The Rural Voice, 1989-01, Page 17of eggs, especially if accompanied by
a future farmer whose legs were still
not long enough to engage a clutch
pedal. Both worked for the common
good of the family and felt an impor-
tance impossible to calculate in cash.
"It was all my life was worth if I
broke an egg," says Newans, who now
Farmers compared the
milk cheque and "the egg
money" and quickly
converted the henhouse
to a granary.
laughs about the seriousness she at-
tached to the job as a child. Seventy -
some years later, a small portion of
that seriousness remains. With the
smile gone, she concludes, "The egg
money was important."
Her son John, who lives with her in
the old family home and now operates
the farm, shared much of the work in-
volved with the flock that was recently
disposed of. "It got so there was not
enough or there were too many," he
says of the hens.
If eggs began to pile up they were
taken to a local grading station and
sold for less than the $1 per dozen the
Newans received at the door. If the
hens' production went down, people
showed up wanting eggs that were yet
to be laid.
And of course customers would
arrive any time of the day, so someone
had to be around, said John. With the
larger families of past generations and
a work force concentrating on farm
duties this was not a problem, but
today many farmhouses are empty
from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Most of the family is in town when
customers come knocking; grandpar-
ents are now playing crokinole at the
senior citizen's complex, the children
are learning how to interact at the day-
care centre, and the housewife is
counting other people's money at the
bank or selling cigarettes at the 7 -
Eleven store.
"It is all right for someone with the
time," John says. "Dad used to be
down at the henhouse waiting for the
next hen to lay another egg".
"If you get a good job, he adds,
"you can make way more money than
you will with eggs."
His sentiments are shared by Ken
Jantzi of R.R. 1, New Hamburg, who
has hung on to his small flock (142)
while delivering mail and working as
a carpenter.
Jantzi sells a dozen large eggs for
$1.20 and mediums for $1.10 from his
home At one time he took eggs door
to door, but now his surplus produc-
tion goes to a store in Kitchener.
There just wasn't enough time for
individual deliveries.
He estimates that his flock nets $50
per week while laying but it takes four
and a half months to raise the day-old
chicks he buys for $1.10 each and
which must be replaced each year.
Some of this investment is returned by
the $2 per bird he receives after their
heads are off and they are ready for
the pot.
For those less fond of raising the
yellow chirping chicks to maturity, the
alternative is paying $5.50 for ready -
to -lay pullets.
"The economics made it so you
had to get bigger or get out, " explains
Jantzi. The chances of doing the
former are remote, as private flocks
are now restricted to 100 birds by the
Ontario Egg Marketing Board. And
with quota selling for $33 per bird, the
sky has fallen quite rapidly on Chick-
en Little and her barnyard cohorts.
The Ontario Milk Marketing Board
also contributed to the demise of the
hayloft henhouse. Regulation for the
production of milk stated that chickens
could not be kept in the same building
as dairy cattle, Jantzi says. Farmers
compared the milk cheque and "the
egg money" and quickly converted the
henhouse to a granary.
"Having money coming in every
week was the idea with selling eggs,"
Jantzi points out. "It was never very
much but you could count on it. You
had that much to buy groceries with at
least."
He recalls that on his father's farm
near Linwood, the money went in a
general pot and whoever hollered the
loudest ended up the the egg money.
The flock was self-perpetuating
because roosters were kept with the
hens to produce next year's layers.
The advantage of the small flock is
that you can provide customers with
fresher eggs, Jantzi says, adding that
some eggs may be three to four weeks
old by the time they go through the
channels of large-scale egg production
and sit on supermarket shelves. "If
eggs stay around here three or four
"It was never very much
but you could count on
it. You had that much
to buy groceries with
at least."
days, that is a long time."
The freshness factor has developed
a niche in the market for those who
have held fast to their feathered
friends. Consumers are also becoming
more concerned about what they eat
— for reasons both real and imagined.
Jantzi is amused by the popularity of
brown eggs in health food stores.
"They are no better than white eggs
but people think they are and will pay
more for them."
As the highly specialized birds
plugged into the egg -laying panels of
modern poultry barns produce mainly
white eggs, brown eggs could provide
an opportunity for the small operator
once again.
"I keep them because I like having
them around," says Jantzi of his few
birds. The 49 -year-old part-time
farmer shares this fondness with his
grandson, who is always eager to help
in gathering eggs.
"Once kids get to be 16 they are
gone," Jantzi notes. But for now he
has a helper and he has his hens, and
he plans to enjoy them both for all
they're worth.0
JANUARY 1989 15