One thing we are trying to establish is how much roughly will a wholesale free range egg sell for ? Obviously a lot depends on target buyer and volume discounts. Looking in the Spar and Woolworths, i note that these eggs retail between R1.30-R2.10 per egg depending on how many you buy. I would look at direct, bakeries, restaurants etc

I only sell directly to the end user and an organic market – I charge R42 for 30 eggs. This is for mixed sizes large, x large and jumbo. The one baker I sell just large to and charge him 1.19 per egg. A thing that caught me out was the fact that I have no control on egg size (i asked my hens really nicely for large but….) The result is that I have many more jumbo than large (which is what all bakers and cooks want due to recipes needing large?) Spar and Woolworths have a very strict buyers policy.

The other question, is what is the typical egg life / productivity of a single hen ? Assuming it is breed specific, but roughly ? I note you indicate 60 weeks – is that an appropriate guideline for the lohman ?

60 weeks is what all large producers work on. While the breed makes some difference, more important is how the bird was raised to 18 or 20 weeks. A good trustworthy supplier of layers is critical unless you are raising your own chicks to point of lay. Feed, vitamins and vaccines seem to make a huge difference in the quality of the eggs and lay rate (and this all happens in the first 18 weeks. Remember to ask for free range birds – my first batch came debeaked and terrified to go outside.

The final question surrounds the ‘after shelf value’ of the hen. Assuming one could sell a hen for meat, should you definitely factor this stage into the business model and what are the options here.

A big factor – you can get R28 – R35 per hen after the 60 weeks. Many black folk love older chicken – known as “hard chicken” in rural speak.

Any input would be much appreciated. Alternatively if you would point me to someone who may have advise on this this would be very kind of you

Go onto the forum – it is free and there are buyers, sellers and farmers all participating. With regards to breed type – I asked an guy from Onderstepoort some time back for the best breed to breed chicks for free range hens on the Highveld – his answer:

Ovambo, crossed with Venda… Remember lots of calcium /crushed sea shells in their diet..for good egg shell quality. The Boschveld breed is also good… But I would cross the Boschveld with Koekoek…. using 7 Koekoek roosters each with 2 boschveld hens to create your first 7 lines from which you do cross breeding. to prevent inbreeding.

 Wayne, I have read that supplementing your hens diet with food like radish, rye grass etc will improve the egg quality. do you do this and what other food sources (eg worms, vegetables, etc) do you recommend has a visible and proven impact ?

Definitely a plus. Vegetables like carrots, spinach, magou and chillies give the yolks that deep orange colour – worms, bugs, baby rats and mice – chickens will eat anything. Avoid potatoes and Avo (and limit cabbage). I also give mine my table scraps – meat, rice etc. As long as you would eat it – it will be good for them – If you are going to give them egg shells (which are very good for calcium) crush them so they do not look like eggs or they will hammer your eggs in the coop.

I will work through this huge source of info, and keep in touch if you are ok with this. One more issue we are investigating is typical consumption rate per bird and of course sourcing well priced food. We currently have been advised that the a chic consumes 1,814 kg of food to produce 1 doz eggs. Price of food is R220/50 kg. Do these figures ring true with you ?

Mmm sounds high (but could be an average over the whole 60 week cycle) – I give my chickens between 105g and 125g per day each. I am playing around with feed amounts to see if I can get the egg size down without dropping lay rate. Just remember that you still have to feed the non layers – and in a large flock, unless you are cage farming, it is difficult to see which hens are not laying, or laying badly. You will also be paying for waste – I end up with lots of feed on the ground, and if you are free ranging you also end up feeding the local bird population.

How to do free range egg farming in South Africa – Some common questions and answers about what chickens to use, or what hens to use when free range farming and how to breed you own strain of free range chickens.

