Tuesday, October 15, 2024

'The Chicken or the Egg' Scientist says the egg came first

 The question about chickens and eggs which humans have been asking almost since time began, may have finally been answered by scientists who say they’ve discovered that the egg came first.

Humans have bred chickens for at least 10,000 years ago, but one expert has spoken about the existence of eggs as being much older. Luis Villazon is a science and technology educator who trained in zoology. He says "Eggs are much older than chickens. "Dinosaurs laid eggs, the fish that first crawled out of the sea laid eggs, and the weird articulated monsters that swam in the warm shallow seas of the Cambrian Period 500 million years ago also laid eggs.”while these aren’t chicken eggs, “the egg definitely came first", he said. Mr Villazon added that the chicken as we know it today was first bred as a result of the red jungle fowl of Southeast Asia being “hyrbridised” with grey jungle fowl.

At some point in evolutionary history when there were no chickens, two birds that were almost-but-not-quite chickens mated and laid an egg that hatched into the first chicken." Mr Villazon concluded.


Friday, October 11, 2024

Sunshine great for humans - and chickens

 scientists  confirm that eggs from chickens wandering freely outdoors  contain higher levels of Vitamin D. Research in the US from 2014 shows  that hens spending most their time outdoors produce eggs with as much as three to six times more Vitamin D than eggs from barn or caged hens. Vitamin D3 is said to support bone strength and boost the body’s immunity levels. Other nutrient levels are also higher as a result of the more natural diet. The benefits include protein, vitamin B12, vitamin B2 iodine and selenium. You’ll also find vitamin A, calcium, phosphorous, folate, biotin, choline, thiamine and pantothenic acid inside the shells. They contain beneficial omega-3 fatty acids and little damaging cholesterol.


Tuesday, October 08, 2024

World Egg Day on Friday

 

World Egg Day is on Friday (Oct11). It is a global celebration of the highly nutritious and delicious egg! There is no other food that provides as many nutritional benefits as nature’s powerhouse.

Since starting in Vienna in 1996, World Egg Day has been celebrated in over 40 countries around the world on the second Friday in October every year.





Monday, September 30, 2024

Another egg shortage in Australia

 Australia has a national egg shortage because slack management procedures on intensive egg production facilities allowed avian influenza to spread like wildfire, resulting in the culling of more than a million egg laying hens. Many buyers have been unable to get eggs from their usual sources, such as supermakets, so they turn to small producers like us without understanding that we can’t quickly ramp up production just because they suddenly say they want our eggs. As with many free range farms, our eggs are laid to order and we have no spare eggs at the end of each day.


Maintaining egg production on a free range farm is often challenging.Like many real farms, we are affected by daily weather patterns and the seasons.To consistently lay eggs, hens need about 14 hours of daylight and 8 hours of darkness when they're roosting. Once less than 12 hours of daylight is available, egg productions slows down considerably if not ceases completely. Some people think colder weather causes the decrease in egg-laying, but even chickens in warm climates produce fewer eggs once daylight hours decline. Big producers maintain egg laying numbers by installing lights in sheds to trick the hens into keeping on eating and laying eggs. This issue is the reason for the development of intensive farming systems. Big production and bigger profits was the reason for companies changing to intensive farming with hens locked in climate-controlled sheds.

 Big producers maintain egg laying numbers by installing lights in sheds to trick the hens into keeping on eating and laying eggs. We prefer to allow our hens to follow their normal rythmns of life.

Thursday, September 12, 2024

Establish your own free range farm

 

How to start a free range farm

if you’ve ever thought about setting up your own free range farm, wait no longer. Our eBook on establishing a free range egg farm is available at any time. At a cost of just $245. It is a low-cost way of providing all the ideas and tools needed to establish your egg business and will help you prepare your own application to your local Shire to set up a free range farm. There's no need to engage a costly consultant to write the application for you. Free range egg production is a niche market which is why genuine free range eggs are never found in supermarkets Once payment is made, the eBook will be emailed as a Portable Document File (PDF). send payment to our  Bendigo Bank account.P &A Westwood BSB 633 000 Account 153356233


Saturday, August 10, 2024

What is Freerange?

