Lemon House Farm

It has been a particularly tough couple of weeks on the farm, with many losses for many reasons. We typically have 50-60 rescue and retired chickens in our sanctuary, but between cancer, oviduct disorders, respiratory infections, GI disorders, and - just this morning - a fox, we find ourselves down to just 34.

Among those who have “flown away home” are some family favorites: Gilly, Hei Hei, Apple, Smokey, Consuelo, Stella, and Sweater. While this is the hardest and saddest part, we know they had the best chicken life and that they leave space to help more birds.

Vet bills have also had a big impact on us through this time. If you would like to contribute to the cause of rescue and elder chicken care, visit the link in our profile to sponsor a chicken, or make a general donation via Venmo or PayPal lemonhousefarm[at]gmail[dot]com. Thank you. 💔💛

It’s been a minute since we shared an egg glamor shot, but we were feelin’ it today. ☀️

Me: Dr. Schwartz, is it okay if I take a picture of you with the girls?

Dr. S.: Sure! How about a silly one? [puts on two stethoscopes and pretends to listen to both hearts at once]

I cannot sufficiently express my gratitude to this veterinarian and the entire staff at Wheaton Animal Hospital in Wheaton, MD. He has been our avian vet for over 10 years, and is the perfect combination of compassionate, pragmatic, curious, and thorough. It’s tricky to find a livestock vet in the DC Metro area, and harder to find an exotics vet who does house calls and is willing to treat individual birds within a whole-flock framework. 💛

I know Take Your Child to Work day isn’t until the end of the month…

Looks like I’m not the only one who enjoys a warm epsom salt soak. 🛁

Our first sponsor-named rescue hen, Purdy! Named by as a gift from a family member who is a friend of Lemon House Farm. Katie received a year-long sponsorship and naming privileges for Purdy as a Christmas present. We love the name she chose for this pretty girl! Do you know someone who would love that kind of meaningful gift with real-world impact? Check out lemonhousefarm.com/sponsorasenior to learn more!

Beautiful shot of our Toulouse geese by a talented neighbor. Their job is to protect the flocks from aerial predators. 🦉🦅

Lucy is in the (inverse) Cone of Shame while her stitches heal after a narrow escape from a fox. And she’s here to tell you how she feels about it! This holiday season, you can give the gift of a long, healthy life to rescued and retired chickens like Lucy with a Lemon House Farm sponsorship. Visit lemonhousefarm.com/sponsorasenior

It’s been a while since we posted. 😓 Life has been like that. The little ones from our last share in August aren’t so little anymore! Say hello 👋🏼 to rescue hens Hei-Hei up front, Pua in the middle, and Moana and Maui in the background. 🌊🌴🐓Our Disney-obsessed 6-year-old is in charge of naming these days.

Thank you to 3-year-old Kennedy for bringing us four month-old chicks who needed to be rehomed. We promise to take the very best care of Hei Hei and her sisters! 🐥

For weeks now, the retirement flock has been doing some HEAVY snacking beneath this mulberry tree. The first time I saw their combs and waddles looking bluish-purple, I panicked for a moment thinking they were not getting enough oxygen for some reason. Then I remembered it was mulberry season. And what a season it’s been this year! They couldn’t be more delighted. 💜

Gosling update: three weeks old and growing like weeds! No more yellow fluff. It is mind-boggling how quickly they are growing. Thank you to our neighbor Kerry for these amazing photos!
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The best part of living on a farm when you are a toddler is all the things with big wheels! 🚜🛻
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Ada came home from preschool the other day with a list of names her class compiled for the new chicks. She needs about 70 more - anyone have some ideas for her? Extra points if you can top “Babe Chips.” 🤔
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Spring has sprung and chicks are peepin’! This level of cute is entirely unreasonable. 🐣
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🐣💛

Just a friendly reminder that domestic chicks and ducks:
*Grow into adult ducks, hens or roosters.
*May not be allowed in your area.
*Should not be squeezed, dropped or played with or left unattended with young children.
*Are fragile and easily frightened.
*Need proper shelter, warmth, feed, vet care and protection from predators their entire lives.
*Require companionship and should never be raised alone.
*Can live 10 years or more.
*Should never be given as gifts.
If you're not prepared to provide proper care for the animal for 20 years or more, do NOT bring home a new Easter "pet"!

