Higher Oak Farm; Where We Are Now

So over the past year our farm has changed tremendously.

January 2020 we started the year off with a barn, a temporary house 4 X ‘50’ houses, 7 breeding runs, a poly-tunnel and an incubator that could fit 60 eggs in. My how we’ve grown! Our smallholding in Lymm now consists of a barn, a temporary house, 2 laying houses, each housing 150 birds in, we’ve got 6 of our ‘50’ houses, 2 of our ‘100’ houses, 7 breeding runs, 2 brooding sheds, a holding shed, a poly-tunnel, 2 new incubators pushing our capacity up to 1300 eggs at a time, a wildflower meadow, 10 beehives, a shepherds hut and a dog!

This past year has been the weirdest one for all of us. Never in my life did I think i’d see a pandemic, let alone run a business during one. Luckily for us, our business was one of few that actually thrived during the pandemic. People stockpiling all sorts of stuff meant that shops were looking sparse, pushing people to change the way they shopped, sourcing more stuff locally, learning about food miles and what this means to our planet and all in all becoming a little bit more self sufficient.

At one point last summer we had waiting lists of weeks for both our eating eggs and our hens. People were spending more time at home, in their garden; revamping chicken houses or just building a run from scratch. It was honestly, madness - in THE best possible way! The selling of our eggs and our birds continued right through the summer into the beginning of Autumn. At this point, we opened ‘The Shepherd’s Hut’.

We opened the hut for the first time on the 26th November 2020. In the weeks running up to our opening, we had so many people speculating what it was, and what it was going to be used for. Once we opened our doors, it gave so many more local people the opportunity to learn about us and what we do on our farm. We took this opportunity to educate people on the poultry industry and the advantages of buying local, naturally farmed eggs and produce. We started putting some of our own baked treats and and they were flying off the shelves. It was almost impossible to keep it full!

We genuinely couldn’t believe the reaction that we got from local residents and people from further afield. Hearing such positive feedback only spurred us on more. We sourced local produce like our Apple juice and even started to make jams using local produce too.

After a few months, we deiced the only logical next step was to put a coffee machine in the hut, who doesn’t love a coffee or a cuppa with a slice of brownie? You’d be mad if you didn’t!

I honestly can’t believe how much our business has changed in the past 12 months, the support that we’re getting of local Lymm residents and the time it takes to feed chickens! We’re super excited to see where we’ll be this time next year.

What Does 'Free Range' Actually Mean?

After the year we’ve had, as a nation, we’re much more aware of where our food is actually coming from. We all remember at the start of lockdown when the supermarkets were running out of the essentials, one of which was eggs; We had never been so busy, absolutely amazing for us!

There’s always a common misconception as to what ‘Free Range’ actually means when it comes to the care and environment the hens live in. until I delved into the egg industry, I actually had no idea what any of the terms meant. I’ve just written a quick blog to explain what they means and what it means for the hens too, just so you can make the right decision for you when buying food products..

Breakdown of egg codes:

When you buy an egg from a supermarket, they all have a code that’s been stamped onto the shell. It’ll look something like this:

Working from left to right, the number at the front is reference to the status of the farm, 0 means that it’s come from an organic farm. 1 means that it’s come from a free range farm. 2 means that it’s come from hens living in a barn and then 3 means that the hens are in caged conditions. Next along is the country of origin; UK. This is then followed by the individual Farm code. This allows each egg to be traced back to the farm where it was produced and then underneath is the ‘best before’ date.

The meaning behind the terms.

Organic - This is the best standard that you can get. All our hens are kept to organic standards, this means that the hens eat all organic feed, have access all day to the outdoors they are kept in much smaller flocks compared to other status’. The maximum hens in one coop is 2,000 birds on a large commercial scale, we have at most 180 birds in 1 house. The hens have 10m2 per bird available outside of the coop and we have maximum 6 hens per m2 inside the coop. They have 10cm of space per feeder per bird, they have at least 18cm of perch per bird too, which means that the hens don’t do something called ‘Vent pecking’ this basically means that there’s enough space between the perches so that the hens cant peck the bum of the hen sitting above them - gross, I know, but it does happen. In short, it’s great to get anything that’s kept to organic standards.

