Chicca's almost back to normal

Chicca is now reaonably happy after a hard few weeks

This was Chicca going for a stroll with me this morning. She hasn't recovered completely yet and is still on antibiotics twice a day - but she's doing well. The picture isn't brilliant because I took it with my mobile phone.
Her weight is back to almost 70kgs after dropping around 15kgs when she picked up the infection.She is still spending most of her days indoors, and I doubt she will appreciate being returned to guard duties once she's fully recovered.

Free Range Farmers Association on Facebook

The Free Range Farmers Association now has a facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Free-Range-Farmers-Association-Inc/214824421880453

The Association accredits free range egg farms in Victoria which meet its standards. Inspections of every member farm are conducted annually to ensure the standards are being continuously met.

Slow combustion cooking



Bread - just out of the oven

Because of the cold weather, we have fired up the slow combustion stove - so we are using that now instead of the electric oven.
Great for stews, roasts and just about everything - even bread.
Temperature control is a bit iffy for bread, but it does work as this photo shows.
It's great coming down to the kitchen early in the morning to a warm room and being able to have a hot drink from the kettle sitting on the stove.
Makes it a pleasure to get up even on a freezing morning!

Consumer deception on a grand scale

Here's an excellent article by Steve Pennells, published in today's West Australian:
Reality lost down on the farm
The most expensive eggs in the supermarket last week came courtesy of Giuseppe, a third-generation egg farmer who lives with his wife, Victoria, and daughter, Annie, on their family farm built from scratch more than 70 years ago on their own "little piece of Australia".


It’s heart-warming stuff, told by Giuseppe on the egg carton in intricate detail, illustrated with family photos and his gratitude for "supporting our family". Sadly he says, Giuseppe Sr, who started the farm in 1948 is no longer with us. But Nonna still lives in the family home. There’s a black and white picture of her there too, laughing next to Giuseppe Sr in happier times.


Except it’s not Nonna and Poppa. The people in the picture never farmed eggs and never set foot in Australia. They’re also not Italian migrants.


The image is a US Library of Congress picture of two Polish immigrant tobacco farmers in Connecticut who were battling poverty in post-Depression America when the photo was taken in 1940.


Almost nothing else on this $7 carton of eggs is real, either.


Despite the family photos and heart-warming history Giuseppe and his family don’t exist.


Even the four happy chooks pictured clucking in the meadow next to the family photos are on foreign grass. That image is a widely used stock US photo which can also be found as the cover of the book Animal Philosophy a weighty tome on animal ethics with a chapter by Nietzsche.


"It’s not misleading," says Brian Ahmed, the managing director of LT’s Egg Farms, which distributes the Down on The Farm gourmet free-range eggs.


"How does it mislead? It’s the story of a family and that farmer is very common with almost every egg farmer in Australia." When contacted about the eggs this week, Mr Ahmed, who also happens to be president of the Victorian Farmers Federation, said Giuseppe’s story was not a lie.


SP: But they (the family) don’t exist.


BA: But the story of egg farmers if you go to every egg farmer in Australia you’ll find that is a similar story where they’ve all been passed on through generations of families that have grown up on egg farms.


SP: So you don’t think people would believe that’s where the eggs are coming from? BA: Well, that’s exactly what’s happening, mate.


SP: Really? So Giuseppe’s grandparents set up an egg farm in 1948? BA: Well, the date might be different but every farm has been set up in the 40s and 50s and it’s passed on in generations and now you find the children are running those farms.


He settles on the term "symbolic" to describe the company’s creative use of fictitious characters, emotive words and archive photos from the US Library of Congress to create the impression that a close-knit Italian migrant family in Australia was responsible for producing a pack of eggs sitting on the shelves of WA supermarkets.


"I can’t say if that’s (the photo) the actual people because what happens is we have a farmer in Western Australia suppling those eggs and we have a Victorian farmer in Victoria doing the same     thing," Mr Ahmed says.


Well, it’s definitely not anyone from WA or Victoria or any other egg farmer in Australia.


That picture of a Mr and Mrs Andrew Lyman, who set up a tobacco farm in America, was taken in September 1940 by Jack Delano, a photographer for the US Farm Security Administration, an organisation set up in the Depression to combat American rural poverty They farmed some vegetables too, but definitely no eggs.