Good morning, good morning! It’s a great day for eggs! 2023 Egg Club kicks off this week. We are happy to welcome many club members back and welcome many more new ones this season. Pickup locations in College Park, Mount Rainier, Silver Spring, Rockville, and Burtonsville receive coolers full of our rainbow eggs for members to pick up at a convenient time. Did you miss out on signing up for this round? Never fear - we will be offering a second session for July-October. Sign-ups will be announced in May.

Our core belief is that farm animals don’t deserve to die when they cross an economic threshold - when their costs exceed what they earn. That’s what we call a “negative externality” in economics - a cost that isn’t accounted for in the price of a product, and someone somewhere (or billions of little feathered someones across the country every year) pays that price. They aren’t “spent” and the world owes them more than a stew pot.

Until recently, at least (economics IRL again), our eggs have been relatively expensive compared to the deceptively “cheap” eggs available at superstores. But our customers are choosing to pay for the cost of our birds living out their entire natural lives with really good care. Not just for the eggs they lay in the first 1-2 years of life and then calling it quits on them. To all of our customers and sponsors - thank you. Thank you for not thinking we are crazy, and for showing up for the birds.

Update: Please refer here! https://www.facebook.com/100064382754573/posts/592584942897592/
Frankfort, KY - Thinking of buying chicks? Here’s a much better alternative: retired egg-farm hens. These “spent hens” are still young (under 18 mos.), yet they are unwanted because their egg laying has slowed a bit. Normally, egg farms either kill these poor hens outright or send them en masse to specialty slaughterhouses. However, some smaller operations will sell them to the general public – either as cheap “stew” hens or as backyard pets.
People who buy them as backyard pets are rescuing them from the certain, brutal death that awaits 99.9 percent of all egg-industry hens. In return, their rescuers are blessed with loving, outgoing family pets with an amazing enthusiasm and love of life! If you’d like to provide a wonderful retirement to a few (or many) sweet hens, message or email us.
P.S. Don’t be afraid of their scruffy appearance; most egg-farm hens have broken feathers and bald spots at first but regain their plush plumage within weeks/months.

We are grateful to the entrepreneurial genius of Booker T. Whatley for the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model that we use today for Egg Club. But it was also out of the need to help Black farms survive that Whatley crafted this business model - a person and a reason that do not receive proper recognition due to a history and a present steeped in white supremacy.

"'The whole CSA movement grows out of this recognition that there’s not going to be support from above from the government, that you have to find the support within the community,' says Ford, who delved into the origins of the CSA movement while researching for his contribution to We Are Each Other’s Harvest, a new book from Natalie Baszile that celebrates the stories of Black farmers in America. '[The concept of] ‘buy local’ wasn’t just to support your community; ‘buy local’ was survival for Black folks. It was the only way, in many instances, that they were able to survive.'”

You Can Thank Black Horticulturist Booker T. Whatley for Your CSA Long written out of the narrative, the Tuskegee University professor first introduced the concept in the 1960s as a solution for struggling Black farmers

12-week-old Cleo came to Lemon House Farm last week with some severed toes that had not been cared for. With a trip to the vet, meds, and proper wound care, she is coming along nicely. Contributions to our rescue and senior chicken fund help make it possible for us to deliver this level of care to animals who usually won’t find it elsewhere. Visit lemonhousefarm.com/sponsorasenior to learn more. Thank you! 💛

2023 Egg Club membership registration opens to the public NOW!

Egg Club is Lemon House Farm’s community supported agriculture (CSA) program offering. By joining our CSA, you are guaranteed delivery of our goods to a convenient pick-up location in your neighborhood for the duration of the season. 2023 will have TWO subscription periods, each lasting 4 months: Spring (March-June) and Summer/Fall (July-October). The deadline to sign up for Spring is February 1 at 11:59 p.m. The deadline to sign up for Summer/Fall is June 1. And YES, you can sign up for BOTH at once! Spaces are limited, so don't delay.

