to manage our fly populations. We’d like to get to where we can eliminate them altogether. Every year is a little bit different as we gain more knowledge and our management practices have more time to work. You can check in with us and see where things are at today.
Our eggs are enjoyed in our student houses on campus, in our dining hall, and also available for sale at wvr.org/market. Our students are on a levels system with each level having new privileges that come when a new level is earned. Level 3 students can have an on-campus job. Two of our on-campus jobs are weekend chicken coop chores and egg washing.
Weekend coop chores include giving the chickens feed and fresh water. Eggs are collected and deposited at the dining hall where the egg washer can wash them. The student who has egg washing responsibilities follows a multi-step process. First, the eggs are soaked in a pre-scrubbing solution to help break down any debris that’s on the eggs coming out of the coops. Did you know that bad eggs will float in water? Submerging the eggs also allows us to sort out any eggs that shouldn’t go into the food supply. This shouldn’t be an issue because we collect the eggs daily but every now and then we have a bird who gets…creative…with where she lays her eggs and we want to make sure those eggs are safe to consume when we find them. The eggs are then placed in a mechanical scrubber for about 15 seconds each. They come out of the scrubber and are dipped in the same food-grade sanitizer that we use to clean our commercial ice cream maker. The student egg washer then places the eggs in the food handling trays where they drip dry. From there, the trays are labeled for distribution and put in our commercial walk-in refrigerator. Some eggs will go to the student houses, some will go for use by our Food Service Director, and some eggs will go for sale.
If you’ve ever bought eggs from us, thank you! We hope that now you can see you’re doing much more than just buying our eggs. You’re helping us grow our pastures which helps us grow our meat. More than that, you’re helping us to fulfill our vision to see every person inspired to follow Christ, healed from the past, and equipped to reach his or her full potential.
To check our egg inventory and to purchase, please visit our online order site.
But ask the animals, and they will teach you,
or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you;
or speak to the earth, and it will teach you,
or let the fish in the sea inform you.
Which of all these does not know
that the hand of the Lord has done this?
In his hand is the life of every creature
and the breath of all mankind.