The images and Giuseppe’s whole fabricated story feed into long-outdated myths surrounding the food that gets on our plate.


Photos of happy chickens frolicking across a meadow like Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music are products of a time long since gone and belie the grim reality of an industry of mass production.


One of the most interesting things about the whole Australian-Indonesian cattle fiasco is that while we’ve rightly felt outrage at the images of what happened to our cattle overseas, no one has felt the need to look at the Australian food industry with a critical eye or any sort of introspection.


Phrases like "free range" conjure images that don’t match the reality of intensive farming.


Free-range eggs are produced on an industrial scale and some come from flocks of up to 120,000 birds housed in huge sheds that may never find the door to go outside.


Their eggs come off conveyor belts. There is also no national standard defining what constitutes a free-range egg so those labels and their inflated prices should be treated with scepticism. Still, we’re willing to pay more for them because it eases our guilt.


The very reason Giuseppe was concocted is because we still like to subscribe to the romantic notion that the food we eat got to our plate in the best, most ethical and humane ways.


There’s a reason that Australian abattoirs and producers have always been reluctant to have photographs taken in their slaughter operations. They might be operating to best practice but even at best practice, the bloody reality of a slaughter floor is not a pretty place.


The West Australian’s resident food guru, Rob Broacifield, bemoans the consumer naivety: "We have become infantilised toward food production by our increasing distance from it it’s the reason pork consumption plummeted when the movie Babe was released and while many adults express squeamishness in child-like terms when faced with eating, say a f1uffy cute rabbit".


The pressure to work fast - time is money - means that the animals suffer. No one who eats meat can escape responsibility for that, unless perhaps you rear your own animals and slaughter them on the farm." The message is simple: if you eat the meat, take off the blinkers and take ownership of the reality It’s enough to make Giuseppe Sr roll over in his imaginary grave.


Postscript: Brian Ahmed confirmed late yesterday that Giuseppe and his imaginary family would be erased from the future egg cartons, saying the company had no intention to mislead.

Complain to everyone you can think of !!!!

Truth in Labelling for NSW?

New South Wales' Greens upper house member, Dr John Kaye has introduced his long awaited plan to define 'free range' and limit the consumer deception which is rife in the egg industry all over Australia.
His draft Truth in Labelling Bill sets a maximum outdoor stocking density of 1500 birds per hectare (in line with the Model Code of Practice for the Welfare of Poultry) and also bans the widespread practice of beak trimming birds which are claimed to be 'free range'.
Predictably, the Australian Egg Corporation doesn't like it because it wants to maintain and increase intensive production processes and allow major egg businesses to keep labelling their eggs as 'free range'.


AECL says:
'The draft, titled ‘Truth in Labelling (Free-range Eggs) Bill 2011’, would see free range hen densities reduced to unsustainable levels for a number of egg producers and would also ban legitimate forms of marketing for caged egg producers.
Despite the free range stocking densities suggested by Dr Kaye’s draft Bill representing levels that are currently farmed by some egg farmers, it dismisses the legitimate practices of others. While AECL firmly believes there needs to be a cap on the outside densities for free range production, the cap being suggested in the draft Bill is unsustainable and unrealistic. The commercial realities of free range egg production mean that the suggested low density in the draft Bill would result in the industry not meeting the current demand for free range eggs. AECL is to send a letter to MLC's and MLA's advising them of the consequences of the draft.'


The Egg Corporation is wrong. The stocking densities proposed in the Bill are clearly commercial as there are many free range egg farms currently operating to those standards. The stocking levels outlined in the Bill meet consumer expectations and hopefully buyers of free range eggs, as well as the many genuine free range farmers in New South Wales, will write or talk to their MLC's and MLA's urging them to support this Bill.
The NSW legislation could be the first step in a national definition of the term 'free range' if we can get the Federal Minister for Agriculture, Senator Joe Ludwig to make a decision.

