Life on Rookery Farm
Rookery Farm is a small, family-run farm in West Sussex who supply us with organic eggs. They care passionately about their hens' welfare, the wildlife biodiversity on the farm and the environment as a whole is always at the front of their minds.
At 8am every morning the hens are woken, they spend the day grazing and foraging in the organic, artificial chemical and fertilizer-free fields, having dust baths (to keep their feathers in good condition), or playing in the hen's scratch area.
The hen's houses are mobile, so they are rotated around fields to ensure that the hen's have fresh pasture to forage around in and to give the land a break to ensure that it remains a healthy environment for the hens to forage. The pastures are actively managed to increase the number of grass and flower species to enhance the bio diversity of the farm.
Rookery Farm and the eggs they produce produce pass the highest welfare and production standards available. They are certified by the Soil Association to their high Organic standard, the RSPCA, and the Laid in Britain control body and by Defra egg inspectors. This means that the Rookery Farm hens have more space: they have fewer hens per house and the hens have more outside range area.
At sunset the hens naturally migrate back to their sheds, the team at Rookery Farm then go round and check on the hens and shut the doors to keep them safe from predators and warm.
What are Rookery Farm hens fed?
The hens have access to pasture in daylight hours, so forage for a range of plants, insects and grubs. They are also fed a balanced high quality, GM free, organic compound feed for them in the sheds. This is comprised of a range of organic products including wheat, maize, soya (from smaller producers in India, not U.S. or South America), peas or beans, limestone, and concentrated alfalfa.
What breeds do Rookery Farm have?
Rookery's flock is largely Columbian Blacktails, Lohman Browns and Goldlines. We also stock their Speciality Eggs which are laid by Marans, Emeralds, Russets and Dekalb Whites. They introduced these breeds to their flock as they think it's important to ensure that these traditional breeds don't disappear, from a sustainability and genetic diversity point of view. These speciality breeds lay beautiful baby blue, green, deep chocolate brown and white eggs.
