New:

‘Rookery Specials’

FROM TRADITIONAL BREED HENS RAISED HERE ON THE FARM

A Bit of Background…

You wouldn’t think so, but until relatively recently eggs were considered something of a luxury rather than the staple they are today.  It wasn’t uncommon for households to keep a few chickens in the garden with small-holdings supplying local shops with eggs for the rest of the community to buy. While supermarkets had been around in the US since the 1930’s, it wasn’t until 1948 that the first UK supermarket opened its’ doors in Manor Park, East London.  This new ‘self-service’ way of shopping led to the “stack ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap” approach to retail that we know today.  We, as customers, got used to being able to buy what we wanted, when we wanted it which meant that efficiency was key for anyone involved in food production.

When it came to eggs, that meant breeding a commercial hybrid bird capable of producing eggs year-round - previously in the darker winter months eggs were scarce. These hybrids tick a lot of the boxes required by today’s markets, where quantity, variety and price are of primary importance. Hence, 99% of the commercial egg farms in the UK and Europe will be keeping modern-day hybrid birds including here at Rookery Farm. Until now...

While efficiency is certainly important when it comes to just staying in business, it has never been one of our core values here at Rookery. If it were, we’d have ditched the movable chicken-sheds for permanent structures long ago and switched from grading and packing everything by hand to lines of automated machines - actually, we probably wouldn’t have gone organic at all as there certainly wasn’t much demand for it when we started 20 or so years ago.  Making just those three changes would definitely mean improvements in efficiency and profitability, but it would be immeasurably worse for our chickens, our land and the product that we deliver to our customers - and these are the things at the heart of everything we do here at the farm.

So, Why Traditional Breed Birds?

When it comes to sustainability, genetic diversity isn’t necessarily the first thing you think of. But, as we’ve all been recently made aware, unexpected outbreaks can happen and when they do diversity can play an important role in ensuring the long-term survival of a species.  Six or seven years ago we started looking into the viability of introducing other, more traditional breeds of chickens to the farm.  One thing quickly became apparent: regardless of whether they were less commercially viable as laying hens, the fact that we couldn’t buy a flock of organically-reared traditional breed pullets - and we’re an organic farm - made the whole thing a none starter. 

So we needed to figure out how, if at all, we could make it work.  For it to be remotely meaningful, we wanted to see if we could make them relevant again in much the same way that people are beginning to take an interest in rare breed meat such as Gloucester Old Spot pigs or Longhorn cows.   To do that organically though, we’d need to find a few specialist hatcheries who could sell us enough day-old chicks that we would then rear ourselves.  So that’s what we’ve done…

Raised on the Farm…

Turns out there’s a fair amount that goes into chicken rearing, requiring a not unsubstantial investment of both time and money.  When they first arrive the chicks need an environment which is around 80-85ºC, which is slowly reduced to a more reasonable 70ºC over the coming weeks.  So we couldn’t just re-purpose one of our existing chicken sheds, we needed to get special rearing shed. The best we could find was made in Poland and then delivered and built on the farm.

The shed was divided in half and two circular pens constructed so the chicks could be somewhat contained with a special ‘brooder’ heater above each pen regulating the temperature.  As with any infant, while their immune system is developing they are extremely vulnerable.  So, in order to minimise exposure to infection, rearing duties were confined to just two members of the team with rigorous protocols to follow when entering and exiting the shed.  Before entering they would step in a disinfectant bath and then continue to the outer chamber of the shed where they would change to footwear that stayed in that shed and bespoke overalls that prevented any contamination from clothing.  Over the course of 4 months there is a full vaccination and booster programme to guard against things like salmonella - you’ve heard the expression “it’s like herding cats”… that’s nothing compared to inoculating 1,300 chicks!

At around 10 weeks we open up the pop holes so they can go outside and, while they generally still prefer to stay inside at this point, it’s an important part of the organic rearing process and, as part of their development, for them to start getting used to natural light. Finally at 16 weeks, once they are all growed-up, we move them to one of our traditional laying sheds in much the same way we introduce all our new pullets to the farm which we’ve talked about previously.

Going into this, we knew there’d be a lot to learn but nothing quite prepared us for the amount of time we needed to spend with them.  As with any new-born they require constant attention, whether it’s making sure they have enough water because they can’t be ‘on the nipples’ to start with or checking-in in the middle of the night to make sure the heaters are working.  You’re essentially a nursemaid to 1,300 - at first hand-feeding and hand-watering, but then keeping an eye on them and taking care of any that needed special attention.

It’s been incredibly rewarding though, and the only way we were able to realise our ambition of making these commercially-impractical traditional breeds somewhat relevant today, on however small a scale.

All Growed Up…

6 months later and they’re fully grown and have been moved to a fresh piece of pasture to start laying their wonderfully coloured eggs, which are now available as our new ‘Rookery Organic Specials’.

Our traditional breed flock is made up of Marans - the larger black birds, which lay the deep chocolate brown eggs; Emeralds - which lay the baby blue eggs; Russets, which lay the green eggs and Dekalb Whites - which produce eggs with a pure white shell. Because the different breeds produce eggs that vary in both size and colour, each ‘Organic Specials’ pack will contain four mixed-weight eggs in a range of colours.

Now, once they’re sitting on your plate alongside your cooked breakfast - or however you choose to eat your eggs - it’s unlikely that you’ll notice a significant difference in either taste or appearance, so we’re not going to make any grand claims on that front. Anecdotally though, we’ve had some customers that do believe they can taste a slight difference and we’ve noticed that some of the yolks appear to be an even richer yellow than our usual organic eggs. It’s early days though, and we’re still learning about these breeds and their eggs. They get exactly the same food and attention as our other birds and forage the same land, but they are different breeds so there may well be some differences.

The main thing for us though, is that we believe it’s important that these traditional breeds of birds aren’t allowed to disappear, from both a sustainability and genetic diversity point of view. If, like us, you think that’s important or maybe you just think they’ll look good in your kitchen, we hope you’ll give them a try.