8 August 2009

ingebra free range eggs going public?

| ingebra
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The RiotACT has been our main forum for getting the word out.

Needing some feedback as we are moving to the maximum amount of chickens homed here and will have a further amount of eggs available.

Would Canberrans come out to Burra for egg supplies?

We’d only have at most 120 dozen available for the whole of the region.

It’s top restaurants in Canberra or the finicky public which might let us know because we only have a very small niche market.

ALSO, like to thank all those who are enjoying their own free range eggs now from the sale of our older layers to make way for the new.

Food lovers who bother to create a great home for their hens!

Again and Also, this time next year there will be another group of hens and we are planning on a “chicken day” with jazz music and vegan herbal pizza with all those strange marvelous things you don’t always expect but I hope with more flavour and fun to have something else to do in Canberra.

Thanks RIOTACT.

Charlie

Go to www.ingebra.com and let us know

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AG fantastic, so happy to hear ! in fact everyone who bought chooks from us had gone to the trouble of building great backyard free range systems- very encouraging!!

SheepGroper- you are absolutely right the company that supplies us with immunized day old chicks supplies the very large companies with thousands unlucky enough to go to battery farms. All I can do is my bit and get the word out there, and hope Australia follow the UK in having all battery farms banned by 2012.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7180018.stm

Thanks again

I am one of the lucky people who have bought hens off Ingebra – the three girls are now keeping us in eggs along with the three we already had. On average we get 25-30 eggs a week. The poop means our veges grow like they are on steroids.

I do think you may have an issue maintaining the market for the ones you turn off each year. We enjoy a nice 900m2 block – with plenty of space for a coop. I reckon some of the shoe boxes in Gungahlin would strugle to house even a couple of chooks in comfort.

Either way we should support someone doing the right thing when it comes to caring for animals as well as getting a return from them.

DHMO said :

Without cage healthy laying stock and feed are not going to be readily available.

Aren’t cage farmers heavily subsidised making the cost difference between cage and free range artificially wider? And are all laying hens on free range farms sourced from the companies that supply the caged industry?

I-filed, Woody, taco – all excellent ideas but mountain creek was where i started a few years back when selling on side of road and they just couldn’t offer the ease experienced with restaurants nor the price.
flyers yes great idea- i did so at the hospital actually but you can’t rely on people again as you can with chefs who require a certain amount regularly.
branching out is also something i was thinking of doing where if enough ppl were buying organic feed, it would offset the greater cost to go completely organic- thanks for reminding me but presently we are spending so much on fencing it would be something to do down the track.Except for the pellets we are organic because of clean paddocks – no use of pesticides whatsoever or contaminants from water but the wheat in the feed is obviously grown commercially and non-organic. I know there is already a man locally who sells organic feed and drinkers etc so it maybe he has cornered the market and it would be difficult to break in. It’s really up to the public to make contact via the website http://www.ingebra.com co-ops interested in eggs or supplies.

thanks very much for your considerate replies- it’s very much appreciated.

Have you thought about branching out to free range/backyard chicken supplies? Selling organic feed, hutches, waterers etc?

Woody Mann-Caruso2:21 pm 09 Aug 09

Hand out some flyers near the John Gorton Building. Once a week / fortnight, set up shop – between Finance, Environment and Treasury, you’d sell 120 cartons in five minutes flat.

Ingebra how about a beneficial partnership with a couple of businesses – if you could demonstrate through market research that, if you say had your eggs at Mountain Creek Wholefoods (slap bang in the middle of your main target area i would have thought) or Ainslie/Lyneham/Yarralumla IGAs, that would bring new customers through their doors — those businesses may well be happy to make shelf space.

I recall Johnboy took a fancy to some Bulgarian goat’s cheese at Ainslie IGA, put a pic of it on the site, and the restocking in the shop increased soon after … so there’s sort of a riotact precedent!

DHMO, been living in the country on a farm since 17 -on and off and still think it’s nasty and cruel and mostly so much waste. no point in rallying against change – caged birds are becoming more and more a thing of the past thank goodness- large scale free range is existing all over the world and different systems are being used.
cheap food for the masses- the large supermarkets throw out mass amounts of food not bought, not eaten – over to the bin. better farming practices can overcome much waste and destruction.

Thanks again for your comments, it’s a lively forum!

Woody Mann-Caruso8:49 am 09 Aug 09

If your place in the world as a carnivore upsets you

*thinks for a moment*

Nope. Wow, you almost had me going there. Now, time for bacon, eggs, buttery toast with honey and some nice milky coffee.

Sorry but whole food industry in the eyes of city folk is nasty and cruel. Who would be a pig? It is not only food either, how are sheep, horses and cows treated? This is so because of the need for cheap food for the masses. If your place in the world as a carnivore upsets you then stop eating ANY animal products. Free range survives because there is cage. Without cage healthy laying stock and feed are not going to be readily available. This means much larger costs so the quantity would drop such that eggs would become nearly as rare as hens teeth. BTW I am just trying to promote some reality I am not and advocate for any organisation.

