HILLTOPS FREE range eggs

Time to Stare

6/30/2022

"What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?--

No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and [chooks]:

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare."

-- the poem "Leisure" by William Henry Davies, the Welshman, slight modifications by Hilltops free range
#stare #eggs #pasture #freedom

The afternoon snack

6/23/2022

High-protein, food of the future for humans, they say.
We just spared this chickens’ snack. Used a stick to fetch the dragonfly, managed to keep it away from the snacking chickens, and let it fly off.
No desert today, but our chickens get plenty of natural feed and insects, high-protein snacking, while roaming outdoors in mobile sheds all day every day.
#truefreerange #pasturedeggs #insectfood #chickens #naturalfeed #natural #dragonfly #snackforbirds

Chicken. Crossing. No road.

6/16/2022

So why don’t I lay into the hollow tree and make everyone’s life more interesting?
#chicken #crossing #eggs #pasturedeggs #farmlife #noroad

Let beaks do what hands do?!

6/2/2022

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/QzSQYuCxONE

The Kiss (wait for it!) Shakespeare, chicken version. Chickens enjoying lovely green grass, the small joys of winter in Australia

#thekiss #shakespeare #pasturedeggs #grassfed #chickensoup

--Based on 'Romeo and Juliet' Act 1, Scene 5, 'The Kiss': "let lips do what hands do"

The Apprentice

5/26/2022

The apprenticeship program 2022 is in full swing 😁.
All our puppies are now placed ‘in training‘ with the older Maremma dogs.

Here is Oddball checking on his novice companion, he is one tough boss to please 😆.
#apprentice #train #farmlife #pasture #maremma #companion #pasturedeggs

Hues of Autumn

5/19/2022

Collected some eggs for lunch, and came across these amazing hues. Can I cook them with the eggs?
“Like a late love that is sweeter than summer”, a lovely autumn sunny day at the farm.
#autumn #eggs #farmlife #autumnsun #leaves #pasture #latelove #hues
Quote from “Plums” by the poet and playwright Gillian Clarke

Medal for Excellence from the Royal Agricultural Society

5/13/2022

Nothing like an actual medal to drive away rainy melancholy of La Niña autumn 😁 🏅
Very honoured to receive Excellence medal from the Royal Agriculture Society of NSW. And what are medals for if not for bragging? #brag #medal #excellence #eggs #pasturedeggs

A throne with a view

5/5/2022

Excellent views, high side of the street, king-like position, looking over - but also down- onto the subordinate chicken population- what’s not to like?

Our two young apprentices, looking for a dry place after last night’s deluge, had climbed on top of the hay bales.
The apprentices (the beautiful puppies named in our @hyattregencysydney collaboration) are now all living in the flocks with the chickens, and working under the ‘guidance’ of our experienced Maremmas.

Notice the adult Maremma had not deemed it appropriate to clamber onto hay bales, as the young hotheads had. View may be nice, but what about dignity?

Photography by Thomas
#youth #freedom #pastured #maremma #dogs # dogonhay #aftertherain #farmlife

A Rainbow Rose One Afternoon

4/28/2022

“a rainbow rose one afternoon -
drenching me in golden mist
I reached out to touch
but couldn't hold."

Photography by Eric

--poem "Jeogla 2" by Peter Skrzynecki, post-second World War Polish immigrant to Australia, who lived in Cowra, not far from our farm. The poet and the chickens were looking at the same skies.

#rainbow #pastured #pasturedeggs #farmlife #poetry

Autumn colours on eggs

4/21/2022

Our attempt at a rainbow Easter egg 🌈 #autumn #easter #eggs #pastured #pasturedeggs #rainbow

We won the Champion award at the Sydney Royal Easter Show 2022!

4/14/2022

Officially: Our eggs are the best eggs in NSW for the second year in a row!
Thank you to the customers for your support for our farm, and thank you to the incredible farm team!
#champions #besteggs #pasturedeggs #farmwork #hardworkpaysoff @sydneyroyal_eastershow

A pear? A Barbapapa? An egg with an attitude?

4/7/2022

A new person coming into the world? We are sending some sunshine for everyone across NSW, hope everyone is safe.
#wierdegg #pasturedeggs
Photography by Robyn

Are these the flood clouds coming to Boorowa?

