Our customers, friends, and family,
We are truly sad to be the heralds of not great news. Our last delivery of organic eggs to our beloved customers, friends and family will be April 25th, 2022. We are having to make the tough decision to close down Harmony Hens for the time being. It’s heavy news to share, but it’s the right move forward to be financially prudent and honor the happy hens we’ve invested so much into. The main reasons we are having to make this decision are due to the insane feed, fuel, carton, cooling, and all else connected to our input costs.
Over the past two years, feed prices have steadily increased to the point of completely consuming any profit margin we had. We’ve spent the majority of the past four months trying to pinch pennies where we could, clean up any wasted labor or resources, and ultimately try to maintain a steady break-even ship to last us through these difficult times in the current economy. I’ve personally been working for free since the inception of Harmony Hens, just paying a few employees and our input costs, and that’s just not sustainable. Between getting married and being tired of getting beat up by the increasing pressure of all these input costs, our family decided that for the time being, we need to conclude this venture. Alas, it’s the end, but we might give it another shot when the dust settles in a few years. We do love our chickens, after all.
After all of the support you’ve shown our family farm, we didn’t want to leave you high and dry without another comparable farm to replace our products come May. We’ve done a lot of research to find other producers that care for their local flocks well and produce a great egg. Our number one suggestion would be the McIntyre Pastures eggs coming from Caldwell, Idaho. They are not certified organic like us, but they are soy-free and do an incredible job pasturing their chickens in the verdant seasons. To my knowledge, they deliver to the Woodriver Valley, Treasure Valley, and hopefully soon, the Magic Valley. I am pushing for them to get on with Charlie's Produce in Boise, which is a distribution food service that should offer multi-day deliveries throughout the week. But otherwise, I’m sure they’d take a good look at taking over the market we’ve developed, so we’d recommend calling or reaching out online. Visit their website for contact information.
If they aren’t a good fit for filling your egg order we’d recommend Western Farms eggs. We personally don’t know much about them and their operation, but we do know they deliver through Charlie’s Produce distribution, and that could be a bonus for your weekly egg orders. I’m not sure how they raise their hens, they don’t have any certification I’m aware of, whether that be animal humane standards, organic certification, soy-free, pasture-raised, or any of those types of safeguards. If you went that route, I’d try to ask them the hard questions and inquire about visiting their farm to see how happy the hens are. If you get pushback with that or don’t end up liking how the hens are being treated, I’d recommend going with McIntyre Pastures or finding another local producer through the Local Food Alliance (Sun Valley Institute).
Once again, we could not be more grateful for your patronage and support over the months and years. You’ve grown with us over these past couple of difficult years, and we are so happy to have pushed through it all, as we’ve gathered great insight into the local food system and have grown immensely in understanding business. Our family loves your establishments, and we will continue to enjoy your hard work in the kitchen and on the shelves. If anything we will treasure the relationships we’ve built and we hope to foster them more in years to come. Who knows, we might return with meat birds in hand, ready for you to work your magic. Or maybe some killer cucumbers or flavorful squash. Wherever we end up when the dust settles, we are eternally grateful for our time with you and our thousands of harmony hens fine dining on the best organic pasture around!
The cumulation of this venture has us reflecting on a sentiment of Middle Earth, if more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold and treasures, it would be a merrier world – and we can’t help but full-heartedly agree. May we most enjoy each other through the universal language of incredible ingredients and the beautiful hands that prepare feasts.
Your local chicken tenders,
Spencer & Gail Mallett
Sean & Staci Mallett
The Harmony Hens Team
“Excellent eggs aren’t laid by accident, we fine dine on the most nutritious & delicious certified organic flora and fauna. ”