New FSANZ egg standards to include egg stamping

The new egg standards being introduced by Food Standards Australia and New New Zealand (FSANZ) includes a requirement for all eggs to carry a stamp identifying which farm they are from.
The big operators don't care, they have all the equipment standing by and all they have to do is push a button.
The small operators (like us) don't really mind - it just adds to the daily grind. When I say we don't mind too much - that is as long as the rule applies to everyone selling eggs. Backyard operators who have no idea of food safety procedures are the biggest threat to consumers and if they sell eggs they should have to meet all the same standards.
It's the mid sized operators who are squealing loudest about egg stamping and claiming that it will cost them $20,000 - $30,000 to implement. What they are really worried about is that stamping individual eggs will identify them and hamper egg substitution.
The Australian Egg Corporation could move to clean up the industry, and it will be interesting to see how it responds to the new FSANZ requirements which we are told will be implemented in 18 months. But the AECL usually closes its eyes to the reality of the egg industry, just lke the Meat and Livestock Corporation to the treatment of Australian cattle in Indonesian abattoirs.
AECL has admitted that currently some 'free range' egg producers have stocking densities of 40,000 birds per hectare even though the Model Code recommends a maximum density of 1500. Its only response has been to try to introduce a new standard which allows intensive farms to be called 'free range'.

The free range/organic con is just as active in the USA

It's not just in Australia where big business is conning consumers. Have a look at this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbqyAemRlno&feature=player_embedded

Chicca's back home

I picked up Chicca from the vet yesterday and she's back on the farm. Looking a whole lot better.

Her temperature is back to normal and she has her appetite back.  We have to keep her inside for a few days until her course of antbiotics is finished (three tablets twice a day) but she doesn't mind as it's pretty wet and miserable outside now.

Quick trip to the vet

Chicca enjoys her 'spa'

We were just about to leave the farm this morning  to head off to Melbourne for an egg industry forum when we noticed that one of our dogs wasn't well.

Chicca didn't want to eat (highly unusual for her) and she seemed to have a high temperature so I rang our local vet straight away and arranged to take her in.

She had dropped heaps of weight (around 15 kgs). They kept her there for some tests and I didn't get back to the farm until midday so it was too late to head off to the city.

This was the forum at which the Australian Egg Corporation says it plans to unveil its new standard for 'free range' egg production - but that will happen whether I am there or not!

I should hear tonight if they went ahead with it, or whether the problems they have encountered made them delay the decision yet again.

More bodgy 'free range' applications to come

A planning application lodged with Mitchell Shire at Seymour in Victoria looks like one of the first applications for a 'free range' farm being set up under the proposed high density standards which the Australian Egg Corporation is still trying to establish.

Valley Park Farms has lodged a planning application for an 'intensive animal husbandry' facility but in its press releases, the company refers to it as a 'free range' egg farm. Free Range Farmers Association has lodged an objection and asked the Shire to consider the stocking density proposed on the farm.

It pointed out the requirements of The Model Code of Practice for the Welfare of Animals - Domestic Poultry  which allows a maximum stocking density on free range egg farms of 1500 birds per hectare. The total amount of land on which this development is proposed is 84.7 Ha - indicating an absolute maximum farm capacity of 127,000 chickens.

The proponents are suggesting 170,000 birds in a total of ten sheds.

The land will be divided into paddocks and the property will also have ancilliary shedding, roads, laneways, and the application includes a dwelling, which all reduce the amount of land on which the birds can roam to qualify as 'free range'.

FRFA also asked the Council to establish how much of the land will be accessed by the hens every day and impose a permit limit on the number of hens to meet the requirements of the Model Code. The stocking density proposed is likely to have serious off-site implications as a result of contaminated run-off.

The application is Planning Permit No P306142/10 To use and develop the land for intensive animal husbandry with caretaker's dwelling and to remove native vegetation. Goulburn Valley Highway, Seymour.

New solar hot water on the farm

We called Solahart to come and service the elderly solar hot water service on the farm cottage because it had stopped heating, They sent a plumber along and he fitted a new electric element but said it was pointless carrying out a service as the unit was useless. Not surprising really as we installed it nearly30 years ago. (Solahart still tried to charge us for a full service)

The newly installed Solahart unit

Anyway we got him back a week or so later to install a new system - or rather a second hand one as the casing had been damaged by hail and was an insurance write-off.

While he was here, I asked him to look at the solar unit on our main farmhouse - and that was a mistake.

The evacuated tube solar hot water system on our main house.
It's apparently the most efficient system there is -
but we are not convinced! 

It's an evacuated tube system which had a slight  water leak, so I always turned the water off to it unless we were using it for showers etc.  When he left, the leaks were worse than before he arrived, so I wish I had kept my mouth shut!!!