3/31/2022

Fluffy and I are wondering, while our rain tanks are doing the happy dance. This is the first autumn when we haven’t had to buy water We hope everyone is keeping safe.
#rains #pasture #pasturedeggs #farmlife

Autumn

3/24/2022

From little things, big things grow.
Our youngest chickens’ tiny eggs, compared to the giant eggs we sometimes get.
With the abundance of rain, we have flowers in the golden autumn light in all paddocks.
Everything grows on the farm.
#littlethings #grow #purpleflowers #eggs #pastured #autumn

In the speckled light

3/17/2022

“In the dappled sunlight and peaceful calm…
Hidden away from the harsh cruel world
From all their anger and sadness unfurled”

The speckled sunlight of the gum trees is the favourite place on an autumn afternoon. Half sun, half shade, adventures on branches, in leaves, with bugs and worms.
#peace
#dappled #sunlight #pastured #pasture #shade #chickens #shade #speckled

--Poetry by mantis180 https://allpoetry.com/poem/1523756-Dappled-sunlight-by-mantis180

Button on an egg

3/10/2022

Is it the ‘connect’ button?
There is no mobile service the whole day today on the farm, not in the whole Boorowa region. No phone, no emails, no messages.
Maybe we should have pushed the ‘start’ button on this egg? 😂😂😂
This is what happens when you give a weird egg to a farm full of software people 😃😃😃

This message has come to you because the software people couldn’t bear it anymore and drove 1.5 hours to the next tower. 😃😃😃

We hope everyone in NSW is safe.
#funnyegg #weirdegg #nophone #nointernet #pasturedeggs #farmlife #reallife

And the winners are...

3/3/2022

And the winners are…
We now have names for the puppies, thank you to everyone who participated in our project with Hyatt Regency.

For the 3 boys:
Olly
Cheeky
Sandwich

For the 6 girls:
Elerinka
Giggle
Precious
Bianca
Trudy
Cassandra

Sending some sunshine from the farm to everyone who is missing it across NSW and QLD.
#naming #puppies #winners #maremma

Trying to sit on 30 eggs at the same time :)

2/24/2022

Trying very hard, all the while I am trying to collect the eggs and stack them.

Dear Hen, there is not even one rooster in the whole farm, so even 21 days of sitting will still not do the trick...
#broody #hen #pasturedeggs #eggs #farmlife #beingsilly

The Fence Line

2/17/2022

Must be something adventurously attractive to go to the ‘end’, to the ‘danger zone’, to the limit of reality as known to a chicken. Exciting and dangerous!

Well, we humans also enjoy some treasure hunting adevntue too – so, got you! One more hiding place disovered…
#eggs #hidden #pasturedeggs #borderzone #busted

Our own Romeo

2/14/2022

Our own Romeo, doing everything to get together with his Juliet.

Busted! One of our male Maremmas, bravely climbing the fence of his paddock, to be together with the beautiful female Maremma in the next paddock. He tried several times and finally succeeded. Love will conquer all.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

#busted #valentinesday #love #farmlife #pasture #Maremma #dogs #jumpingfences

After the rain

2/10/2022

Out came the sun, and dried up all the rain,
and the itsy-bitsy chicken went to check for dinner

#aftertherain #grass #pasturedeggs #pasture #farm #eggs

In the keys basket

2/3/2022

The sudden rain made me come to the house to pickup the jacket, and in the basket for keys, right next to the door, I found this chicken, preparing cosily to lay her egg today.

Dear Chicken, you have one million and one cosy caravans, one million and two hiding places in the grass, last week you took over the Massey Ferguson too, and the space under the water, and in between the hay bales.

Please, leave my basket for key - for the keys.

The places you will find chickens laying on this farm...

#surprise #find #chicken #eggs #pastured #allovertheplace

In the Massey Ferguson

1/27/2022

We found eggs under our Massey Ferguson TEA-20 hood. Ever expanding the list of places chooks will lay on this farm. Never ceases to amaze.
The 'Fergie 20' has come a long way from England to our farm, it was built around 1948-1949, one of the first ones of the model. It may remember the aftermath of a World War, that tractor. But it has never before met with the fierce force of two chooks looking for a shady place to lay.
'TE-20' stands for 'Tractor, England, 20 horse power' (very creative product naming), and the Fergie we have is 'TEA-20', which possibly stands for 'Tractor, England, Australia, 20 horse power'.
We suggest to rename it: TC-2, short for 'Tractor, Chickens,2 laying'
#ferguson #masseyferguson #chooks #pastured #pasturedeggs #eggs #history

Just Look Up

1/10/2022

So many problems, so many late nights and early morning. So many complicated problems to solve.

Sometimes we just need to look up.

#justlookup #justlook #pasture #summer #eggs #farm #life

Can you paint with all the colours of the eggs?

12/31/2021

Happy New Year! May 2022 bring everyone inspiration to create!
#newyear #inspiration #eggs #pasturedeggs #artpalette #art

<<Previous