Mahina Acres

Mahina Acres Small hobby farm specializing in raising pure breed chickens and growing tropical fruit. Email for availability of hatching eggs, baby chicks, and adult birds.

We have a small farm focusing on dual-purpose and heritage breed chickens. We focus primarily on Black & Self-blue (lavender) Ameraucanas, Black Copper Marans, and (in the near future) Blue Laced Red Wyandottes. We are located between Hilo and Volcano on the lush side of the Big Island. Interested in work exchange? Our rustic off-grid accomodation is often available from two weeks to a month.

05/22/2025

I'm really enjoying these little nuggets. This is a mixed batch: Ameraucanas, Olive Eggers, and one Black Copper Marans. Probably the last hatch for the year.

I'm so happy with my new little olive egger chicks with muffs, beards, and feathered shanks! So cute!
05/19/2025

I'm so happy with my new little olive egger chicks with muffs, beards, and feathered shanks! So cute!

It's one of those days...making the most of what we have on the land.
04/16/2025

It's one of those days...making the most of what we have on the land.

Harvested a nice stalk of bananas today and Myrna used some of the green ones to make fries/chips. Yum!
04/16/2025

Harvested a nice stalk of bananas today and Myrna used some of the green ones to make fries/chips. Yum!

Check out our newsletter for the Moho Kitchen:https://www.mohokitchenhi.org/newsletterHere's one of the articles: On The...
04/12/2025

Check out our newsletter for the Moho Kitchen:
https://www.mohokitchenhi.org/newsletter

Here's one of the articles: On The Price of Eggs

Recently, the concurrence of COVID-related inflation, outbreaks of avian influenza, and lack of competition has sent egg prices soaring and kept inventory down. As a remedy, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins suggested that egg-heads consider raising hens to maintain their own steady supply.That’s a great idea if you’re truly amused by the antics of these sly fluffy critters, but don’t do it just to save money. About six years ago, I began acquiring various breeds of chickens and have not bought eggs from a store in over five years. I raise my own chickens because, among other reasons, I enjoy having them on the farm, and I prefer the taste of pasture-raised eggs (and meat) over those raised commercially. However, like many other backyard chicken farmers, I have invested an unpredictable and unfathomable amount of
time, energy and money into coops, fencing, chicks & hatching eggs, feed, medication, equipment, gasoline, etc.; and that’s just a tiny part of the chicken math.

Did you know that you can have up to 500 chickens and still be considered a family farm? To go into business selling eggs, you need a lot of layers, since chickens—if allowed—take frequent lay-cations. As days get shorter, hens take a winter break starting in November. They resume laying in March when days grow long again. (Some farmers use artificial lights to extend the laying period, but this is physiologically taxing to the ladies.) Additionally, laying hens can go broody with the drive to hatch a clutch,
and during this time they will stop laying for more than a month.

The cost of an egg is lower when it’s mass-produced in factory farms, but the chickens pay the real price. Males (cockerels) have no use in the egg industry and are culled as day-old chicks. Pullets, on the other hand, go on to live their shortened lives in stacked wire crates with floors smaller than a sheet of paper; that are tilted so that the eggs gently roll out, making it difficult or impossible for the hens to rest comfortably inside their cages. They will never scratch for bugs or take a real dust bath. A single henhouse can hold as many as 350,000 crowded laying hens. Under these conditions, diseases spread virulently, inviting less discriminating use of antibiotics. When that doesn’t work, large operations are forced to effectively shut down and cull healthy birds alongside sick ones.

A store will charge upwards of $10 for pasture-raised eggs. They might even be shipped from the mainland. Hawaiian Acres residents are blessed with three-acre lots—which is plenty of space for you and your chickens—but most of us have neighbors who would gladly trade their pastured eggs for any reasonable barter of vegetables or small services. If you don’t want to go through the bother of raising your own hens, that’s still a great way to feed your egg addiction.

04/08/2025

One of my self-blue (lavender) Ameraucana hens hatched some chicks. She's a new inexperienced mom, so only three of the six survived. I decided to add her chicks in with some Marans I hatched, in an incubator. They all sleep together in the brooder box at night. Lately, during the day she calls them out into the yard and shows them how to scratch and look for food. They get the best of both worlds.

My Mountain Apples are blossoming!
03/24/2025

My Mountain Apples are blossoming!

Inconsolable. Rest in peace, my sweet prince. You left much too soon.YagiDecember 1, 2017 - March 10, 2025
03/12/2025

Inconsolable.
Rest in peace, my sweet prince. You left much too soon.
Yagi
December 1, 2017 - March 10, 2025

We have a new breed of chicken at Mahina Acres. They are Black Marans, which are recognized by the American Poultry Asso...
01/10/2025

We have a new breed of chicken at Mahina Acres. They are Black Marans, which are recognized by the American Poultry Association.

Note the difference between the Black Marans rooster and the Black Copper Marans (in pen) on the first photo. As with all Marans, the hens lay dark brown eggs. They are a large, dual purpose breed, known for the quality of their meat.

01/04/2025

My farm pets are hilarious...

Beautiful moon (mahina) this morning!
11/17/2024

Beautiful moon (mahina) this morning!

Some of our jungle fowl hens make the best moms; this is one of them:
04/23/2024

Some of our jungle fowl hens make the best moms; this is one of them:

Address

Hawaiian Acres
Keaau, HI
96760

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Mahina Acres posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Mahina Acres:

Shortcuts

Share