Liena farmers Nan and Danny Tubb have spent the past five years perfecting their version of free-range eggs and they think they have found the best recipe.
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The Tubbs run Meander Pastured Free Range Eggs or, as they call it, the “Happy Chook Farm”, with 500 Australorp chickens.
“We have mainly Australorps, the Australian bred chooks that are calm, friendly and nice chooks,” Mrs Tubb said
“Our Australorps don’t lay as prolifically [as other breeds of laying hen] but lay for 18 months to two years. We keep them for longer,” she said.
The Tubbs also have herds of black-faced suffolk sheep and murray grey cattle on their 58 hectares just outside Mole Creek.
The hens live between three mobile caravans, including one pink caravan that houses 100 17-week-old chickens.
“From sun up to sun down the girls have unrestricted access to green grass and surrounding forest areas,” Mrs Tubb said.
“They are pastured free-range chooks. We lock them up every night to protect them from quolls and then early in the morning we let them out and they run around all day, then our three kelpies help us round them back up at night,” she said.
One of the biggest differences between the Tubb’s farm and other standard free range farms is the stocking density of 150 hens per hectare.
CSIRO’s Model Code for free range eggs is a maximum outdoor stocking density of 1500 birds per hectare, but many brands labelled “free range” have up to 10,000 birds per hectare.
Meander Pastured Free Range Eggs are sold at Cradle Coast Farmers’ Market and The Nut House in Ulverstone and Earthy Eats, Alps & Amici and Delicacy in Launceston.