June 7 - Phil Westwood's birthday and World Food Safety Day

 

Phil Westwood has made it to 80 today despite a few health challenges ( a severe stroke, atrial fibrillation, edema and a bout ofCellulitis.) That limited his activities around the farm over the past 10 years or so leaving Anne to do all the work. Recently there have been disappointments with local Bass Coast Shire Councillors and a few rabid individuals masquerading as environmentalists trying to overturn a landmark achievement in the Regional Sand Extraction Strategy Lang Lang to Grantville which protected vital native vegetation and identified key biolinks for the wildlife corridor.

The Grantville community, led by Anne and Phil lobbied the Victorian Government to restrict the destruction of native vegetation, wildlife habitat and groundwater resources. The actions from Grantville Action Group Inc. resulted in The Regional Sand Extraction Strategy, Lang Lang to Grantville which protected the natural environmental values by ensuring that cumulative impacts were considered as part of landscape-scale planning rather than allowing ad hoc decisions. The State Government approved the Strategy in 1996. However Shire Councillors and Save Westernport Woodlands individuals don’t like the strategy and are trying to destroy it.

What we do at Freeranger Eggs

 Welcome to Freeranger Eggs - the home of freerange eggs in Stanley Road, Grantville Victoria. Advancing age and health problems which culminated in a stroke and atrial fibrilation for Phil basically leaves Anne to farm on her own.  The workload has been cut down by reducing to one flock of around 200 ISA Browns. An eBook is available demonstrating how our 200 acre farm was run when we had over 10000 birds Our eBook shows how to set up your own free range farm business. The huge number of shameless people around pretending that the eggs they sell are 'free range' makes it almost impossible for Australian consumers to make informed decisions. Ministers for Consumer Affairs and the Federal Minister for Small business  made the decision even more complex as their absurd 10,000 hens per hectare standard for 'free range' eggs simply ensures that NO eggs sold in major supermarkets are actually free range. Australia's mindless labelling laws, are an added problem for consumers and farmers. So if you want free range eggs, don't go to a supermarket.  Ignore logos and accreditation claims - they are usually meaningless as accreditation processes have become a joke.  Most eggs labelled as free range are from intensive production systems wth high stocking densities and  beak-trimmed birds- even the biggest corporate producers resort to buying eggs from other sources to ensure sufficient numbers to meet their contracts with supermarkets.  Freeranger Eggs was one of very few genuine free range farms in the country. We had  an outdoor stocking density of 15 - 40 hens per hectare and we only package eggs laid on our farm. The number of hens on our 200 acre ( 80 hectare) property varied but we ran a maximum of 1000, depending on the time of year and demand. The farm is registered with Agriculture Victoria. The State Government changed the rules and Councils no longer conduct farm inspections. As a low density free range farm, we are part of a boutique industry with a niche market. We operate with  a comprehensive food safety and quality assurance program and we exceed  the standards of every accreditation body in Australia.

Chickens' interactions with humans

 An article in the World Poultry Science Journal from research in France reports a review of the abilities of chickens to interact with humans. Evidence suggests that chickens are far from passive or purely instinct-driven. Instead, they exhibit rich and nuanced behavioural responses to visual, tactile and auditory human cues. Chickens can discriminate between individual humans, are sensitive to human attentional states, and can even use human social cues to guide their decision-making. Farmers who interact in a calm and positive manner with individual chickens are shown to improve wellbeing across the entire flock. Regular positive human contact reduces stress in chickens, improves immune function and egg production.

The researchers concluded that chickens learn about humans by observing their flock mates.

Talking Chickens

 Communicating with chickens on the farm has become part of everyday life for us. Few people think about hens as intelligent, however, over the years, scientists have found that this bird can be deceptive and cunning, that it possesses communication skills on par with those of some primates and that it uses sophisticated signals to convey its intentions. When making decisions, the chicken takes into account its own prior experience and knowledge surrounding the situation. It can solve complex problems and empathizes with individuals that are in danger.These new insights into the chicken mind hint that certain complex cognitive abilities traditionally attributed to primates alone may be more widespread in the animal kingdom than previously thought. It has taken researchers almost a century to figure out what is going on in the brains of chickens. The first inklings emerged from studies conducted in the 1920s, when Norwegian biologist Thorleif Schjelderup-Ebbe established that the birds have a dominance system, which he named the “pecking order” after noting that chickens will enforce their leadership by administering a sharp peck of the beak to underlings whenever they get ideas above their station. Decades later, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, categorized birds' calls and found that chickens have a repertoire of about 24 different sounds, many of which seem to be specific to certain events such as threats from birds of prey or ground predators. Interpreting their different calls is fun for us, but often a matter life or death for them.

International recognition for Freeranger Eggs blog

 Our Blog has again been recognised internationally as  one of the Top 90 Poultry Blogs on the web. We are  listed in Feedspots2026 Edition.FeedSpot helps you find the best blogs on the web. 

https://bloggers.feedspot.com/

Health benefits for free range hens

 Most people know that domestic chickens have been selectively bred to lay an egg almost every day throughout their adult production life. They may not know that this places significant strain on the calcium metabolism in their bones. Research at the University of New England has shown that behavioural and physical impacts of housing systems begin during pullet development, but exercise is important throughout lay for maintaining bone strength. Free-range systems improve bone strength for those hens that range more, indicating that outdoor ranging can have long-term impacts on hen behaviour and subsequent skeletal health.

How to start a free range farm

 Free range farms need to be set up close to townships so customers don’t need to travel far to buy fresh produce. 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