Holly Gompf, a seventh grade student at Mount Gilead Middle School, stays busy splitting her time between softball, basketball and academics; but the middle schoolers activities do not stop there.
Gompf is also involved in 4-H Club, anually showing cattle, sheep and goats at the Morrow County Fair.
On top of all of that, she has been selling chicken eggs to area customers.
Gompf’s avian agricultural endeavor is called Holly’s Farm Fresh Eggs and has been in business for three years.
With the intention of selling eggs, Holly bought 50 spring peeps in 2013.
“Every year I buy more hens because the demand is always so high for fresh eggs,” she said. “In 2014 I bought 20 hens and last year I bought 40 more.”
When asked what her largest order was, Holly answered, “I think 17 dozen has been my biggest order so far, but I’m used to customers buying 8 to 10 dozen at a time during the holidays.”
The Middle School student charges $2.50 for a dozen eggs.
Overall she has 70 hens and one rooster named Ronald. Gompf hopes to someday use her chickens for her SAE (supervised agricultural experience) project in FFA. “I am going to need a lot more chickens but I have a good start.”
Holly’s chickens walk around her lot and enjoy the sunshine during the day. Even though they are free-range hens, they still prefer to lay eggs in their chicken coop boxes.
“On average I collect 30 eggs a day in the winter and 45 during the summer,” she stated.
Most hens do not lay as many eggs during the winter because of the lack of sunlight, so for 12 hours each day Holly turns a heat lamp on for them.
“It isn’t a cheap business to start and there has been a lot of hard work involved, but I enjoy having fresh eggs and getting to meet new people” said Holly.
Holly’s Farm Fresh Eggs is located on County Road 27 in Edison.
Holly Gompf stands in front of her chicken coop at Holly’s Farm Fresh Eggs in Edison.
Gompf’s avian agricultural endeavor is called Holly’s Farm Fresh Eggs and has been in business for three years.
