An 11-year-old Aiken boy is learning just how many clucks it takes to make a buck.
Faolan Williams has been raising heritage chickens at the family homestead since September and now sells the eggs they lay for a price that’s about $2 a dozen less than the comparable farm-fresh, cage-free eggs in stores.
“I thought it would be an easy task, which was not the case,” Faolan said.
Still, the brood has grown from the first five hens to 25 and with a yen to keep going.
“I would like to expand my chicken coop even more,” he said.
The short-term goal? To buy a gaming computer. Faolan’s other hobbies are piano and eSports, for which he’s shown himself to have a knack competing on a team with Augusta’s GNOME GAMERS.
“It will also help me in buying my future house,” he said.
The Williams family in Aiken is business headquarters for 11-year-old Faolan Williams’ Eggsellent Rainbow Eggs. Pictured here, from left, are Dad Sam, twin sisters Meadhbh and Moira, Faolan (foreground) and Mom Uschi.
The young businessman is taking after his dad, Sam, who retired from the Army and has his own gunsmithing business; and mom, Uschi, who said she intends to help Sam when she hangs up the fatigues.
“We grew up in a different time than kids today,” said Sam, who said he often hears that the younger generations aren’t learning the kinds of things their parents did. “Maybe that’s true, maybe it’s not. Maybe it’s different, maybe it’s not. But we want to make sure we instill the value of understanding how earning something is more important than just having things given to you.”
Buying Faolan the computer would have been a lot cheaper, but “that wasn’t the point,” Uschi said.
It was a good opportunity to “think outside of the box and really kind of figure out if he really wanted what he said he was asking from us – was he wanting it enough to work for it himself,” she said. Plus, “it gives him some perspective of what it takes to start something from nothing.”
The interest took hold quick. So much so that not only is Faolan collecting and selling the eggs, but he’s amassed a good knowledge about the types of feeds and methods of composting that contribute to the chickens laying eggs with darker, more nutritious yolks.
Faolan’s learned the plucking and gutting of poultry – one of the hens got sick and had to be culled this winter. But it was a preparatory lesson for future. After the egg-laying days are over, usually about three years, it’s just the course of life that the chickens are destined for the freezer and then the pot.
Faolan Williams’ younger sister Meadhbh chases the hens.
Faolan’s also mastered cooking with eggs, not just frying them them but making pastas and cookies.
He’s also eager to help other kids – or adults – learn. No proprietary secrets.
His Facebook page, Eggsellent Rainbow Eggs, is managed by Uschi and on it are posts and videos documenting the differences between the farm-fresh eggs and the regular, store-bought Grade A’s. It’s also the spot to place an order to to buy from Faolan.
On the Williams’ kitchen counter is a wire egg skelter with a cascade of naturally colored eggs. The breed of chicken determines whether the eggs are a speckled or dark olive green, blue or pinkish-brown.
The wire skelter on the Williams’ counter is a cascade of naturally colored eggs.
He’ll package them up and sell them by the dozen for $6. That’s a good deal when similar – what self-described “eggist” Uschi calls the “natural, cage-free, bougie” eggs – can be had at Costco for $8.49 these days.
Faolan said he doesn’t anticipate that managing supply and demand will be too troublesome, especially when springtime hits. The hens are just getting started after a dormant period and are each laying multiple eggs a week. By spring, he’ll be collecting somewhere around 18-24 a day and this will continue all summer and into early fall.
And the eggs keep: the natural “bloom” on farm-fresh eggs keep them fresh on the countertop for a month or in the fridge for up to three months.
The Williams’ home, business headquarters for Eggsellent Rainbow Eggs, is about 5 minutes south from I-20’s Exit 18. Egg buyers can place an order via the Facebook page.
This content was originally published here.
