About Us
We're a little backyard hobby farm in a suburb near Fort Worth, Texas, owned by Alan and Melissa Rice (hence the name Rice & Shine Farms.) Together, we have our son Jude & my 2 older kids Holden and Sophia. We began our chicken adventures in 2016 as a small scale backyard hobby farm that's now grown into a business.
Funny story, and how we began our little farm. Back in 2016, my husband came home from work one day and told me he was offered a free chicken coop on a job. He said we should get some chickens. I laughed at the thought of having chickens, but was willing to give it a shot. So, the next week, he brought that new coop home. We went out a week later to find some chickens and the following week, hubby was happy to help expand that first free little coop into a larger coop to house the new chickens we had. He's the muscle behind coop building and my helper when I need him but on most days, I run the chicken farm. I think he may have thought we'd have a few backyard chickens for our own eggs. Little did we know....
Chicken math is real, y'all! You know, 10 chickens turns into 20, 20 turns into 40, then you get an incubator and a few new & different breeds & next thing you know, you're hatching your own chicks.
With getting new breeds, I quickly fell in love with all the different types of chickens and especially Roosters. So, I would expand (with hubby's help) into a new pen to house the rooster that I had to have or hatched out. We started with large fowl & then I found Silkies and Serama and at one point even did Serama table top shows. That was so much fun! In 2017, we had a baby and we welcomed Jude to our family. He's grown up running around the yard with the chickens. He used to help me a little on the farm but now my biggest helper is my older son Holden.
In 2020 when the World changed we decided to downsize from our bantam breeds to focus more on large fowl. One day, I was scrolling through facebook & came across photos of colored hatching eggs from another Texas Farm. THAT is where I fell in love with colored eggs & my true passion began! Ever since, I've studied and learned more knowledge about chickens & breeding genetics than I thought my brain could hold. I began breeding for egg color & have been hooked ever since.
Once I started getting a nice variety of uniquely colored eggs and beautiful birds I decided to go online to share with others. I breed for unique colors that we call "Rainbow Eggs." These are laid by a variety of hens we call "Rainbow Eggers" that lay all the colors of the Rainbow. They can include pure breeds but most of them are created from intentional multigenerational breeding that lay all the colors of the Rainbow, including heavy blooms & speckles too.
When we began this adventure years ago we never knew it would become a business where we would eventually share our eggs and birds with others around the World. I truly find such joy sharing our birds & eggs with you all. If you're into colored eggs as much as I am, you know how fun and exciting it can be to see your new feathered friend lay her first uniquely colored egg. That excitement never gets old! Sharing in that joy with our customers makes it even more enjoyable. I have so much fun doing this and it makes me so happy to help others create their perfect egg basket!