Q:
Are you Free Range and what is your stocking density?
A:
Under the Egg Standards of Australia (ESA) guidelines, YES, we are Free Range.
More details...
On our farm we have 26,000 chickens. Our stocking density is less than 6,500 hens per hectare so we’re well under the Egg Standards of Australia for Free Range Egg Production.
With comparison to the widely advertised ‘Choice’ model guidelines (who are only an independent advocacy group) they do not deem us as ‘true’ free range. Their claim is ‘true free range is 1,500 hens per hectare or less’, however we believe, and know, that its not economically viable for established farmers and their consumers to provide high quality, free range eggs under this standard.
Q:
How often do your hens free range?
A:
Our hens spend a minimum of 10 hours outside per day, 365 days of the year.
More details...
In addition to this, they are free to roam inside our purpose built barns 24/7. We do not have any cages inside our barns, its purely where they go to sleep, eat, drink and lay their eggs.
In our pastures we have sufficient shelter for all our hens, swings and perches as well as items to further enrich their time in the pastures, such as bales of hay, witches hats, hanging cd’s and pecking stones. We are also continuously researching extra items to install to further enhance their outside time.
Our farm hands spend at least an hour per day in each of the barns and pastures walking around with the hens so they get plenty of human interaction. Our onsite farm hand every night visits each barn to put the birds to bed, check their feed & water and lock the outside access doors so all our hens are always safe away from nocturnal predators.
Q:
What type of chickens do you have?
A:
Our hens are all Hy-Line Brown chickens and are reared by a local and trusted pullet grower.
Q:
How soon after the eggs are laid do they get packaged?
A:
Our eggs are laid by noon each day and packaged into cartons within hours. We despatch eggs so often that no egg on our farm is more than 48 hours since it left the chickens bum!
We freight eggs from our farm 5 days per week servicing all over Newcastle, Sydney and Brisbane. *If you’re interested in buying our eggs, please contact us.
Q:
How do you get eggs with double yolks?
A:
Double yolkers are more frequently found in eggs laid by younger hens whose laying cycle hasn’t yet been established. It also occurs often as the hens start to age, from around 55 weeks +. The 2 yolks occur when the two yolk sacks are released together inside of the chicken to be combined in one extra large egg.
Q:
“I won’t buy so & so’s eggs as they use hormones in their feed”
A:
Hormones have not been used in egg producing hens diets since the early 90’s.
Our hens may, from time to time under the direction of our poultry veterinarian, need routine treatment with antibiotics, but in that case we remove all eggs from leaving our farm until the treatment has completed its course.
Q:
Should I keep my eggs in the fridge or out of the fridge?
A:
We recommend that eggs are to be kept in the fridge, below 16 degrees but higher than 4 degrees.
Our eggs will always be packaged in their cartons point down, and they should be kept this way until you need to use them.
All of our eggs leave our farm with a 6 week use by date stamped on each carton and will keep this long if kept refrigerated.
Q:
What comes first… the chicken or the egg?
A:
This picture kind of settles it for us...
