Egg bargains this week

Our latest flock of pullets is laying like crazy, and as we don't have a market this weekend, we will have heaps of small eggs available this Friday and Saturday.
Come to the farm at the end of Stanley Road in Grantville between 10am and noon of Friday or Saturday and you can pick up trays of pullets eggs for just $3 a tray (two and a half dozen) and trays of 50+ gram eggs for $5 a tray.

First eggs from the new pullets

Our new Isa Brown pullets laid their first two eggs today so the whole flock should be in production within a couple of weeks - just in time to have plenty of pullets eggs in ten packs for the Pakenham Farmers' Market.
With the onset of cooler weather, egg production from the older flocks is slowing a bit so we will need the new girls to keep up supplies, especially as we have taken on a new restaurant on Phillip Island taking around 60 dozen eggs each week.
We are still able to meet our regular demand but without the new flock things would probably be difficult in the next month or so.

New flock looking good and ready for action

Our latest flock of Isa Brown pullets arrived yesterday while I was at Pakenham Farmers' Market so Anne had to help with the unloading.

We had the shed ready for them, all cleaned out and moved to a new part of the front paddock which hasn't been used for chooks for at least eight months.

They are 16 weeks old and well grown. A couple have 'combed up' already so look like they will start laying this week. We often find that at this time of year, pullets will begin to lay at this age but later in the year they may not start until they are 18 or even 20 weeks old.

It means that we have to be careful with planning arrivals to ensure continuity of egg supplies - especially around peak holiday periods.

As I've said before Christmas/New Year is a particular nightmare because of the huge influx of holidaymakers on Phillip Island. And it's not just the island. Every holiday home and caravan park in the area is full to busting - San Remo, Coronet Bay, Corinella, Grantville etc.

Demand from shops and restaurants just goes though the roof and if we have a run of really hot weather around Christmas our production can drop signficantly.

That's when being a member of the Free Range Farmers Association really pays off - because if we have to, we can usually find another member farm with eggs to spare at that time of year (because most of their customers are down here). The rules of the Association mean that we can only buy-in eggs fom another accredited farm so our customers are sure the eggs really are 'free range'. 

This is the shed the new pullets are in. We hadn't let them out at this stage because the wind has been blowing hard all morning and the poor little chooks might get blown away. Their protection system is well in place - Berkley on the left and Ducati on the right. Not much can get past them.

The triangular sail on the shed is only used in summer for extra shade-I just haven't got around to taking it off yet

Pullets Rule

Our latest flock of pullets (200 birds) laid 182 eggs yesterday and 186 today (a 93% lay rate) which makes them our best perfoming flock at the moment! Yeayyyy!!! It took them a while get up to speed.
It still intriques me that some flocks start laying at 16 weeks but you won't see an egg from some others until they are 20 weeks old. They can be the same breed and well grown! It makes planning difficult because we need to balance our supply to meet demand and we have a massive over-demand problem during the tourist season.
And to compound the problems, 0ur peak terrorist (sorry tourist) season usually coincides with hot weather (which the chooks don't like).
But we still like egg farming.

big winds cause havoc

The last few days have been a bit windy here (like most other parts of Victoria). Thankfully we haven't suffered any major damage - just a few branches off trees and a few broken electric fence posts.
Most of our flocks have electranet fences around them with pvc posts and they snap if they whip around in the wind too much.
The veggie garden hasn't even suffered much - the garlic is still growing well, the peas and beans are coming up and we have the ground ready for our crop of chillies.
The winds haven't affected the chooks either. Our lay rate is still around 90% for the main flocks and the pullets are now nudging 50% so they should be in full production by the end of the week.

New pullets doubled production

Our new flock of pullets doubled their production today - two eggs!!! They should be in full swing over the next two or three weeks, ready for the big Christmas holiday rush.
We are hoping that throughout January we will be able to hold production at around 600 dozen a week to meet demand.
But it will largely depend on the weather because if it gets too hot, production will fall.
It was interesting that last night one of the sheds for the new girls was completely empty. All 300 birds were crowded into and under one shed while an identical one within two or three metres was shunned. Hard to understand because they spend time in it during the day.
Don't think I'll ever understand chooks!

New flock of pullets settling in

The new flock of 200 Isa Brown pullets are settling in well. They arrived yesterday and at first they weren't too sure about Bella - the Maremma whose job it is to protect them from marauding foxes, dogs, humans (if you can call them that) and birds of prey.
But within 12 hours or so the young hens were happily playing with her and inspecting her kennel.
The birds are well grown and I'm sure will start laying in week or so.

Direct sales and farm visits are booming

Our new foal is proving to be a hit with farm visitors. And he just loves people! He's less than a couple of weeks old and already thinks he owns the place.

We are now getting a steady stream of people who want to have a look at how we run the farm as well as buying eggs and hens for their backyards.

The old house on the property is being reorganised to cope with the number of visitors and we are looking at various options to offer people. We may even register our kitchen so we can prepare light lunches and snacks but for the moment we encourage people to bring a picnic.