That's how many we're getting right now.

Which is actually fortunate, considering the past two months have been an eggless wasteland for us. One egg a day signifies the promise of more!
What has caused this drop in egg production?
Molting. Typically this happens twice a year, once in Fall/early Winter, and once in Spring. For the past two months, our chickens have been losing, and growing back their beautiful feathers. This takes a lot of energy, and time.

During this process we've had to buy eggs.
It was a sad realization that our own chickens weren't going to support us. We went about a month without, but then we caved. Fortunately for us, the winter farmers market has local farms we can trust. Not only were we getting some quality eggs, where the chickens were truly cared for, but we were keeping money in the community, and supporting another farm in the area.
Shopping local is becoming easier and easier with its rise in popularity. Multiple markets, both Summer and Winter, indoor and outdoor, have been opening across the nation. These markets provide opportunity and growth for smaller, local farms that wouldn't stand a chance competing with a grocery store.
Most of these farms don't have a problem getting their products into a local based eatery. They could survive off of that.
Markets are for the people. They provide an alternative to grocery store veggies, meat, and other miscellaneous food items.
Many of the vendors do things organically or naturally, and many of them don't, so be sure to ask. Some vendors buy veggies off of trucks to sell you, some grow their own, and some supplement what they've grown with veggies off of a truck.
Lots of them will be more than happy to answer your questions, it's what they do for a living and lots of times, what they are passionate about.

3 Reasons to shop local:

1. The money you spend is kept in the community, supporting your local farmers
2. The items you buy are farmed and/or sourced locally (the definition of local varies for each market)
3. You have opportunity to learn about your food, the practices used to grow it, and the people who farmed it.

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While our chickens not laying was a sad thing, and it meant that we couldn't supply our own eggs, I'm thankful for the ability to be able to purchase eggs from a trustworthy farmer. Being self sustainable would be optimal, but it's comforting to know that in this day and age, we have options, like purchasing eggs while in an egg drought.

Thanks for reading,
Cheers!
-youngwildfree