 We are frequently asked what the term 'freerange eggs' actually means. Well the answer was simple before politicians colluded with big producers to con consumers. Politicians were asked to change the regulations to protect big producers from legal action by the ACCC which had won a series of prosecutions for mislabelling eggs in breach of  consumer laws. Each of the companies  increased annual profits by millions of dollars just by adding the words free range to their cartons, so many regarded the fines as simply a cost of doing business. However, the industry had a wake-up call when one shonky operator was hit with $1 million in fines and costs.

Development of the Model Code of Practice for the Welfare of Animals – Domestic Poultry 4th Edition


The Code was approved by the Primary Industries Ministerial Council and printed in 2002, It was a development of an earlier version of the Model Code. Egg farmers realised it was essential for the free range sector of the egg industry to ensure that intensive production standards were not adopted in place of the extensive requirements of the previous code. There has been no science behind high density free range proposals (other than the certainty of increased profits. No scientific review of production processes was undertaken to demonstrate that the standards contained within the voluntary Model Code were no longer applicable to the industry. The stocking density of 1500 hens per hectare for free range hens was developed by applying well established principles of agronomy. The issue of the upper limit on the long term stocking rate was debated strongly at the time, following pressure from local Councils and the EPA about how some farms were operating. Experience was taken into account of people who had farmed free range layers in the 1950’s and 60's, when all egg production was based on free range principles. Hens were often run under citrus trees It was recognised that for an operation to be sustainable, the stocking rate had to be low - less than 300 birds/acre (750/hectare). It was agreed that such a system should be regarded as Free Range egg production and the hens were to have access to the range during daylight hours. There was some dispute by new entrants to the industry who believed that they could design pasture rotation systems around their sheds that would allow higher rates. So it was decided to take an empirical approach and work out what the maximum stocking rate could be to avoid the measurable negative impacts of nutrient run off and soil degradation and still be theoretically possible to maintain pasture cover and avoid the issue of dust. Some argued that as most hens were in sheds at night and may be locked in for part of the day so that only a portion of the hens actually entered the range area at any one time, the impact was lessened. The dairy industry was very big at that time and local agronomists had data on the effects of applying very high rates of poultry manure on irrigated pasture. The agronomists studied the data on the maximum nutrient uptake a well maintained irrigated pasture could support and also avoid the problems of salinity build up observed in the dairy pastures. The stocking rate was calculated and a stocking density of up to 600 birds/acre (1500/hectare) was regarded as the maximum possible for long term sustainability. At the time the Code was approved, it was accepted that to maintain consumer credibility, visitors or passers-by had to see the birds out and about on the range. It was also accepted that there is no valid animal management need to lock in the layers in the morning or during inclement weather. But corporate egg producers, the Australian Egg Corporation and major supermarkets demanded political changes to allow eggs produced in intensive systems to be labelled as free range. The words were simply regarded as a marketing term to increase profits without involving extra work or costs. Supermarkets demanded high volumes of eggs which could not be supplied by traditional free range methods and big producers saw the opportunity to cash in on consumer demand Politicians complied and approved a freerange definition permitting hens to be kept at a density of 10,000 birds per hectare.A laying hen produces half a cubic metre of manure a year. So with a stocking density of 10,000 hens per hectare,  Animal health and land sustainability are at risk as farmers who follow the advice will see their land covered with 5000 cubic metres of manure per hectare every year.

As chicken manure has the highest amount of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium of all manures, it can render the land useless for farming within a few years. Contamination of groundwater and water courses will also result. Set up your own genuine freerange farm with help of our eBook.



Thursday, July 18, 2024

Urgent need for more freerange farms

 

Many egg farms have closed down in recent years, from big producers with hundreds of thousands of hens, to small freerange operators with a few hundred birds. Egg shortages in supermarkets have highlighted the problem and clearly shown the need for more freerange farms to be set up in each region. Clear consumer demand for free range eggs has generated a strong increase in the number of people wanting to start their own free range egg business.Ideally, every township should have n nearby egg producer to limit the food miles created by trucking eggs across the country to supermarket shelves.

A good starting point is reading our eBook on starting a free range farm. For details contact us through the website or directly by email.