My Brother-The Modern Day Farmer

I had been anticipating my trip to Vermont for over a year and a half to visit family, stand-up to my brothers wedding and hitting up some breweries and cheese makers. The unexpected surprise was how much of a "rural farmer" my brother has become. Mark and his wife Jade have 5 chickens that lay eggs with more on the way(my brother told me there names, I just cant remember there names, they sound cool though). Anyways Mark has more on the way for laying eggs and some for there meat.

The five chickens he has, each lay one egg a day, however, there are alot of varibles that can come into play inwhich you may only get 4, 3, even none. Mark told me that after Irene hit Vermont, the chickens did not lay eggs for a week.

One day, I woke up and made Renee, Mark and Jade breakfast. We had bacon, potatoes with wild ramps(read post on Wild Ramps to learn more) and eggs benedict with eggs that had been collected earlier that morning, you cant get any fresher than that. The yolks are so yellow that i over cooked the eggs thinking they needed more time. Mark just got back from his honeymoon with his wife Jade and they already have purchased more chickens, mostly meat chickens, hell he even just purchased a pig!!! Yeah a pig for 100 bucks!!! Fresh bacon, ribs, pork tenderloin, trotters, etc., so jealous. I am so proud of what my brother has been able to accomplish in life, being down to Earth, self sustainable in some aspects is just awesome.

Here are some fun facts that i learned while taking care of the chickens when my brother and his wife were on there honeymoon: -Fresh eggs dont have to be refrigerated for up to 3 weeks. -The color of a chickens ears tells you the color of there eggs -Chickens only lay eggs for about 2 years -Chickens dont sleep, they rest on there roost -Chickens usually lay eggs around 2 hours after you let them out of there coop in the morning -They need 12 hours of sunlight to lay eggs, so in the winter, Mark needs to add special lighting in the coop