Most incubator equipment can be used for ducks, exotic birds, parrots,  turkeys and geese. The smaller units are not automatic, but simply have a thermostat control. The small units also do not rock the eggs – you will have to turn them yourself. Commercial units are fully automatic, monitoring temperature, humidity and rocking the eggs for you. Some of the “off the shelf” units can hatch up to 600o eggs per month. A poultry farmer who wants to sell day old chicks, or who is breeding hens as laying hens, can make a fair amount of money off units like these. They do not come cheap though. Owning the incubator is not the only piece of poultry equipment you will need – firstly tou will need to have a chicken house with layers and roosters so as to supply your hatchery with fertile eggs. It is possible to purchase fertilised eggs if you do not want to breed. You will also need a place to keep the baby chickens – and a market to sell to – if you are selling day olds they will need to be delivered to the customer on the day that they hatch – otherwise you will be paying for feed and housing. If you plan to raise the chickens for any other purpose, such as layers, you will need to house them for 18- 20 weeks. The house you keep them in will need brooders, a fancy name for heaters – usually run off gas or in the case of an infrared radiant heater, electricity. It will need to be a poultry house with a good winched cutaining system, unless you are doing a few chickens at home with a chicken coop. All of the standard farming principles will apply – if you are selling the layers as organic chickens they will need to be fed and housed according to the regulations. If they are free range they will need to conform to the guidelines for free range farming. The layout of your free range farm can make a big difference to you success – so plan carefully.

The hatcher that you decide on for your hatchery will be deterimed by:

• Budget
• Number of eggs you wish to hatch out
• How automated you wish the process to be

Egg incubators used for hatching eggs and then raising chickens for bird breeding and getting chickens from eggs is a simple enough process – but like all profitable businesses there are lots of details that must be followed. Poultry disease in a hatchery can be a big factor – a hatchery probably has more potential than any other aspect of chicken farming to spread disease. When moving form house to house, or around the farm – the rule of thumb is “FOLLOW THE EGG”. This is speaking of limiting the spread of disease. It means that you deal with your live chickens first - do whatever work needs doing in those houses before you go into you hatchery. Once you are finished in the hatching area – shower and wait 12 hours before going back to your live birds. Generally older birds are less susceptible to disease than younger birds – so work your schedule accordingly. You will not be allowed to sell any chicken egg that has been fertilised – that is selling it for eating – it is against the law – even though in the first few days, and without a warm chicken or incubator, there is nothing wrong with eating a fertilised egg. Which ever unit you decide on – rather go for one that is semi automated – a unit that rocks the eggs and maintains it’s own temperature and humidity. This will allow you to focus on other aspects of the poultry farm – if you are unsure whether you want a incubator at all – perhaps start with a few fertilised eggs under a lamp – turn them 3 or 4 times a day and see what kind of results you get. Then see if you can keep those few chicks alive long enough to do something with them. If you are free ranging – separate some of your hens in a separate range and place a rooster with them – let nature take it’s course and see how many chicks you can hatch naturally!

This farm layout is for a 12 meter x 6 meter layer house that holds 720 chickens. The poultry coop may not use layer cages – so either the hens will lay on the floor (not permissible in free range) or you will need to use nest boxes for the hens to lay in. The first diagram is with no field rotation and the second is with a field rotation. The size of the poultry house and the size of the land is measured in square meters. The coop will have to have free range openings on both sides and in two place on each side to allow the chickens into the ranging area. The figures are based on a stocking density of 5 hens per square meter out side the run and 10 birds per square meter inside the structure.

The guidelines when farming free range hens for eggs are as follows:

INSIDE

• 1. 10 birds / sq.m inside. 12 birds/sq.m if perches are provided,
• 2. 15 cm per hen with a gap on either side of minimum 1.5 cm.
• 3. Good, dry litter must cover 33% of the inside floor area.
• 4. Nest boxes – 1 nest per 8 hens.
• 5. 1 adult hen per 5 cm of feeder length access both
• sides (feeding troughs, chain feeders).
• 6. 40 adult hens per feeder (pan or tube feeders).
• 7. 100 birds per bell drinker.
• 8. 10 birds per nipple1.25cm per bird on a water trough.

