Anne and Phil Westwood run the Freeranger Eggs farm as a fully sustainable farming enterprise.
There is no need for our hens to be locked up because they are always protected from predators by their personal guard dogs.
The hens are fed a natural diet of grains with no colouring additives - and they are not beak trimmed. De-beaking, or beak trimming, is not necessary on a true free range farm. If a farm beak-trims its birds (removing part of the beak) to stop them pecking each other, it's an indication that the farm is not really free range, but is an intensive production system. 
Hens are gregarious creatures, but they prefer small groups and they tend to  become aggressive when too many are confined in small spaces - which is why the big producers always beak trim their hens even though it is contrary to the Model Code except as a last resort.

We run a maximum of 40 hens per hectare in flocks of 200 - 300 each with mobile roost houses. We deliver in our region to shops and restaurants and eggs can be picked up from the farm.  Variations in yolk colour are a good indication that the eggs really are free range. If the yolks are always a deep orange in colour, it's likely the hens are being fed additives to fool consumers.
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Yolk colour will always vary, depending on what each hen has eaten. The colour may not be as deep and bright when there is not much green feed about - such as in the middle of a drought. If yolk colour is always consistently bright, you can bet that colouring additives are feing fed to the hens.

Channel 10's The Circle looks at the Freeranger eggs farm

Aaron Wood came down to the farm to check out what we do.
Paul Mercurio from Mercurio's Menu also came and we appeared with Des Dowling on Talk to the Animals as well as ABC TV's Landline and several Current Affairs shows.
    

Freeranger Eggs Farm CV

 Freeranger Eggs has a comprehensive Quality Assurance and Food Safety Program in place which takes a three pillars approach covering farm sustainability, safe food production (human health) and animal welfare


We encourage customers to look at our website and make an appointment to visit the farm


Registered with DELWP for free range egg production



Hosted many groups including CWA, Friends of the Earth, Women on Farms, Friends of the
Cranbourne Botanic Gardens, Landcare National Conference as well as overseas farm groups.

CEO of the Humane Society International and the Chief Operating Officer of Humane Choice
have visited. The Chief Executive Officer of HSI (Verna Simpson) wrote to us saying "As FRFA does not seem to be continuing as a certification body you are welcome to  become a full Humane Choice farm. I know you probably don’t need certification as you sell all the eggs you produce. Your farm is what free range farming is all about and you would obviously have no trouble meeting our audit requirements. It is just a shame that FRFA’s internal issues could not be resolved."

Hosted international business delegations looking at sustainable farming methods
including several from Papua/New Guinea and Europe

Held many open days and workshops to promote sustainable agriculture, the latest being a
workshop as part of Fair Food Week in August 2013

Provides an educational facility for, amongst others, Victorian College for the Deaf,
Leongatha Secondary College

Research property for various tertiary institutions 

Showcased on television programs including The Circle, Mercurio's Menu, Talk to the
Animals, The Living Room, Landline

Featured in numerous newspapers, magazines and journals

Encourages and actively assists new entrants to the free range egg industry

Australian national winners of the acclaimed Austrian 2012 Energy Globe International Award for sustainability

Freeranger Eggs was a founding member of the Western Port Biosphere Reserve

Freeranger Eggs maintains a waiting list of potential customers. Our eggs are basically laid to order for distribution in our local area and we simply cannot satisfy additional demand.

Anne and Phil Westwood operate the Freeranger farm with Maremma dogs to protect the birds. Eggs are collected by hand, graded and packed several times every day ready for delivery to restaurants, shops and direct to customers.
We don't send off our hens to make  soup when they finish their first laying season. We keep them longer and find  homes with local people who want chooks for their backyards. They lay  happily  for another three or four years and often longer.
Freeranger Eggs is a 200 acre diversified beef, sheep and chicken farm at Grantville,  part of the Mornington Peninsula and Western Port Biosphere  
Reserve.
We have implemented strategies aimed at sustainable land use in conjunction
with biodiversity conservation on the property and adjoining land.
The farm has  Bass River frontage and forms part of the only riparian  forest left on the river.
Our property is a vegetated link between the Grantville Flora & Fauna Reserve and the Bass River and is ecologically vital for the local survival of a variety of species.
Amongst animals living here are Powerful Owls, Barking Owls, Lace Monitors, Mountain Brushtail Possums, Swamp Antechinus, Potoroos and Bandicoots. Sixty acres of the farm are protected by a Trust for Nature covenant and we are also part of the Land for  Wildlife Scheme.
The property is demonstrating that primary production can be  commercially viable without compromising ecological values and that  cost-effective farming, environmental protection and enhancing species  biodiversity are not mutually exclusive. The farm took part in a sustainability  study of free range farms in the Port Phillip & Westernport Catchment  Management Authority area. The study, conducted by an independent agronomist,  found that our production techniques were sustainable and showed that our low  stocking density provided overall cost benefits.
Production includes  chemical-free beef and lamb, wool for hand spinning and free range eggs from  hens in mobile roosts and protected from fox attacks by Maremma guardian dogs.  Regular movement of the roost houses which are sheds  on  skids, provides natural nutrients to maintain lush grass growth with no additional inputs, also encouraging the spread of native grasses.
Activities on the property have been designed to minimise off-site impacts. All creeks lines are vegetated to maintain water quality run off into Bass River and our management ensures the long term sustainability of our farming activities.