We sell outstandingly fresh, healthy and genuinely free range eggs.
Our hens range freely around the house paddock, protected from foxes by two Llamas and one dog. The chooks get a lot of their food by foraging around the gardens, and are fed a specially formulated feed mix made to our specifications. This feed contains a healthy mix of; cracked grains (wheat, corn, barley), seaweed meal, ground limestone and dolomite. No antibiotics, no genetically modified grains or seeds, no coccidiostats, no yoke colourings and no artificials are used.Our hens are a mix of breeds and we have a preference for the Australorp, a black, dual purpose Australian breed. Our egg layers are bought as day old chicks and raised on the farm. They are not debeaked, which is a barbaric practice of the caged layer industry. We house them until their down is replaced by feathers, then they are moved to pasture. They join the main flock on pasture when big enough to fend for themselves.
Warning - we've had a complaint about our eggs! We run roosters with our chooks so some of the eggs will be fertile - as is natural and as it should be. So, if you don't like the red spot that will sometimes appear in some fertille eggs - please don't buy our eggs. We also collect the fertile eggs, put them under a 'broody', and this is how we get chicks that eventually become new layers. We are becoming a closed loop farm by not buying in replacement animals and breeding our own instead.
Are 'barn laid eggs' better than caged eggs?
Not much! The chooks are permanently indoors in a steel and concrete egg factory. I know the word 'barn' conjures up images of rustic old style farms, but this is not the reality as the birds are still in an intensive confinement production system. The only difference between barn and caged birds is the ability to stretch their wings. The stress, the numbers, the debeaking, the inhaled fecal particulate are all constants with 'barn' and caged birds. Don't be conned, don't buy them.We clean but don't wash our eggs!
Washing of the eggs is a cosmetic process which often reduces quality. Wet cleaning shortens the egg's shelf life as it removes a film or coating that nature designed to protect the contents. This also means the washed eggs are more prone to becoming 'tainted' by other fridge contents. We clean soiled areas of eggs using a dry slghtly abrasive cloth.
Vegetarian eggs? How preposterous!
This is a new marketing tool of the egg industry that brings you the factory farmed, caged egg layer as machine - don't be conned. Anyone who has watched a free range chook, for just one minute, will realise that it is a fundemental biological expression of being a chook to eat meat. Worms and grubs, insects of all descriptions, small reptiles and mammals; all are 'fair game' to a chook. When our neighbours complained about the 'hopper' invasion, we just smiled as our chooks took two days to bring the plague under control. The bulk of our chooks' feed is seeds and grain, but when the chooks go on to pasture their feed consumption drops by about a third. In other words, a third of their natural diet is being denied to caged "vegetarian" hens.Supply?
These eggs are in constant demand from chefs, foodies, clients and friends as they have few equals. Supply is always limited, and the price is $7 per dozen. Available from the Southside Farmer's Market, CIT buildings, Hindmarsh Drive, Phillip, Sun 9-12. Also available by special order at the Capital Region Farmers Market at EPIC, Mitchell.© 2007 by Michael Croft and Mountain Creek Farm, All rights reserved.