True free range

Our chickens are laying now and you can pick them up by the side of the road across from the Mugga Lane tip on Saturdays between 10-2pm.
Price of eggs is only 5 dollars per dozen when picked up – eggs no more than 48 hours from point of lay.
Delivery is substantially more.
Please see first post for email contact.
Thanks.
Limited supply

You have to see how a proper free range egg farm works and in my case with over 600 chickens prior to this to get a hands on understanding of how it works.
Clean nests and the right kind is what works along with proper fencing, feeding and watering systems. There are so many types of architecture for this out there.
This is a family tradition for us now so I have
many years of experience behind me to improve on what worked and didn’t work before.
Ducks are another thing and I cannot comment on them. They do like their ponds though!

Our duck eggs were always well covered in pooh! ducks splurk everywhere (these ones ate snails and things which seemed to make them even more splurky). We’d just scrub them before opening them for cooking.
Ducks spend the night in their nest, they don’t decamp to a perch, so there was ample opportunity for splurking repeatedly in the nest. I can just imagine the average punter, used to supermarket eggs, being confronted with a liberally splurked duck egg.

No, that is unacceptable. No eggs should be picked up except from their nests. There is NO excuse for picking up eggs outside of the nest for consumption. Eggs are fresh from attending to the chickens and their nests each and every day- twice a day. The real challenge is keeping eggs clean by ensuring there is enough fresh straw in their nests to keep down the inevitable habit of chickens creating droppings wherever they go.
Luckily they prefer to save it for their perch.
I have no problem eating a fresh egg with droppings on it but you can’t sell those eggs- although they are often sold that way in small green grocers in Sydney. Better that than the eggs being cleaned which destroys the barrier protecting the egg from nasty bacteria. Sometimes
a dry cloth can be used to brush away dirt or hay without compromising the hygene of an egg.

That’s one of the things with free range, they are out lying where the hens have hidden them, and sometimes older eggs get found. Maybe lying in the sun for a bit, so one side gets cooked! Often a good thing to break each one into a cup or soemthing before breaking it into your cake or thing that can be ruined.

The Girls of Gallway, I think that was the ones the Oaks Estate hoochery sell. They’re hidden down in the soft drink fridge (with the milk).

I got some bad free range eggs at my local IGA they were the Gallway girls or something, about 4 eggs un the dozen looked like they had been 1/2 boiled, then left and packed, dont think Ill get them again

cb60

Best of Luck, as a former free range egg farmer I will tell you that what ever amount of eegs you think you will get, half that number and that is what you will get in salable eggs. $10-12 a dozen is pretty steep i get my true free range eggs from the Southside famers Market, There are a few people selling there at about $5 a dozen, and to show jsu how authentic they are they are unreliable.

I had 400 chooks on a free range egg farm closer to canberra than you will be and basically with the price of grain and unreliablity of free range eggs you will be very very luck to make any proffit at all, In fact i would look at it as a hobby that is not costing you too much.

You want to be using the right ammo for those Tofus, you only get one shot before they’re onto you.

I spose I shouldn’t mention the Oaks Estate Groggery sells eggs (even if they are from Burra) as Coles and Woolies might send the frighteners around.

ant: they sometimes have those eggs at ainslie IGA too.

You can get Burra eggs at the grog shop at Oak’s Estate. The box says Teh Girls of (something or other). Bloody useful if you’re heading home through Oaks (to visit the grog shop!) and don’t want to stand in line at Coles for hours. They sell milk, bread, and eggs. and grog.

10- 12 dollars per dozen in case anyone is in doubt.

To be fair to Nik-The-Pig (hmmmm) I plan on selling these eggs to a lucky few for top dollar. In other words, people passionate about their eggs and the condition the chickens live in that laid them.
It is not my staple income but it will more than pay for itself as there is 20 birds per acre of organic pasture plus free recycled vegetables to supplement grain.
It is a niche market and I expect to satisfy those few I can accomodate.
I also plan on growing chillies and a number of other things – like TREES.

I didn’t even know there was such a thing as feedlot beef. Learn something new every day…

Ari is right, a proper fresh free range egg cannot be beaten(excuse the pun)

what as opposed to battery cattle?

As opposed to sheep, pigs and cattle who are fed on grain or industrial feed (mmm…Lil Lisa Patented Animal Slurry). That is, they’re free to graze while they range, and this grazing constitutes the bulk of their feed. I’ll take grass-fed beef and saltbush lamb over feedlot stuff any day.

Forget the guilt, I don’t give a sh*t about the animal liberation stuff, but genuine free-range eggs do taste better.

“but who pens/cages cattle or sheep”
Feedlotters do. Well, maybe not sheep, but definitely cattle.

You don’t need to worry about what profit is in it, that’s my business. 🙂

Free range beef? from free range cattle? what as opposed to battery cattle? I can understand the organic bit and even the free range bit with regards to pork but who pens/cages cattle or sheep?

cb60, so you’re only getting 40 cartons a week (I missed that in your original post) and $2 profit per carton is wrong but being that I rarely pay attention to individual items when shopping what’s the going price for eggs? Am I high or low? If high you are surely making even less money and if low even at double the profit margin you’d still be hard pressed to make a penny. I take it this is to be a supplement to regular income or are you attempting to be mostly self sufficient?

Oh and Maelinar, thanks for the correction 😉

I would try Griffith butchery

I have some friends who have a property near Bungendore, and they give us eggs from time to time. Their chickens roam around their giant backyard, eating scraps, bugs, worms, snails, whatever they like. The eggs taste amazing.

I love eggs. Warm, runny eggs. Now I’m hungry.

Is there a reputable free-range chicken meat farmer around Canberra? I can get free-range organic beef (Greenhill), pork (Bundawarrah) and lamb (Ando), but no luck with chook.

NTP, it’s Guesstimate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guesstimate

I only collect eggs from the nests, usually they prefer laying in their nest as long as you create the right environment. Trial and error on nests does the trick.
Anyway I know many Canberrans will pay a good price for a good egg. Eggs you get in the supermarket are at least 6 weeks old and break due to lack of shell grit in their diet amongst a number of other things.

We have only 6 chooks on our little plot , and have not had to buy eggs since getting them.
They seem to have a happy life roaming wherever they like 🙂
The eggs are sometimes hard to find though ….
And I think my kids have named them …

You are wrong , not all chooks will produce an egg each day especially as I don’t force them into produce by artificial light.
And no I will not get $2 per dozen , I think you should go see what the going price is for eggs these days.
Actually, I rang the Co-op today and will be selling some there if it is in demand and the co-op is happy. Others will go to friends and
then I’m thinking of a drop off point for a group interested in bulk buying together.

Now please correct me if I’m wrong but I though most chooks produce about 1 egg per day per chook. So with 100 chooks that’s about 8 dozen eggs a day. Guestermating (yes I know that’s not a word) a profit of $2 per dozen after expences that’s $16 per day, $112 per week. Hardly enough to feed yourself yet alone run a business. What am I missing?

cb60 congratulations on the setup. I doubt sadly that those who aren’t convinced by the virtue of free range eggs, will see sense in what you’re doing. Too bad for them. But for the rest of us (and there’d be heaps of us in the Canberra region), this supply is great news. Personally I get my free range eggs at the ANU coop, when I can. Where will the deliveries be too? A central point in the CBD? Homes?

I’m making a big deal about it because there are egg farmers out there with caged birds selling their eggs in free range marked cartons.
I do love my chickens and treat them like any other pet but no I don’t name them- I want them to be healthy and happy and in return they are fun to watch and give healthy eggs.

I love chickens but society just doesn’t seem to understand…

So.. have you named each of your chickens?