Our Incredible, Edible Eggs
Where your eggs come from matters! Our humanely-raised hens and ducks free-range on an organic pasture, eat a soy-free diet, and live out their lives on our no-kill farm long after they stop laying their last egg. Our breeds include: Black Copper Marans (chocolate-colored eggs), Auracanas & Cuckoo Bluebars (greenish-blue eggs), Auracanas X Black Coppers (olive-colored eggs), Gold Laced Wyandottes (tan eggs), and Polish hens (white eggs). These chicken eggs of all shades make up our “Happy Rainbow Packs”. Our eggs won Blue ribbons at the 2017, 2018, and 2019 Fryeburg Fair. (our last year at the fair)
If you’ve never tried duck eggs, you’re in for a treat! Our duck eggs are a mix of Pekins and the rare White-Crested Ducks, seen in the Dutch paintings of the 1600’s. Duck eggs are larger than chicken eggs and create a fluffier baked product. Schedule a visit today to pick up your eggs on the farm! We love working with local restaurants or markets. Email goronsonfarm@gmail.com with egg inquiries.
To learn more visit our Egg FAQ
Free-Range Eggs
Meet our egg-laying ladies!
We chose specific breeds for our flocks, based on the quality and color of their eggs and for their personalities. Our current flock has two roosters and around three dozen hens. Our birds free range in a small organic pasture with access to greens, organic vegetables, and fruit. Free range, organic eggs are lower in cholesterol and higher in protein & nutrients. You can’t beat the flavor of a fresh egg from a happy, healthy hen.
Honey Peach
Licorice
Our brave, Big D.
The younger hens tend to flock together and are a bit naughty. When it’s time for everyone to go back into the run in the evening, they give us a run for our money, sneaking off behind the fences and running across the yard as if to say “ha, ha, you can’t catch me!”
It’s a sweet sight in the evening though once we finally corral them in and they hop up on a log and roost together. They are led by our main man, a Black Copper Marans rooster named Chunky Boy.
Our hens are fashionistas! They each commissioned a hat according to their personalities, and threw a hat party in the coop this past spring. We got exclusive invites and were able to take some pictures of our ladies as they strutted their stuff around the hen house.
An unlikely romance broke out in the run last year between Colonel Sanders and Betsy Ross. Since each rooster has dozens of hens under his care, it is a rare sight to see them bond strongly to one hen. It seems our oldest bachelor, Colonel Sanders decided to settle down with a Black Copper Marans named Betsy Ross. He follows her around the yard and they curl up in the same coop at night. She had to be quarantined for a couple weeks after catching a cold and he was so happy when she was finally back with the flock!
Betsy Ross
Suzie Q was the oldest hen in our flock. She passed away in 2024 at 10 years old. Her feisty spirit ran the roost for a decade and her favorite time of day was in the morning when the food bowl was filled. She would hop off her perch and start pecking away before anyone else could get to it!
Paprika
Cucpake
Betty
Polish are a unique breed of chicken, with huge bouffant crests of feathers on their heads. When ours were still 2-day old chicks going through our ‘garage program’, you could already tell that to them everything was a party. Party around the water dish when you get fresh water; party around the food dish, too. And definitely, party when you’re running around the yard shaking your feather-doo. These funny, beautiful birds lay pointed, white eggs. Our Polish hens have a flair for dramatics - and danger! They are the smallest variety of hens in our flock, making them easier targets for predators.
What Big D lacks in self-preservation skills she makes up for in bravery. One spring morning, I was doing my rounds in the yard and saw her sitting under a plum tree. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw a huge hawk three times her size sitting on the branch directly above her. She was pecking mindlessly in the grass. I started yelling and waving my arms and hawk took back to the skies. She squabbled with me as I brought her back to the safety of the run, not a care in the world.
That fall, another hawk swooped down from the treeline and ran directly into her, attempting to take her, but Big D would have none of that. The hit gave her a shock but she started alarming and flapping around to tell the other girls to run to safety. As I tried to get everyone inside and scare the hawk off, Big D found a hiding place under some wood by the garage and stayed there until the coast was clear. I almost thought the hawk had taken her until we found her hiding. She was a little shaken up and had a bloody beak, but less than an hour later, she was back outside, pecking happily at fallen apples by the run. She is the most fearless hen in the run!
Zebra is our White Crested Black Polish Rooster
Zebra’s daughters Perry and Licorice forage around the haybales with their friends Henny Penny and Paprika while Zebra crows above them.
Meet the Roosters
Our gold feathered Polish rooster, Pocahontas (which isn’t typically a male name but suits him as he is fierce.) He was known for his dramatic flair.