You are able to choose how many dozen you would like to receive biweekly and your preferred pickup location (Burtonsville, Rockville, Silver Spring, College Park, or Mt. Rainier).

Once we have received your information, we will follow up via email with details about your pickup location and timeframe, as well as a contract and a choice of payment plan.

Visit lemonhousefarm.com/our-products for more information.

Why Lemon House Farm Eggs?
Our heritage breed and rescue chickens are pastured year-round, eat 100% Maryland-grown and non-GMO feed, receive individualized care, and live out their full natural lives with our family. In return, they give us beautiful "rainbow" eggs that are the best you've ever tasted. Learn more at lemonhousefarm.com.

Lemon House Farm 2023 Egg Club Sign-up! Egg Club is Lemon House Farm’s community supported agriculture (CSA) program offering. By joining our CSA, you are guaranteed customized delivery of our goods to a convenient pick-up location in your neighborhood every other week for the duration of the season. 2023 will have TWO subscription peri...

Dark chocolate brown eggs from our French Black Copper Marans hens! Just one of our many stunning egg colors. 2023 Egg Club sign-ups open to the public this Friday, so stay tuned if you want the most beautiful, delicious, and ethical eggs in your life every week from March-October.

This summer (among many other things we were up to that made us too busy for social media, whoops!) we rescued Hamilton the Buff Orpington rooster. Hammy was living on another farm but was getting bullied by other roosters due to hatching with only one eye (meaning he can only see on the left side of his body). They contacted us for a rehoming, and we had the perfect spot for Hammy. Since we run three to four separate flocks on pasture, each one can support several roosters. But for Hammy, we let him be the sole roo for the flock that lost theirs to a fox attack earlier this year.
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Thinking back to the wonderful time we had at . A huge thanks to Doug for creating this space, to all the other vendors we networked with, and to all the friends (old and new!) who came out to support us!

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This weekend we celebrate Clever Girl for . Yes, she is named after a velociraptor from Jurassic Park. And yes, we are big fans of the franchise. Clever Girl gets her name for her charmingly creepy slit-shaped pupils that are a constant reminder of the phylogenetic closeness of birds and reptiles.

Clever Girl was among a group of hens rescued by Prince George’s County animal control several years ago. I remember picking up her flock in the pitch black in the middle of winter. They all rode home in a crate in the back of my Prius. Moving birds at night helps them stay calm and reduces the stress of the transition. Once the next morning came, she took the lead in getting her flock acclimated to their new digs at Lemon House Farm.

We are thrilled to share that we will be doing our first-ever pop-up farmers market stand this Sunday, April 24 from 11am-2pm at in Mount Rainier! NBF is launching The Gardener’s Market as a low-pressure, inclusive market opportunity for new and growing farm and agriculture-adjacent businesses. Thank you to Doug and the NBF community for hosting one of our Egg Club pick-ups and now for welcoming us into this thriving community of growers and makers! Come say hello and support all the small businesses this weekend! 🌱

Having a little fun with deviled GOOSE eggs for Passover/Easter this weekend! What did you make for these egg-focused holidays? 🥚

It’s been a couple of weeks since we did a post because we have been dealing with the sad side of animal elder care. Sue, the subject of our last senior spotlight, did pass away peacefully on her own. A few days later we suddenly lost Millie, pictured here. Millie was a 5-year-old French Black Copper Marans hen who laid deep brown eggs. She was a calm and reliable gal who never caused mischief. She was the last of four hens named Maggie, Millie, Molly, and May after the e. e. cummings poem (we are big fans):

maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach(to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,and

milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it's always ourselves we find in the sea

2022 Egg Club is off to a great start! Josh and Ellory are new members who joined because Ellory loves all things rainbow, and they wanted to try rainbow eggs! A big welcome and thank you to them and all our members for supporting Lemon House Farm and the chickens we love.

If you missed the window to sign up for Egg Club, sign-ups will reopen in May for the July-October subscription period.

It’s goose egg season once more! Shown here with chicken eggs for scale. They are clearly much larger, and also harder to crack, which protects a richer, more deeply flavorful yolk and white. You simply must try one!