OUTSIDE

• 5 birds / sq.m outside.
• 50% living vegetation present at all times. (green if possible)
• 4 square meters shade per 1 000 birds.
• Secure fencing with gate around run.
• Separate egg packing and egg sorting room. (outside poultry run)

 You will also be restricted in what poultry equipment you use and the quantities of that equipment:

For 720 laying hens the equipment is as follows:

Poultry Equipment Quantities

1. Nest boxes required (1 nest per 8 hens) – based on a 24 hole nest box = 4 x 24 hole nest boxes
2. Perches required (15cm / hen) = 11 meters running perches.
3. Bell drinkers required (100 birds per bell drinker) = 8 x bell drinkers
4. or.
5. Nipples required (10 birds per nipple) = 72 nipples.
6. Tube feeders or pan feeders required (40 birds per feeder) = 18 x tube feeders or pan feeders.
7. or
8. Trough feeders or chain feeders required (1 hen per 5cm- both sides accessible) = 12 x 3m troughs on legs.

NOTE
These are quantities of individual components, you will need to budget for whole systems –
for example: the nipples require nipple pipes and a winching system. Both bell drinkers and nipple
drinkers need a water tank and manifold system. An automatic chain feeding system will need
motors, chains. bins and suspension.

Because free range chickens may not have their beaks cut (well actually burned) they are able to easily forage – while this is good for your chicken , it is a real pain for your fields. The hens will quickly destroy the vegetation – if they do not eat it they will just scratch out the roots looking for worms and grubs. In a short time your land will look like a desert! To allow your land time to recover you will need to move the chickens or the chicken house – moving the structure is possible with a mobile poultry house, but most farmers do not have this luxury. So the plan is to limit what fields the chickens can access, and when. Remember that the hens need a specified space to roam to call you operation “free range, and a certain amount of vegetation must exist if you want to stay inside the regulations. The method of field rotation requires that you have 4 times as much land as is required – and that the layer structure is in the middle of the land.

The chicken coop will have openings in 4 places – each able to close and open – and each as an entrance from the structure to the field. you will allow the hens access to only one field at a time. You will rotate as the fields recover – A savvy farmer will not just let these fields lie fallow. Free range chickens love vegetables, and chicken manure is great for growing crops. The poultry farmer will use the fields for growing food that chickens eat. Just remember not to cut all of your trees down – this will mean that you have to put up shade clothe or something similar to shade the hens – they will need 4 square meters per one thousand birds – more if you can.

The farm layout can vary as it suits your land and budget. The chicken fences can be added as you need the field, or you can use temporary chicken fencing on your  free range farm. The fences should be at least two meters high – unless you plan to cut their wing feathers. The hens will live on a layer farm for 60 weeks – so they will esily be strong enough to fly over a low poultry fence. Broilers may not be able to as you will only keep them for 6 weeks.

poultry battery cages

Broiler chicken production

It is the growing of poultry for the purpose of their meat for consumption. The cycle, or time to be able to grow a bird from a day old chicken up to the sell-able weight, is usually 4 — Six weeks. Free range chickens will be placed inside the chicken house that is the same as intensive agriculture – but shall be permitted to forage outside. During intensive poultry farming your birds should be held within your chicken house and usually roughly fifteen hens a sq. meter.

Layer chickens for egg growing

Hens are in general procured at the age of Eighteen weeks (point of lay hens) and tend to be kept for approximately sixty weeks – in this time frame hens will lay on average 0.8 chicken eggs a day. During intensive egg production the point of lay hens shall be held in layer cages or battery cages. In free range egg growing and also organically grown egg growing all of the point of lay hens are going to stay inside your chicken house and yet have got access to open space and also be permitted to look for food naturally. Larger chicken houses will use automatic drinking and feeding systems. Smaller chicken coops will use manual feeding and drinking methods.