I'll now have to clamber around on the roof trying to reduce the leaks

As we are now heading into cold weather we need hot water - but we don't want to increase our energy consumption or our carbon footprint.

Get ready for the next round of financial turmoil

Most individuals and businesses don't spend a lot of time thinking about the global economy - after all that's what we pay our politicians and accountants for.

But the ramifications of corporate greed and political incompetence hits us all. Anyone with money in a superannuation fund, investments in the stock market, property, or simply in the business they are running, is vulnerable to problems in international financial markets.

The soaring price of gold is a stark indicator of a loss of confidence in currencies.

On Wednesday, November 3, 2010, Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve announced a second round of quantitative easing (QE2) to stimulate the economy. The plan was to purchase $600 billion of U.S. Treasury securities by the middle 2011. It was just after the November 2, 2010 General Election, and most of the world missed it because the election dominated the headlines.

For those of us who aren't sure what 'quantitative easing' means, here's Wikipedia's definition:

Quantitative easing (QE) is an unconventional monetary policy used by some central banks to stimulate their economy when conventional monetary policy has become ineffective. The central bank buys government bonds and other financial assets, with new money that the bank creates electronically, in order to increase the money supply and the excess reserves of the banking system.

This allowed the U.S. Government to authorise the Treasury Department to print money. No real currency has actually been printed, but the Federal Reserve has been able to electronically credit each commercial bank, allowing them to buy maturing U.S. bonds and treasury notes as part of their liquidity reserves. The Federal Reserve started this even before the financial meltdown of 2008, a policy which is plunging the US (and the rest of the world) into a financial disaster which is likely to last for decades..

As well as the $600 billion quantitative easing announced last November, the Federal Reserve announced that it was "reinvesting" an additional $250 billion to $300 billion from the proceeds of its mortgage portfolio in U.S. Treasury securities - a total injection of about $900 billion.

If at some stage, the Federal Reserve concludes that the U.S. economy is not growing fast enough, and decides more quantitative easing is needed, a third round may begin and then we can all kiss economic stability goodbye! Many economists believe that the Federal Reserve is already out-of-control and that the global economic system is heading for disaster.

The sad thing is that the Federal Reserve seems to believe that the policy has been working.

Accumulated problems within the U.S. economy after many years of neglect, inaction and excessive spending on pointless wars, have now been aggravated by turmoil in the Middle East and natural disasters on a scale which is mind-boggling.

From November 2008 to March 2010, the Federal Reserve bought more than $1.7 trillion in mortgage backed securities and treasury bonds. Through its quantitative easing policy, it created a portfolio of U.S. bonds and notes purchased from banks totalling more than $2.5 trillion by the March 2011. Some critics see the rising price of oil and other commodities as indicators of broader price increases which are set to spiral out of control as the U.S. risks heading into hyper-inflation territory..

Some believe that the Federal Reserve strategy may have helped stabilise the economy in the short-term, but unemployment still remains high (8.8% at the end of March 2011). Monthly U.S. home sales are still close to record low levels. New construction is also at historic lows. Banks tightened their credit criteria and have not been not lending much. As at January 2011, American banks had excess reserves of $1 trillion as customers borrowed less and  bankrupcy rates increased.

Foreign countries are balking at U.S. government's quantitative easy policies, and the U.S. will either have to start paying higher interest rates on government debt in order to attract enough investors, or the Federal Reserve will just have to drop all pretence and permanently start buying up most of the debt. Either way, the financial world will never be the same.

Webcam view of 'free range' egg production

Major egg producer, Sunny Queen has set up a webcam to show hens on one of its 'free range' farms.
The site can be accessed at:
 http://www.sunnyqueen.com.au/eggcam/

Unfortunately the quality is not good enough to see whether or not the birds are de-beaked or beak trimmed, but because of the scale of the company and its operations, they almost certainly are beak trimmed.
Sunny Queen is represented on the board of the Australian Egg Corporation which is trying to push through a new standard to define 'free range' egg production to allow up to 20,000 birds per hectare.
I bet Sunny Queen won't be too keen to show the results of a stocking density like that.

Jinma - worst tractors in the world?

I think it's a bit rough to call the Chinese Jinma tractors the worst in the world. They certainly don't measure up to a Case, John Deere, Fendt - or even a Fiat. But they don't cost that much either.

