Fenella's Garden - organic fruit, vegetables, herbs, flowers and eggs

Home

Organic Eggs

To call an egg 'organic' we not only have to range the hens on ground managed as detailed in our Organic Life section, but also follow certain basic principles:

Free Range
The hens should be able to express natural behaviour in a stress free environment. This means keeping them in small flocks, giving them more room to move about and easy access to their range.

We have a flock of 50 hens, which is the optimum number for the hens to be able to remember one another and their place in the pecking order without resort to bullying. The hens live in a large house with lots of nest boxes to avoid conflict at busy egg laying times, and have a range about three times bigger than that required by the Soil Association standards.

Rotation of range
The hens and their hut should be moved onto fresh ground every three months to avoid parasites and diseases. If there is no fresh grass available on the range before three months is up the birds should be given access to new ground - the hens should always have access to fresh grass under Soil Association standards. Routine use of anti-biotics and other medicines is not allowed.

Our birds range on clover rich pasture, with a wide range of other plants they like to eat. We move the birds onto fresh ground every three months, but within that three months alter the range to give access to fresh grass at all times. We also mow the grass to give the hens the small growing tips they favour. Fresh grass not only gives the hens their preferred food, it is what makes the egg yolks so rich and orange.

Organic from hatching The birds must have been organic from hatching, be fed organic feed, and range on organic ground.

Our birds have been kept in organic conditions since they hatched and are hybrids bred for their suitability to a free range life. The birds eat only organic concentrate, and the vegetation on their organically managed range.