Breeder farms

Breeder farming shall have a hen house which carries both cocks as well as hen chickens. The chicken eggs should be picked up daily then taken away to a hatchery. The prime focus of such a farm is in order to grow day old birds in order to offer the poultry segment along with farmers who will probably raise chickens to 18 weeks for egg growing. In all of the 3 sorts of chicken farming, all the fundamental farming principles stay the same – All the hens shall need heating, cooling, medication, feed plus water.

The variety of chicken is not significant, all chickens need these fundamentals. Regardless of whether it is a poultry structure keeping thirty five thousand chickens or maybe a small-scale hen coop for one hundred birds, the grower will adopt all of the same principles. In larger chicken houses infection can easily spread really quickly, and the losses, clearly, will be significantly higher.

pan feeding for poultry

Feeding Chickens

Smaller-sized growers will give food to their hens by hand – either employing tube feeders or spreading the feed by hand. Layer farmers will utilise a pan feeding system, or possibly a chain feeding method. These kinds of feeding systems are completely automatic and make the task of giving birds food very straight forward. All the feed for automated feeding systems would come from a silo.

Water for Chickens

Small to medium sized poultry growers will use either bell drinkers or water fonts in order to supply the chicken with water. Larger growers will probably make use of a nipple drinking system. Impex nipples are usually sought after by lots of producers. This is arguably the best nipple drinking system on the market – and at a price you can afford. The quality of water is very important – like humans, chickens need quality water. Water with scale, or dirt in it, can clog the nipples easily.

Heating up a hen house

Generally there are a number of methods for warming up a poultry coop, though laying hens may possibly not require heating around warmer climates, day old chicks shall clearly have to have warmth. Propane gas poultry heaters really are the first option for many chicken farm owners. (Gasolec makes a excellent poultry heater). Other solutions may be electric brooders that make use of infrared heat lamps, and also heatcos, that work with fossil fuels.

Cooling down a poultry structure

Large houses will have cooling fans plus winched curtains – small sized growers are going to also choose fans, yet smaller sized. The most reliable technique to be able to cool down a poultry structure is by utilizing a winched curtain method. The curtains run down both lengths of the hen coop and can be lifted, as well as lowered, dependent upon the what is needed at the time. Sealed, or closed, environment poultry houses do not use curtains but massive fans and water – quite similar to air conditioning.

The Chicken House

Almost all small poultry farm owners will probably have some sort of steel poultry houses specifically designed for poultry, a laying layer house will have laying cages intended for egg production along with curtains which lower all the way to the ground. Larger producers will use brick and mortar structures. Broiler chicken farmers will probably grow their poultry on the flooring which is usually covered with wood shavings. No matter which variety of agriculture that you mean to try out, you will want to inoculate, plus medicate all your birds. You will also use products like stress packs which contain vitamins to help the chickens.  Organic chicken farm owners are controlled in exactly what medicines they are able to provide to the chicks.

Lighting in a hen coop

Light sources are highly beneficial in any sort of hen house , no matter if this will be eggs, broilers or breeders. Lights, when utilised appropriately, can assist with production, along with body-weight gain, and also loss. It probably will assist the laying hens to lay more eggs, and also the broiler chickens to actually eat more. Lots of small hen producers disregard this valuable aspect, and yet for a rather small outlay of cash, your improvement in production can be substantial. Free range and organic and natural chicken agriculture are limited by way of the regulations and may not use lights as efficiently as intensive chicken producers.

Auxiliary solutions and Poultry equipment

As with any kind of business – the larger your production, the more techniques you search for to save money and effort. Many alternative systems that assist farmers are systems like mono rails (that is a gantry that carries things such as feed, egg trays plus medicines). Larger egg farmers probably will have an automatic egg sorting machine – a particularly inventive, and costly, bit of machinery, that sorts, grades, plus cleans all the eggs in to weights , and then simply stores them into egg containers.