In this world, the best you can hope for is generally to get what you pay for.
I've had quite a few different tractors on the farm and as a basic workhorse, my Jinma 354 is OK (for a cheapie). The biggest problem with our unit was the hydraulics. They didn't work properly from day one. The controller for the front end loader was replaced a couple of weeks after delivery because of a manufacturing fault, fluid leaks continued unabatedfor three years.
We used at least $100 of hydraulic fluid every year because of leaks in the system. Mechanics who come to fix it say 'Oh it's Chinese. That's what they do.'
Then at last we mnaged to get it fixed. Apart from the cost of the leaking hydraulics, the only other big gripe was the rear hydraulic lift but that has now also been fixed.  The front end loader works great I must admit that a few choice words have passed my lips about my Jinma - but then I think .... I should have paid $50,000 for a tractor instead of $20,000.
It does a great job  pulling our mobile chicken sheds around the paddocks - and as that's its primary purpose, it scrapes by as 'not the worst tractor in the world.'

World Egg Day in October

Every year on the second Friday in October, it's World Egg Day, a campaign developed by the International Egg Commission to promote the consumption of eggs.This year it's October 14 and there will be a range of events here in Australia as well as around the rest of the world.
Here's the link for more info:
http://www.thinkegg.com/worldeggday.asp#
Now that medical researchers have come to their senses and recognised that eggs are good for us (even the Heart Foundation has given eggs the tick of approval), eggs are being included as part of a healthy diet.
My favorites are poached and scrambled, but I like eggs any way - as long as they are free range.The nutritional value and taste are far superior to eggs produced on factory farms. Those intensive facilities which call themselves 'free range' but debeak (or beak trim) their birds should also be classed as factory farms, because the hens cannot forage properly. They can generally only eat feed provided for them in pans or trays - so the eggs they lay are nutritionally identical to cage laid eggs where the chickens can only eat that same food. Genuine free range birds with full beaks are able to supplement their diet by eating worms, spiders, grasshoppers etc  - all the things they are supposed to eat and which add to the nutritional value of their eggs.

Here's one Chinese treat you could try to celebrate World Egg Day: Thousand Year Eggs Take a dozen or so raw chook eggs and add a few ingredients, including ash, salt, clay and lime. Then, bury the whole eggs in the ground (a pot filled with soil will do) for a thousand years or so (the recipe calls for 100 days). Then, dig them up and munch away. Both the white and yolk will have a grayish, dark colour. The yolk will have a green hue or tint. Some find the grayish green yolk unattractive (I can't think why).
I'll defnitely pass on that. But if anyone wants to give it a go, please let me know how you went!!!

Chefs have great difficulty finding real free range eggs

There's an excellent article about the difficulty in finding real free range eggs by chef Sebastian Carosi, published in the US newspaper, Rappahannock News.
Here's some of his article.

Good eggs are hard to come by — harder than you may think. It seems you can find chicken and eggs labeled “organic” and “free range” in just about any grocery store these days, packaged in bucolic images of rolling green hills and red barns. That is almost never the reality, even among these supposedly humane alternatives.
A chicken fed organic feed in a confinement barn with a tiny dirt yard does not represent ethical or sustainable farming. With this said, I guess that it all depends on how lazy the farmer is . . .
If said farmer does not let his barnyard birds out of the coop until noon, chances are the hens’ laying boxes will be full of quality eggs. But, if said chickens are let out to pasture, the said “lazy farmer” must start the process of finding and gathering all of the eggs that the hens have deposited around the yard, and carefully get them to the barn or kitchen to wash.
Pastured eggs are seasonal — the hens lay less as the days get shorter. In industrial confined egg operations they use artificial lights and a horrible practice called forced molting to overcome this. That means that starting in October, egg production declines and by November, may be half what it is in the summer. However, while the ladies are resting and not earning their keep, they are eating even more expensive grains because of the cold weather. That’s another reason why pastured eggs cost more.

Not everything he says is entirely accurate - for example our hens are never locked up in their sheds and yet the vast majority of them lay their eggs in nest boxes. We don't have to find the eggs in the 'yard' (or paddock in our case) and we never need to wash our eggs -because they aren't dirty.
You can read the rest at:
http://www.rappnews.com/2011/04/21/add-freedom-to-your-eggs/14499/

We have asked the William Angliss catering school in Melbourne to consider including farm visits to different egg production facilities so budding chefs can understand the different production systems and see why the qualityof eggs varies.

