I started with about a dozen hens, but it didn't take long for us to have more eggs than we actually needed. So, I proudly hung a sign out by the road that said "FREE RANGE EGGS" and waited for my first egg customers to arrive.
Imagine my surprise when the folks coming to get eggs didn't want to pay me for them! Evidently, they had never been educated to the term "Free Range" and assumed that I was giving away eggs. It was very interesting to see how many of them didn't want the eggs when they found out they had to buy them!
Just in case anyone is wondering, free range means that every morning I open the door to the chicken house and my birds are able to have the run of the farm. They are not contained and have free access to go wherever they would like to go. They scratch and peck and have a jolly time being exactly as God intended them to be without restraints. In the evenings, they all gather inside their house and I shut the door so that they can't be eaten by predators during the night. I have lost a few hens to day time predators but that number has been very small.
I have never had to vaccinate my chickens and have never had any illness to date. My hens stick around here usually about three years before I sell them at a reduced price to folks who want a few for their back yards. In addition to ranging for their food, I also supply them with all the milk clabber than can eat. I like to think that I have happy hens.
We have now grown from a dozen hens to around sixty hens and I am currently getting close to four dozen eggs a day from my free range hens! There's absolutely nothing better than eggs from free range hens, even if the eggs aren't free!