Whatever sized farmer that you want to be one would do well to find out about all the ins and outs of farming. Learning exactly how other people do it may be the difference between staying in business and going out of business. Try to reinvent the wheel is a waste of time – just replicate what your opposition does, as well as refine on their procedures.

Computerised systems and poultry farming software

Computers perform a great role in larger poultry farms – managing food, temperature, water as well as humidity. Software is very advanced and to manage a large farm, or even a small farm, computers are essential.

There are also devices designed for de beaking chicks – utilised in intensive chicken farming to put a stop to the chickens wounding each other, and equipment used for the slaughtering of poultry, as well as cutting and preparing the chicken into salable food portions. Batch weighers are usually used for you to determine precise food meals and quantities for poultry houses.

Whatever poultry farming you decide on, the methods of chicken farming remain the same. There are obviously finer details that differ between the types of chicken farming – especially if you plan on free range or organic poultry farming. Poultry software will not help you to actually farm – only to mange your farm better!

Broiler at nipple

Drinking water is distributed by means of plastic piping coming from the header container and is fed to your chickens inside the poultry house through nipples which are coupled to the pvc nipple water lines. The nipples only release a drop of drinking water if the chicken pecks on the nipple. A good water resource is critical — water with scale, or tap water with sediment will jam all of the nipples and create leaks. A nipple drinking system provided by Chicken Shack Agencies is going to be set up – it includes a water purging system so that the water pipes may be easily flushed.

A good quality nipple will not leak but will only let water flow if the bird pecks on your nipple with its beak. Quite often poultry producers like to place a catch tray beneath the your nipple to stop drinking water from wetting the litter. The important benefit is no one has to personally supply the chickens with drinking water – really inefficient if the bell drinkers and fonts must be filled or washed on a daily basis. And the second key bonus would be that the nipples are “no mess” whilst using bell drinkers typically the birds splash drinking water as well as mess inside the water – which causes wet litter and sickness. Inside of a broiler coop you are able to utilise manual drinking methods – in a laying chicken house whenever using layer cages you will be made to utilize a nipple watering kit. Your nipple piping run on top of your laying cages and then the nipple sits over the battery hens head – which makes it straightforward for the hens to locate drinking water.

Impex nipple

Nipple watering systems sometimes do not use drip cups. (Leak cups are extremely useful – and it is advised you employ them. While a good many growers don’t especially like drip cups because they may become dirty and bring infection. The actual nipples for these systems are made for broilers. These are sealed by just both a stainless-steel ball, and pin in stainless-steel seatings.

Sealed drinking water system

Watering systems are made to give chickens good clean drinking water. These are the benefits associated with Impex nipple watering systems:

Optimal hygiene;
Better water temperature;
Marginal water wastage;
Simple to cleanse;
Very little maintenance;
Always enough water points;
Optimum supply of medicines or additives;
Dry shavings;
Reduced moisture, much less ammonia.


The Impex nipple watering system operates in this way:

Layer cages with nipples and drip cups

The main drinking water supply comes from the header container. The tank pressure is usually dropped to close to 1.5 – 2 bar using a pressure reducer that has a filtration system. The water with lowered pressure moves through the meter in which the quantity of drinking water can be checked. The water is delivered through the medication attachment to supply medicines plus nutrients in to the drinking water supply. The filtered water is sent with the PVC pipes into the pressure reducer of all of the individual nipple drinking pipes.

The pressure reducer enables reduced pressure for the best operation of the nipple and drip cups. You are able to calibrate the pressure reducer and it may be checked with the drinking water level in the air outlet set. The water will now be accessible for your flock from the nipples.

Nipples are screwed directly into thick square plastic PVC tubing. The length for the nipple lines is 3.65 meters. You may select the amount of nipples you choose on each line determined by your number of chickens per square meter ratio. Typically the nipple pipes are attached with a fastening clamp to help keep the pipe secure. Nipple lines are generally hung by way of a winched system, and they are put up at Three meter distances. Whilst the hens grow you raise the nipple lines to the optimal height for the birds to drink.

