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.

We’re becoming Organic!

Over the past 3 months we’ve been in transition to becoming organic. We’ve chosen the Soil Association to certify Higher Oak Farm, as we know that they have the highest standards for Organic farming and we wanted to ensure we were giving the livestock the best lives possible!

Why become organic?

We chose to convert to an organic farm because of the high standards that are expected to be met. When customers purchase organic eggs, they can be certain that the hens are well cared for and live the most natural life that they can, and they know this without even seeing the farm itself. We pride ourselves on the care that we give our birds and the natural lifestyle that they lead, so it was a no-brainer for us to take the next step to be certified.

How long does it take to become organic?

It actually is a 2 year process for the whole farm itself to be classed as organic. It takes about 6 weeks for the birds and chicks to be classed as organic once they are kept to the organic standards and you’ve finished your conversion period. We can’t actually start selling the products as organic until you’ve been in conversion for 6 months minimum, but this is decided by the officer that is assigned to your farm.

What makes the birds organic?

So the hens are fed purely organic food that has been approved by the Soil Association. They have organic bedding in their runs and they are in a hen house that conforms to the organic standard. We have only a small number of hens per feeder and per water drinker, this allows the hens to have full access to the food without being pushed out the way by the more dominant hens. The girls have access to at least 10m2 per bird to roam all day, every day. It’s entirely up to them if they want to be out on the pasture or having a dust bath inside the house.

Although we’re converting to organic, the organic standards are designed for big corporate farms, who have thousands of hens for a short period of time. We’ve found some aspects of the conversion quite difficult, as we farm very differently to the massive farms. A lot of the standards are based on the process that most eggs farms use; which is to buy in 16 week old hens and raise them as organic for the 14 months that they are laying for and then they ‘clear’ the sheds after their production levels start to drop. Here at Higher Oak Farm, we do all aspects of the birds journey. We incubate, brood, grow and produce layers all on the farm. We’ve found it hard to find standards that would apply to the way we farm, the team at the Soil Association have been a massive help while we figure out the best way for us to meet their standards!

As their standards are meant for the big farms, regarding the number of hens per run, we tend to go with what we feel is best for the birds and what we are comfortable with. We have a brooding run that houses the chicks until they are 8 weeks old and off heat. According to the standards, laying hens only need to have access to the outdoors until they are 12 weeks old, but we feel that it’s more beneficial to the hens to have access to the outdoors from around 2-3 weeks. This allows them the feather up a lot quicker and better, it also means that they are using their natural instincts to forage for the bugs and grubs in the grass and ground which makes the birds themselves bigger and healthier. According to the organic standards, in our brooding run we’d be allowed 700 chicks in there until they are 8 weeks old. We personally feel that’s too many to have in one area for such a long period of time, so we’re allowing 300 in a brooding run at one time.

The inside of our brooding run.

Our brooding run.

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, we haven’t had our first visit from the Soil Association, but we can’t wait for them to come and see how we keep the hens happy! If you’d like more information on what it takes to become organic, just send us an email and we’d be happy to chat to you about our journey.