Colonel Sanders is a cross between a Black Copper Maran from Bev Davis’ line and a green egg layer. Thus he carries the gene to produce prized olive-green eggs.
our beloved Polish rooster, Sir Zebra of Uppington Snodgrass - Zebra for short - passed away in December 2023 . He joins our other Polish hens, Audrey Fandango, Susie Q., Little Susie, and Dina Ross. Like them, he was animated and mischievous, and also a real drama queen who loved the sound of his own crow and being the king of whatever part of the yard he had claimed for the day. We miss hearing his constant talking around the run and it isn’t the same without him.
Our newest rooster, Chunky Boy, is a French Black Copper Marans (FCBM) which are bluish black birds with feathered feet, orange eyes and lay very dark chocolate-brown eggs. They originated from the port town of Marans, in western France, and are prized by bakers for the taste & quality of their eggs. The yolks stand firm and upright. According to Ian Fleming, it was the only egg which James Bond would eat. They are Ken’s favorite, too.
Aloysius and girls under the shade of an apple tree
Duke and girls enjoying their waterfall
Meet the Ducks
We raise Pekins and White Crested ducks - an heirloom European breed dating back to the 1600s. They are distinguished by the white tufts of feathers on their heads. On the farm, they are treated like royalty (and named appropriately). Our two duck families are headed by the drakes Aloysius of Kent and the Duke of Lemon. Aloysius’ girls are Madeline, Lily Duck, and Marshmallow. Duke’s ladies are the Duckess of Oldenburg and Olive Oyl. The Duke has his own cottage & waterfall while Aloysius rules the apple orchard pool.
The Duke of Lemon also plays a special role as our Goronson Farm Ambassador. He accompanies us on special off-farm events, greets guests during farm tours, and even models jewelry for our antique store!
Pictured to the right is Duke at an Earth Day event hosted by The Downs in Scarborough. Below, he and Kathryn are in a photoshoot modeling couture wearable botanicals. To the far right, Duke is wearing a Joan Rivers Necklace - available in our antique/vintage jewelry store here.
Tommy the Turkey
One day in mid-October I heard a strange sound that seemed to come from the breezeway area. I thought one of the Twisted Kittys had thrown up a fur ball. I ran out to look but no one was there and there was no vomit on the floor. I shrugged it off as a mistake. A few minutes later I heard the strange sound again. Through the windows of my downstairs bedroom, I saw a prehistoric head staring at me. It was bald and pink, with red and blue splashes. Running to look out the window I saw a huge blue-gray turkey. He was walking back and forth looking through the windows and gobbling. Over the next two weeks, he stayed close to the house, sat on the stoop, and watched the cats follow me across the kitchen and called us to come out and visit him. It was a turkey-hunting season in Maine. Fearing that he would wander off and get a shot I checked with our feed store about proper food. They instructed me to feed him the breeder’s grain I was feeding the chickens. I sent a video to the Game Warden and then also called the Animal Control Officer about what to do. I followed their instructions for finding his potential owner, even traveling much further afield than they recommended. But, it was to no avail. No one would claim him or own up to having owned him. And then, all of a sudden, it was too late. We realized that he had escaped the hunters and someone’s Thanksgiving table and that he had chosen us
Tommy had been watching us from the woods for about 10 days before revealing himself. (My husband had been hearing him in the woods around our house for that long.) We think he was watching us herd the chickens across the lawns and the Guinea Hens had been alarming at something in the woods. First, he moved in with the chickens and then he got his own house. Tommy is a rare, heritage blue slate turkey who will never lay an egg or pay his own way, but he has a home with people who love him. He has taken it upon himself to manage the roosters and breaks up any fights.
I’m still amazed at the rush of emotions, which cause his head to flush red and blue. The little cowlick of black hair on his head and the big black sprout of feathers that look like a beard that protrudes from his chest. When he sees me looking at him out the kitchen window he still catches himself and fans his tail and begins to strut. When I go out to feed the hens he follows me closely, walking like a person with a plate balanced on his head. When he wants to be particularly impressive he drags the tips of his wings on the ground to make a gravely noise and thumps deep inside of himself. Such a showoff! Such a boy!
The Farm Cats
Punkinetti enjoying the fresh autumn air in 2022, a couple months before his passing in January 2023
Our 4 boys, called the Twisted Kittys, were rescued from an adoption agency back in 2007. You would never know that they were born on the same day and from the same mother. Although two of our original Twisted Kittys have passed on, they remain on the farm in spirit buried in a beautiful garden in the back. The remaining two, Kissy G and Tiger are pictured to the right.
All of our boys have beautiful, large eyes that one farmhand said gives them an almost human-like quality. Tiger (bottom) modeling our antique jewelry. If you look through our vintage store, look out for more pics of him and Silhouette modeling!
Silhouette (pictured above) is a tiny terror but also an undeniable love bug who loves to sit atop my shoulder or curl up in Ken’s lap by the wood stove at night.
Our most recent additions to the farm and family are Silhouette and Pirouette, seen playing on a beam to the left. They are bundles of energy (and mischief). We’re glad they have each other since the older boys don’t always appreciate their playful pounces!
