Poultry - Sustainably Raised at ARAN Farms

Our Poultry & Eggs

Our main flock is comprised of Swedish Flower Hens, a rare breed from Sweden.

Americans have taken to the friendly, robust fowl who are quite efficient egg and meat producers. There is no color standard; instead, they are identifiable by the white tips on their feathers, the better to blend in with the wildflowers on Scandia's windswept plains. We choose to breed the non-crested for practical and aesthetic reasons.

There are other assorted egg-layers: The Orpingtons and Americanas who give us blue-tinted eggs, Birchen Marans who lay very dark cocoa-colored eggs and Black Sexlink, who are prolific brown egg producers and are pretty to look at in the yard. In 2016, we added the French Barbizieux and the Canadian Chanticler. Both breeds are renowned for their delectable meat and heavy frames and eventually will be included in our CSA boxes. We received chicks and eggs from different lines and will work on bringing up the worldwide flock numbers, as both are currently very rare.

We provide our egg customers with large to jumbo eggs in a delightful assortment of colors almost year-round. The chickens free range on five acres and must forage their own food for about three seasons. We provide food in the winter, but do not heat or light their coops (a very bad Andalusian rooster taught a group to fly high into the trees to roost, so they sit there in the wind and rain and snow and so far, don't seem to mind). We use a treadle feeder to eliminate open food and inspect the grounds every day to prevent vermin from gaining a foothold.