2018 has been a year of changes, one of which involves chickens. Yes, you heard me. Chickens. When Farmer Bob and I moved to The Farm we got a dozen chickens. Our girls grew into gregarious, friendly and productive layers.
We quickly found that fresh eggs were delicious. The more we understood about how horribly laying hens were treated, the more we wanted our girls to have happy lives full of sunshine, grass, fresh air, bugs and plenty of room to spread their wings.
I started to bring eggs into work with me. The response was good. People noticed the difference a fresh egg makes and knew that eggs from our farm came from well treated chickens. Both Farmer Bob and I enjoyed the hens. One day we (had a couple glasses of wine) and cooked up the crazy idea of getting more chickens… selling eggs… taking over the world. We decided it was worth following.
We started with research. Apparently, according to our Council’s local laws state that there were only 20 chickens allowed per title. Right. Ok, then.
We applied for a permit to change the conditions of out title to allow us more chickens. When this mouse saw the price tag on the permit application, I decided to get my money’s worth. Up the number of chickens to future proof the application. Take over the world… 750 chickens… muh haha! As a matter of process, the Council had to advertise our applications to our neighbours. If no one objected, we got our permit. If we had more than 5 objections, we had to go to a Council Meeting and defend our permit and hope that the politicians were feeling gracious.
As it turned out, 13 people objected on grounds ranging from noise, animal cruelty, smell, decreasing amenity…Chickens it seems, are public enemy #1. We (half) joked that it would be easier to get a brothel approved than get a bunch of chickens. We decided to decrease our requested number of birds to 400 and take a stand at the Council meeting. In the end, we got our permit. Operation Chicken a go go!
The plan was to have our 400 girls graze in the pasture with all of the freedom, sunshine, bugs and grass they wanted.
Farmer Bob and I decided that we would grow the flock slowly, and, when we were ready, get into selling commercially. All was going well until I reached out to a local farmer looking for a broody hen to sit on some eggs. She and I got to talking and it seemed that she was looking to sell her fancy pants chicken tractor and her flock of heritage breed chickens. After some negotiations, Farmer Bob and I were chicken farmers. GULP.
A chicken tractor is basically a chicken house on wheels. This one has perches for 500, 1400L of water tank space collected from the roof, nest boxes that are angled to the centre of the house and a solar powered conveyer belt to bring the eggs straight to you. It is open at the bottom and the girls can come and go as they please. Predators are managed with solar mesh fencing, alpacas, books on tape (the girls listen to books and the fox hears the voices and stays away) and fox lights which flash at night in random patterns.
The girls came with two small supply contracts which we will continue. So now, Skyfall Farms Pastured Eggs are born. We will sell beautiful, fresh, multi-coloured eggs collected from heritage breed hens fed on pasture grasses and a certified organic food. Currently, we are finalising our label and hope to be on the shelves at the end of February. The adventure has begun! www.skyfallfarms.com.au