..for the sale of hens I should say and not through- i think if a proportion of eggs are sold to the public it will help rehoming hens.
Oh and I wouldn’t have individuals come out for eggs but one person coming out to purchase for a large group so no waste in petrol
plus it’s about time the public got out there and had a look at what goes on at a free range farm- well worth the effort. Although
once you run out of local eggs I guess you can always pick up from the local supermarket where they come from as far as Melbourne 🙂

Art: I better clear something up- thanks for giving me the opportunity. All my eggs are already sold to two restaurants and when I double that amount those are sold to restaurants automatically too if I so wish because they are of the highest quality.
Business is fantastic but I happen to be an animal lover and I do not wish to have any of my hens slaughtered unnecessarily
when it is time for a new group to be raised. Consequently I must think laterally to create a following of other like minded people.
Recently I sold the last of my older chickens to make way for the new and can proudly say they all went to fantastic homes while raising money for cancer support. My idea worked and everyone is happy. Next time however due to greater numbers it might be much harder to find homes. I run a family business- that means no cash in hand sales- everything is invoiced and yes it is very convenient to drop off the eggs in bulk to the restaurants. I really would rather not sell to the public but I do want to continue
to let people know who we are through the sale of hens.
My mother was a certified organic free range egg farmer for years but what you don’t understand is it means very little with no proper regulation in place. You see there are people who unscrupulously re label, or become certified and then go to cheaper feed and all sorts of tricks not in the best interest of the chicken or the consumer. It’s very naive to think otherwise. Having said that I know there are some wonderful and genuine farmers out there selling at market.

Oh yes, I’ll drive my V6 on an 80km journey for free range eggs. Very good or the environment and my car.
I’m sorry but there are a number of CERTIFIED free range organic egg producers who can be found at the markets and even in local supermarkets.
A tip is if you want to succeed in business, you need to do the work. Approach local restaurants and cafes, appear at the local markets. Surely you driving a shipment out to the markets and restaurants on one day is a lot better and more efficient than any other option.

No, I wouldn’t travel to Burra, but I like the idea of an email with a request for orders and then a drop off/pick up at some convenient location.

thanks everyone for your comments. demand outweighs supply – my main concern is to keep the public aware of us so we can
continue selling the hens to good homes as we have thankfully done so far. Many have asked if we will ever sell eggs to the public
so I’m researching it. RIOTACT has been a great forum for feedback.

As DHMO stated there’s a lot of work involved with free range and it is WORTH it- I am against animal cruelty and I choose to have a small scale sustainable chicken farm for the sake of their happiness. That’s what it’s all about. Until it is regulated people might want to bother to visit local farms instead of buy the eggs transported from miles away. Good on the local small free range farmers selling
at the markets – those who are practicing real free range but it is hard to know which of any of us does it.

Woody Mann-Caruso7:06 pm 08 Aug 09

WMC is just doing a bit of market research

WHO TOLD YO…I mean, nothing. What? Look over there!

(And if any of you start selling sex toys shaped like Parliament House, you’ll be hearing from my lawyer.)

I doubt most free range eggs are genuine. I’ll amend that the cartons would be. I grew up on an egg farm. At the beginning it was what is called free range and over some years progressed to cage. Why was this? Simple my father needed to make a living to support his family. The main advantage of cage is that by using lights you fool the birds into laying all year. At least double production results with a much shortened life for the birds. With free range you have to guard the flock againt predaters. Foxs, dogs, hawks, feral cats etc. They just need to scare the birds and they will stop laying. This increases labour costs as does gathering the eggs. Also don’t forget birds will also attack and eat each other. So in an industry that is not regulated I think as Choice said they are phony. Besides they should cost about ten times the price of cage. Oh your question I will not buy at all. If one is concerned about cruelty don’t be sucked in!

Clown Killer6:27 pm 08 Aug 09

For a long time we used to buy our eggs from a guy that came in once a week from near Braidwood. He sent out an email every Thursday letting everyone know what stock he had (apart from his wonderful eggs, he also sold a small selection of home-grown herbs and things) and it went on a first-in-best-dressed basis by responding to the email. Sure he was a smaller outfit than you guys – probably selling around 40 dozen a week – and with an established clientele with a strong purchase history he had little trouble moving his stock.

Sorry, make that Ingebra, not WMC.

dusty said :

You’ve gotta be kidding!
First rule of marketing: go to where the customers are lazy ass.
Why would we want to drive out there when free range eggs are evrywhere in town now.
You’ve got a bit of catching up to do mate, best get busy not sitting in front of your PC pontificating.

You’re a bit out of line there Dusty. WMC is just doing a bit of market research. Why such arrogance??

You’ve gotta be kidding!
First rule of marketing: go to where the customers are lazy ass.
Why would we want to drive out there when free range eggs are evrywhere in town now.
You’ve got a bit of catching up to do mate, best get busy not sitting in front of your PC pontificating.

I have to concur. Try and resell through EPIC farmers markets, or Southside Farmers markets, or through Choku Bai Jo, or at a roadside stall out of a van a few days a week. There is a guy on the Monaro Highway at Hume that sells flowers most evenings as I drive home down there. Something similar for certain kinds of farm fresh produce could work IMHO. People driving home sure do have dinner on their mind.

I love farm fresh eggs but agree with Woody; too far out of my way and they are farm fresh at the Farmer’s Markets. Maybe you guys should do a stall at the Farmer’s Markets or even road-side in Tuggers?

thx for comments and good point about wasted travel. Obviously don’t want many people coming out anyway but i was thinking co-op groups of buyers. Plus i think people and chefs should equally be interested in viewing the place where the chickens live to make sure they are truly free range and being looked after properly. Again not a whole group but a representative for the group. So many people just go on the packet or heresay as to whether or not eggs are free range.

Yes, the travel is both a cost and environment problem. How about paying someone centrally located – pay with eggs – to set up an honesty system for your buyers in their shed? You could send them in with a Burra neighbour who commutes to work in Canberra …

Woody Mann-Caruso11:11 am 08 Aug 09

Would Canberrans come out to Burra for egg supplies?

I wouldn’t. I’m on the southside, but it’d still be an 80km round trip for me. I can get free range eggs from multiple suppliers at the Southside Farmers Markets.

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