The following is taken from an article written by Helen Danes for the Valley Voice. Photos by Jim Reardon. Thank You both for your permission to use these on our website. Paul.

Happy hens lay healthy eggs

It only takes a short visit to Nature?s Corner, the free-range egg farm at Patumahoe, to meet a lot of very happy hens.

And while they each get down to the business of laying around five eggs per week, there?s plenty of time for enjoying the sun, dust bathing and sitting in the trees.

When Paul and Bev Schofield moved to the property from Waimauku in the early 1980s, the farm was run as a 10,000 caged bird unit. ?We were younger and enthusiastic and had already been running a similar unit on our other property,? says Paul. ?At that time, the poultry industry was run by the Egg Marketing Board, controlling the number of units in each area.?

But when Roger Douglas de-regulated the industry in 1985, it became difficult for smaller producers to compete with the ?Big Boys? and many poultry farmers went out of business.

?We decided to get out of it and sold all our birds and cages to a larger operator,? says Paul. ?But we still had the chicken houses and decided to get into the free-range egg market which was just becoming popular.?

At first the Schofields sold their eggs to FRENZ, the largest free-range egg distributor in the area. They also raised pullets for themselves and other farmers. But about five years ago, they made another change and began marketing their eggs under their own Nature?s Corner label.

These days, Nature?s Corner?s eggs can be found in a number of Franklin supermarkets and they are also sold at the Clevedon and Britomart Farmers markets.

To keep their hens happy, and to comply to the food safety standards, Nature?s Corner is very conscious of the welfare of their birds. They are housed in clean shedding with deep litter shavings, individual nests, and plenty of space to walk and fly around.

There is 24-hour access to feed and water and during the day the doors are open and the birds can choose to wander out in the scratch pens if it is wet, or onto the grass. ?There is very little nutrient in grass but they like to clean out all the bugs and insects,? says Paul. ?Their main diet is standard laying mash which is high in protein and contains all the necessary ingredients to keep them healthy.?

The Schofields no longer raise their own birds, but buy them, aged 17 weeks, in lots of 1000. By 18 weeks they are laying and keep this up for 13 months until they begin to moult. After a spell, they begin to lay again and are kept for another six months.

What happens to two-year-old chickens? Some are bought by back-yard farmers, but most are processed for the meat industry and end up packaged for the supermarket freezer.

With 5000 birds, housed in five sheds, Paul and Bev, helped by son Richard and two other employees, are kept busy. When a shed has been emptied, all the shavings are taken out by front-end loader and the shed is cleaned, disinfected and filled with clean shavings ready for the new birds.

Everything is ?hands-on? at Nature?s Corner. The eggs, usually 300 dozen per day, are collected in buckets twice daily, then sorted, and the dirty eggs are washed in an egg washer, at a temperature between 36 and 42 degrees to close the pores on the shell. ?We take out the smaller eggs but the rest go into mixed grade trays or cartons ready for sale,? says Paul. ?We can have them on the supermarket shelves within two days.?

The Schofields are proud of the high standard they have achieved at Nature?s Corner. The property is audited annually by the New Zealand Food Safety Authority and even though the winter weather makes maintenance more difficult, a recent visit from the Food Safety people brought the comment: ?You have a nice, tidy, well-run unit.?

But with major residential growth planned for the Patumahoe, the Schofields are looking at eventually moving onto a larger acreage further from town, where they can build a modern free range unit with purpose-built shedding and automated systems for feeding and egg collection. ?That?s our plan for some time in the future,? says Paul.

Egg Producers Federation

Any person or organisation in New Zealand purchasing 100 or more day-old layer chicks automatically becomes a member of the Egg Producers Federation, which represents the interests of all commercial egg producers in the country.

The chick levy of 35 cents per day-old chick, is paid at the time of purchase and included in the purchase price. EPF is a member of the New Zealand Foodsafe Partnership and also promotes research and development, technical training and information, and liaises with government departments.

The Egg Producers Federation is in favour of tightening up the rules on how much space a free range hen should have. They say the lack of rules could allow unscrupulous producers to reduce the amount of space available. It has been recommended by EPF that a minimum of 11m2 outside space should be available for each free-range bird, but at present there is no compulsion on egg producers to meet that standard.

At Nature?s Corner, all free range unit standards are well and truly met with the provision of grassy paddocks, shelter trees and ample space for each bird. ?We are very committed to the welfare of our hens,? says Paul.