Feeding the world

There's nothing new under the sun. The world's major corporations are trying to tell us that genetically modified plants, artificial fertilisers, pesticides and factory farming techniques are essential if we are to feed the world in the coming decades.

We are told that the population explosion means that we must embrace ever-more intensive practices.

Possibly one of the first population explosions experienced in our relatively modern world happened after the agrarian revolution in England.

Thomas Malthus (1766 – 1834), a British economist was the first to point out that the advent of scientific agriculture had not solved all mankind's problems, indeed it only increased them.

While new methods allowed food production to increase in arithmetical progression (where the increase is measured by addition), population increased in a geometrical progression (where the increase is measured by multiplication).

His worst predictions were realised by 1792, which was the last time there was a surplus of English wheat for export.

Ever since, Great Britain has been a food importer. Successive British governments tried to hold the empire together to ensure food security, but everyone is aware that England is an island and if anything happens to stop imports of food, the population faces starvation.

Our Australian politicians are even less bright. They don't seem to worry much about food security. Their priorities have been about fighting wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan - anywhere really. After all it's not them who put their lives on the line. 

Let's get back to the village community, where we produce what we need to support ourselves.

If you'd like to see more of Thomas Malthus' views, have a look at:
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/thomas-malthus-theory-of-population.html

RSPCA standard not much better than the Egg Corp

The RSCPA's free range egg standards are almost as much of a consumer con as the current standards of the Egg Corp Assured program and the new standards being proposed by the Australian Egg Corporation.

At least the RSPCA imposes a maximum outdoor stocking density of 2,500 hens per hectare, if a rotational grazing system is able to maintain fodder cover.

The AECL acknowledges that under its current system, some farms are running up to 50,000 chickens per hectare.

Under the new version of the Egg Corporation standards, it proposes to limit stocking density to a maximum of 20,000 birds per hectare.

Both the AECL and the RSPCA allow beak trimming of birds.

The standards of the Free Range Farmers Association limit outdoor stocking density to 750 birds per hectare and beak trimming or de-beaking is prohibited.

The Model Code of Practice for the Welfare of Animals – Domestic Poultry only allows beak trimming as a last resort if other management methods have failed to prevent feather pecking or cannibalism in a flock. It imposes a maximum outdoor stocking density of 1500 birds per hectare, but does allow a higher level if pasture growth can be maintained. It doesn't specify an upper limit and it's that loophole which is exploited by some intensive farms and allows them to get away with massive overstocking. No-one enforces the requirements.

Losing top soil

Last year, the US Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service estimated that the rate of soil erosion on agricultural land averaged only 5.2 tons per acre per year in Iowa and 3.9 tons per acre per year across the Corn Belt. On the surface, this data was reassuring, because it suggested erosion was within the so-called “sustainable rate.” But a more precise look udertaken through a project run by Iowa State University shows that these statewide or regional estimates are masking the serious damage that occurs when larger storms hit.
“When a storm hits vulnerable or poorly protected soil, fields lose more soil in a single day than is supposed to be sustainable for the whole year, or even decades,” said the University's program head. “If we had the same kind of information for other intensive corn-growing states, the picture would be the same or worse. Alarm bells should be going off across the Corn Belt.”
Farmers are planting fencerow-to-fencerow in response to high crop prices that are likely here to stay. Misguided mandates for corn ethanol production add fuel to the fire, and flawed government farm and insurance subsidies clear the way for all-out production with little regard for what happens to the soil, water and wildlife habitat.
We don't get subsidies in Australia, but there is no reason to believe that things are any better here.
More details at:
http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/20110413_soil-erosion-in-corn-belt-much-worse

What's really in an egg?

Quite apart from the colouring additives that most egg farms use in the feed they give to their hens, now farms are being urged to add a fly control agent, cyromazine to the feed. It is recommended to use it every day for four to six weeks, then break for a similar period before starting the cycle again.

There is a three day withholding period for meat birds, so they should not be fed the additive for three days prior to slaughter (which is usually when they are around six weeks old). But there is no withholding period for eggs!

Interestingly, manure from hens which have fed this insecticide, should not be spread on land used for growing vegetables at rates greater than four tonnes per hectare.

Hmmmm.