Impex nipple drinking solutions are great for many types of poultry businesses including laying hens (poultry produced just for chicken egg growing, parent stock, (breeder farms), broiler chickens (chickens grown for their meat), and even free-range hens and organically produced poultry. Your nipple drinking solution can be used inside a chicken house — if you are intensive chicken growing, as well as outside the poultry house for organically grown and free-range birds and chicken egg production.

Whilst a system like this isn’t too difficult to setup as part of your chicken coop, if you have not performed a drinking system previously it may present complications, crooked flooring, unclean drinking water, dripping piping as well as the winched system may all give you troubles – therefore you need to get this right — if perhaps drinking water does continuously drip in you poultry house you will have a really awful stench and perhaps health issues. Chicken Shack Agencies can supply and install on your poultry farm — no matter where you are situated. We can come out and strip whatever other system you’ve been using and set up a good nipple drinking system for your birds – spares and maintenance are no difficulty – whatever person you get from make certain that they’ve got a good stock of spares, and that they are willing to come out and assist with repair – it is important — lots of farm owners attempt to obtain the lowest price and end up forgetting that they will require the seller to perform post sales and repair — perhaps for the next 10 years, with your nipple drinking product. Select wisely. Some other types include Val nipple watering solutions – an excellent system, highly regarded by many farmers — however very costly, with out added advantage or benefit compared to the Impex nipple drinking .

If you are a grower and wish to be listed – send me an email and I will place you details here for free.

Free Range eggs in Gauteng

Doornrandje (20 minutes from 4 Ways)

Happy eggs

Free range eggs

Contact Happy Eggs

The way this egg farm works is quite unique – if you need eggs on a regular basis the farmer will place a batch of hens specifically for you. So if you need 10 trays of 30 eggs every week (300 eggs per week), the chicken farmer buys 50 point of lay hens and the eggs that those chickens produce will be yours. You will be committed to taking those eggs every week throughout the year. Once the chickens begin to stop laying you will have the option to ask for another 50 hens to be place for the next 60 weeks (a good laying hen will lay productively for 60 weeks and then they start to lay less and less). This method ensures you get fresh eggs every week in the quantities you need. You will need to wait about 6 weeks for the process to begin and for your hens to start laying eggs. You will be allowed to visit the farm and check on your chickens – in this way you can promise your customers that your eggs are indeed free range, and are being treated accordingly.

If you are looking for only a tray or 2 the best is to visit the Organic Market in Bryanston – here you can buy small quantities of fresh, free range eggs on a Thursday or Saturday form 9am – 3pm. The Organic Market also sells a wide range of other fresh produce – much of it organic.

Free range eggs in the Orange Free State

Harrismith

Organic and free range products:

Nguni cattle

Nguni veld fed beef and skins

Free range eggs and chickens

contact heathersame@gmail.com

cel:0829202788

Free range eggs and organic eggs – with so many labels on eggs today it is unsurprising that the public is confused. This includes such labels as “grain fed”, “Barn raised” etc. – do not be misled – these are not free range and not organic. These chickens are still kept in closed, cramped houses and are fed a cocktail of drugs. The best way to see if you are getting what is being sold is to visit the farm and see for yourself. Large production chicken farms will not let you visit – and you can be sure their chickens are raised in factory farms – and the hens laying eggs are raised in layer cages or battery cages. Free range and organic have specific regulations about how many birds live in a set space, they state what the chickens can be fed, and debeaking and other cruel practised are not allowed. Eggs are layed in nest boxes, or on the ground – although not a great idea as floor eggs are generally dirty. Hunt around your area – see if you can find a chicken farm that will sell eggs to the public – Who sells free range eggs and organic eggs in South Africa?

Many poultry farms offer free range eggs, as do many supermarket chains – remember “free rage” is a term that is loosely used – government regulations on free range eggs are quite clear on what can be defined as a free range egg – and that definition is not as kind to chickens as everyone would believe. The regulations still allow for cramped living conditions and such a small outside space that it hardly warrants the term “free range”. Find an egg farmer you can trust – visit the free range egg farm for yourself, and you will soon see who embraces the spirit of free range egg farming.