Free Range - In the UK free range means that the hens have access to the outdoors for a period of the day. There’s currently no specific timings that the hens have to be outside for, so this may change from farm to farm. They do have to have 4m2 per bird when they do have access to the outdoors. The hens can eat a much cheaper food, which means that all sorts can be added to it and this is not monitored through any system. Most free range hens become 'free range’ at about 18 weeks old, just when they start to lay. Before this they can have been reared in barn conditions.

Barn Hens - The hens are reared and live their whole lives inside a barn, these normally consist of shed that can house from 10,000 to 30,000 hens at a time. Although they are kept inside, the hens are free to move around the barn. It’s quite normal in this situation for hens to be ‘de-beaked’ this means that the top portion of the beak is lazer removed when they are a chick to stop them from pecking one another and causing harm.

Caged Hens - So the term ‘Battery hens’ used to refer to hens kept in tiny cages by themselves with just food and water. Since 2012, an order came in where this was no longer accpectable- great news! However, they changed it to be called ‘Enriched Caging or Colony Caging’ This basically means that they are still kept inside cages for their whole lives, but they do have a few extra bits; they aren’t on their own. Hens are flock animals so naturally do better living with others, they have the potential to nest, they have the potential to roost, potential to scratch and stretch, all of which are natural behaviours to hens.

So there you go, if you didn’t know, now you do! You can now use this information to make your own decisions on which eggs you choose to buy.

Eggs & Our Health

It’s that time of year when we’ve all pigged out at Christmas (and rightly so) but we’re feeling a little sluggish and ready to cleanse for the new year. There’s no better way to treat your body than to make the change to organic and free range produce.

Switching to free range eggs is a really simple and easy way to increase vitamins in your diet. More than half the protein of an egg is found in the yolk. Eggs are rich sources of selenium, Vitamin D, B6, B12 and minerals such as Zinc, Iron and Copper. Egg yolks contain more calories and fat than the whites. They are a source of fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K and Lecithin - the compound that enables emulsification in recipes like hollandaise or mayonnaise. Eggs are regarded as a ‘complete’ source of protein as they contain all nine essential amino acids; the ones that we can’t synthesise in our bodies and must obtain from our diet.

One Medium egg contains:

84 Calories - 8.3g protein - 5.7g fat - 1.6g sat fat.

For years eggs were considered more of a health risk than a healthy food. This is because they were considered high in cholesterol. We now know that the cholesterol found in food has much less of an effect on our blood cholesterol than the amount of saturated fat we eat.

Eggs are rich in several nutrients that promote heart health such as betaine and choline. Eggs are a useful source of Vitamin D which helps protect bones, preventing osteoporosis and rickets. You should always shop wisely as the method of egg production can effect the vitamin D content. Eggs should be included as part of a varied and balanced diet. They are filling and when enjoyed for breakfast, may help with weight management as part of a weight loss programme, as the high protein content helps us to feel fuller for longer.

Eggs & Muscle Growth

We have a huge amount of local rugby players and even Sale Sharks players that buy our trays of 30 eggs weekly and we wondered why… This weeks blog is about the effect that eggs can have on muscle growth.

Muscle growth is a normal part of any fitness routine, and not only meant for bodybuilders and professional athletes. Whenever we do any form of exercise we gain muscle, how much muscle is gained is down to the intensity and frequency of the exercise.

The more muscle mass in your body, the more calories you burn, even when you’re not exercising! However, to build up your muscle mass efficiency, you must consume the correct nutrients. This is where you can introduce nutrient-dense foods such as eggs into your diet and this can have huge benefits.

When gaining muscle and strength we are breaking down our muscle fibres so they can regrow both bigger and stronger. Although this process of regrowth will happen naturally, the degree to which it can happen is dependant on us consuming the correct foods afterwards, particularly protein.

One main substance that your muscles need to regrow and repair is protein, which is why eggs are an ideal choice for a post-workout nutrition. Did you know that egg protein contains all nine essential amino acids?