River Gum	Booral	Rossmore

The best of all worlds

The owners have adapted the best European and Australian technologies to build the most modern free range farms in Australia. When inside, the hens’ comfort is ensured by an environmentally friendly layer facility. Outside they have day-long access well maintained pastures.

The buildings boast modern features such as automatic egg collection, automatic feeding and watering.

Advantages of free range

There are many advantages in free range farming compared to either intensive caged layer management or barn egg production.

In free range farming, the hens have access to shelter from weather and predators and have accommodation available day or night, with facilities for feeding, drinking, nests. By day they can range, across wide open fields in a natural way.

This allows them to supplement the optimised hen house diet with their natural foods – grass, soft leaves, seeds and insects. There is considerable evidence that birds, given access to a range of suitable foodstuffs, will select a diet that is far more suited to their own individual needs than any single diet designed for the average bird.

Free range birds are able to eat small stone fragments that aid digestion and release necessary trace minerals. It has been shown that a proper amount of stone fragments in their gizzard can destroy the spores before they can produce harmful infections.

Free range standards

A number of Codes of Practice for Free Range have been promulgated. Several Australian States have their own codes as have various organizations in Britain and Europe. These all specify the amount of time each day that the birds should have access to range, the maximum number of birds per hectare of pasture, feeder, drinkers, minimum number of nests per 100 birds, means of access to pasture (numbers or areas of points of exit from the shedding), most specify the minimum quality of the pasture. All require some measures to protect the birds from predators.

The hens at Glen Innes, Booral and Rossmore have access to natural and well maintained pasture. Some runs have predominantly natural pasture but some have a mixture. All yards are fenced with high vermin-proof fences. Access is restricted to essential staff only; this is to minimise any risk of disease being introduced from another farm by a visitor. Feed is provided in automatic feeders operated on demand by the birds or by time clocks; it is available to the birds whenever they choose to come into the building. In fact, the birds can be observed moving back and forth regularly between the range and the hen-house.