Happy eggs - healthy humans!

Chicken farming regulations are being worked on – so South Africans can expect changes for the better. As hard as it is to find true free range eggs in Gauteng – a bit of hunting in your area may turn up a small egg farm which is willing to let you visit and buy eggs directly from the farm. Want to start raising your own chickens for free range – it is not difficult – a small chicken coop and the right poultry equipment and you could be eating your own free range eggs! Free range eggs in Bryanston, free range eggs in Pretoria and free range eggs in Hartebeespoort can be purchased from Happy Eggs eggs farm.

Happy Eggs is a small free range egg farm located in Doornrandje – 20 minutes north of 4 Ways Mall. Our egg production is small – but our free range eggs taste fantastic. Our hens are fed fresh vegetables everyday – and unlike some free range egg farms – our hens get to really free range – lots of space and lots of sunshine. Rich orange yolks come from a diet of veggies and natural foraging. We grow eggs for eating – not for farmers who want to buy fertilised eggs for a hatchery. If you want fertilised eggs for hatching your own free range eggs, leave a messages and I will try and find a contact for you. If you are planning on free range farming you can use normal fertile eggs from any egg producer that offers fertile eggs- even if they come from a hatchery that does not specialise in free range and organic eggs – the regulations and guidelines do not stipulate that the eggs must come from free range hens.

True free range eggs – sunshine and space

Most eggs on the market are come from caged hens – some times called cage eggs – this means they are raised in battery cages, or layer cages – up to 7 hens in a cramped cage – and they will spend their lifetime in that cage. Not good – for you, or the chicken. When you buy eggs – look and see how they have been farmed – if they say free range it only means that they are allowed outside, this is still not really free range farming as many chicken farmers pay only lip service to the regulations – and do not embrace the true concept or meaning to free range, allowing their chickens a small, dusty area to range in. A true free range chicken will have access to fresh grass, bugs and insects – chickens are not vegetarians, and tasty eggs come from happy chickens who are allowed to forage naturally. Organic eggs are difficult to grow in South Africa as all the feeds that are on the market are not organic – but these free range eggs are as close to organic as we can get them. The other criteria for a good egg is the freshness – no matter what type of eggs you are buying, you really want fresh eggs – less than seven days old. You can see a fresh egg when you break it open (no way to tell before you buy), an old egg will spread in the pan – the yolk will not stand up and be firm , and the white of the egg will spread very easily covering a wide area. Fresh eggs will hold their shape and be firm – the white and the yolk. The colour of the yolk says nothing about the freshness – and often nothing about the type of egg. In winter the yolks of my chicken eggs are often a yellow colour rather than a deep orange – this is because certain vegetables like carrots and spinach do not grow well in winter – and what a chicken eats colour the egg yolk. We usually place birds for our wholesale customers – so if you are looking for a regular supply of more than 10 trays of free range eggs a week, we put in a small flock of birds for you, and you buy the production of those particular hens. Happy chickens – Happy eggs – Healthy humans! – contact us – small quantities of free range eggs only – at a great price!

Where to buy organic chicken food in South Africa? This is almost impossible – all grain in South africa contains GMO’s – and as a result any poultry farmer wishing to produce organic chickens or organic eggs, will have to grow all of their own chicken feed. There are no suppliers at this stage who sell organic layer mash or organic chicken feed. Anyone who knows where to get organic food for chickens – please let us know. This is why most farmers in S.A who want to produce alternatives to caged chickens or cage eggs opt for free range farming – the standards do not stipulate what you feed your chickens! When you feed your organic chickens they will eat just about any vegetables – avoid avocado pear – but they love cabbage, sprouts, broccoli, spinach and a lot of the fruits like apples and melons – avoid citrus as well.