Free Range Eggs

Freeranger Eggs has been established  to demonstrate that a commercial farming business can  operate  without  compromising the environmental and  ecological values of the land as well as meeting strict animal welfare  standards. The farm has been set up as a traditional mixed farm, running sheep  and cattle as well as free range hens. 
It is being used to showcase sustainable farming principles and provides a practical example of land use which can operate commercially as well as provide good environmental outcomes. Workshops and practical farm session are held for students, farmers and others in the community.
Our low flock numbers provide easy management and eliminate the need for beak trimming or de-beaking which is conducted on most intensive farms.
None of our processes is automated to reduce power inputs. Eggs are collected by hand several time each day and taken to the grading room where they are candled (passed over a light to check for imperfections) graded for size and then packed into cartons or onto trays ready for delivery.
They are usually in the cool room within an hour of being laid to guarantee top quality. Our production, grading, packing and storage processes meet all the requirements of our HACCP-based Food Safety Program.
Each flock of hens has several feeding bins and watering points which are checked at least twice a day to ensure that feed and water are constantly available.
Our mobile sheds are moved around their paddocks on
a weekly cycle to ensure that grass cover is maintained and that muddy conditions are avoided.
If the areas around sheds become dirty, it's likely that mud on the feet of the hens will transfer to the nesting area and could contaminate the eggs. With proper management and clean nest boxes, eggs should not be dirty. At Freeranger Eggs there is no need for eggs to be washed – any slight marks on the shells are removed by a light buffing with an abrasive pad.
Our hens have 24 hour access to pasture if they wish, and some sleep outside in the grass or in trees or bushes –
protected from predators by their guardian dogs. Eight Maremmas protect our hens.
We  have developed a regular customer base in our region and we deliver our eggs to  retail outlets, restaurants and direct to home delivery customers as well as attending Farmers' Markets.
It is important to us that eggs are delivered within a day or two of being laid and we have a strict policy that no eggs will be sold by us if they are more than a week old even though eggs which are stored correctly have a shelf life of at least four weeks.

This operation was developed to prevent 
feather pecking and cannibalism amongst chickens in intensive production systems (cages). Unfortunately it is also conducted on most of the hens destined for so-called 'free range' farms.
Probably over 90% of eggs labelled as 'free  range' in Australia are laid by chickens which are on intensive farms and which  have been beak trimmed or de-beaked
Beak trimming is usually carried out at hatcheries when the chicks are day old or up to around 10 days old.
The Australian Egg Corporation turns a blind eye to provisions of the Model Code of Practice for the Welfare of Animals – Domestic Poultry, which stipulates that beak trimming should be a last resort for chickens which are claimed to be 'free range'. To meet the standards of the Code, farmers are required to try other methods to eliminate feather pecking and cannibalism – such as selecting more suitable breeds, rather than high producing hens developed for the cage industry, and other animal husbandry techniques.
But the reality is that all intensive 'free range' farms approved by the Australian Egg Corporation use chickens which have been beak trimmed as a matter of course. There has been no attempt to try any other options.
Beak trimming is prohibited on farms which are members of the Free Range Farmers Association Inc and the Association also has a  maximum stocking density of 750 chickens per hectare – even tighter than the Model Code which stipulates a maximum outdoor density of 1500.
Even that maximum density is generally ignored by farms which are approved by the Australian Egg Corporation.
James Kellaway, the AECL Managing Director, has acknowledged that some approved farms are currently running up to 40,000 or more birds per hectare.
Rather than address that problem, AECL is trying to push through a new 'free range' standard which will allow intensive farms to label their eggs as 'free range' even though the hens are beak trimmed as a matter of course, they can be run at a density of up to 20,000 birds per hectare and they are locked in sheds until they are 25 weeks  old.
This provision has been designed to ensure that young hens are 'acclimatised' to life in a shed and they don't understand  that they can have a life outdoors.