"Free Range" egg fraud

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#1735981 13-Mar-2017 20:11

Fred99:

tdgeek:

@Fred99 ( I can't quote your messages that have an image for some reason, last issue was a Trump graph)

Ballpark figure to setup the chooks? I've been thinking of that. We have an orchard type area out back fenced by fences and hedging, that also has 2, maybe to be three raised vegetables gardens. Plenty of room for chooks to free range amongst the 6 fruit trees and the vacant middle area. Hundreds? a grand? Or two?

Those chooks were expensive as pullets - getting close to $50 each average x 8 = $400. I think I've spent about $1500, but they're very pampered with luxury hen-house. If you just want eggs, you could do it for a lot less. They have an area about 8 x 5m fenced off with 1.8m waratahs and 1200mm mesh - more than they need. They will destroy your vege garden if they can get in. Have auto-feeder so no feed that birds or rats or mice can get to easily, auto watering which is just nipples you can buy on TM for a few dollars each screwed in to the sides of 20l pails.

I was quite happy if we got brown shavers for eggs, but SWMBO wanted "heritage" chooks. I'm kind of converted, a couple of the breeds we have are houdan and araucana - supposed to be quite good egg layers, but as well they have really nice natures - they love to be picked up, patted, hand-fed, so already have become pets. It's quite nice to check them, give them some treats, or just sit with them clucking around. Eggs a bonus, eventually, I hope....

Cheers for that. Yes, I would wire fence the vegetable beds off, and also the hedge. Gate for the gazebo walk through, or bypass that and fence off the vege gardens. I recall seeing some fancy nancy chook houses on 1-Day, peeked my interest, as not expensive. We have one cat, but where we moved from last year had 2 cats, and chickens, they know who wins a cat-chook battle!

kiwifidget

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#1735997 13-Mar-2017 20:53

Goosey:

kiwifidget:

I doubt you'll get a third player. Resource consents will be a nightmare. No one will want a chicken farm set up next to them, free range or otherwise.

Matt was talking about a 3rd supermarket chain not chicken farm :-)

Thanks, I really need to get more sleep! Synapses misfiring big time.

Delete cookies?! Are you insane?!

Sidestep

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#1736069 13-Mar-2017 21:25

tdgeek:

Ballpark figure to setup the chooks? I've been thinking of that. We have an orchard type area out back fenced by fences and hedging, that also has 2, maybe to be three raised vegetables gardens. Plenty of room for chooks to free range amongst the 6 fruit trees and the vacant middle area. Hundreds? a grand? Or two?

It doesn't need to cost much. A hundred $ or so & some basic DIY skills should do it. Eggs for years.

We built a 3m x 6m chicken cage/run out of scrap timber & old roofing iron. The only cost was a big roll of chicken wire, some staples & a box of nails.
They like to have a place to roost that's warm, dry & out of the wind. We've got a row of wooden beer crates nailed up as nesting boxes.
The cage just needs to be cat & stoat proof - we close them in at night. The biggest cost was a fancy 'auto feeder' to prevent sparrows & rats getting at their food.

One of my kids cares for them, we 'pay' her for eggs. We chose Araucanas, North Holland Blues & Rhode Island Reds, which're all pretty hardy & known as good egg layers.
In the last couple of years apart from feeding watering & cage cleaning she's had to buy treatments twice - once for scaly leg mites and one for gapeworm.

They cost a couple $ each. Just ordered 1 doz fertilised eggs from each of a couple of chicken breeders - which arrived in the mail in bubble wrapped egg cartons!
We were going to hatch them in an incubator I'd made - heated with an incandescent light bulb, but a neighbour had a clucky chicken to lend us.
20 hatched - 11 chickens & 9 roosters. Fattened & killed off the roosters at 8-9 weeks, get 10 eggs a most days from early spring on, 3-4 a day after autumn.

10 eggs is really too many for us. We freeze a bunch & give them away/swap with our friends in exchange for their garden excess.
The kids've tamed them so they can be picked up, whenever they walk across the yard they're followed by a trail of chickens.
I used to chase them away but the're persistent & have grown on me - now I let them help me with vehicle repairs n stuff..

Fred99

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#1736104 13-Mar-2017 21:43

tdgeek:

Cheers for that. Yes, I would wire fence the vegetable beds off, and also the hedge. Gate for the gazebo walk through, or bypass that and fence off the vege gardens. I recall seeing some fancy nancy chook houses on 1-Day, peeked my interest, as not expensive. We have one cat, but where we moved from last year had 2 cats, and chickens, they know who wins a cat-chook battle!

You'd probably be fine using some mesh tied on the bottom of the hedge to stop them getting through. Our girls don't seem keen on escape, one was a bit flighty when we first got them - escaped a few times so I clipped a wing. Now they hang around together - if one gets out by mistake, it's desperate to get back in with the others.

They do not like cats - but the bigger chooks deal to a domestic cat no problem. I was bit concerned at first, but the local cats stay well clear now. Dogs may be more of an issue, but there are none around here.

Chook house I made below. Floor area is 1200x1200, with 3 nest boxes at the rear and balcony at the front. I used downgrade ply, about $500 or so materials. I sealed all joins and flaws in the interior, then gave it a couple of coats of exterior paint inside - so it's easier to clean but also so there are no cracks and crevices for red mites. There's plenty of shade from trees for them in the yard - they don't seem to like full sun on hot days. Has been raining the past couple of days - they don't like that much either, so stay indoors or on the front porch.

tdgeek

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#1736136 13-Mar-2017 23:52

Sidestep:

tdgeek:

Ballpark figure to setup the chooks? I've been thinking of that. We have an orchard type area out back fenced by fences and hedging, that also has 2, maybe to be three raised vegetables gardens. Plenty of room for chooks to free range amongst the 6 fruit trees and the vacant middle area. Hundreds? a grand? Or two?

It doesn't need to cost much. A hundred $ or so & some basic DIY skills should do it. Eggs for years.

We built a 3m x 6m chicken cage/run out of scrap timber & old roofing iron. The only cost was a big roll of chicken wire, some staples & a box of nails.
They like to have a place to roost that's warm, dry & out of the wind. We've got a row of wooden beer crates nailed up as nesting boxes.
The cage just needs to be cat & stoat proof - we close them in at night. The biggest cost was a fancy 'auto feeder' to prevent sparrows & rats getting at their food.

One of my kids cares for them, we 'pay' her for eggs. We chose Araucanas, North Holland Blues & Rhode Island Reds, which're all pretty hardy & known as good egg layers.
In the last couple of years apart from feeding watering & cage cleaning she's had to buy treatments twice - once for scaly leg mites and one for gapeworm.

They cost a couple $ each. Just ordered 1 doz fertilised eggs from each of a couple of chicken breeders - which arrived in the mail in bubble wrapped egg cartons!
We were going to hatch them in an incubator I'd made - heated with an incandescent light bulb, but a neighbour had a clucky chicken to lend us.
20 hatched - 11 chickens & 9 roosters. Fattened & killed off the roosters at 8-9 weeks, get 10 eggs a most days from early spring on, 3-4 a day after autumn.

10 eggs is really too many for us. We freeze a bunch & give them away/swap with our friends in exchange for their garden excess.
The kids've tamed them so they can be picked up, whenever they walk across the yard they're followed by a trail of chickens.
I used to chase them away but the're persistent & have grown on me - now I let them help me with vehicle repairs n stuff..

You two win, I'm hooked! Tks for the detail. Project time soon

Zippity

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#1736137 14-Mar-2017 00:03

Me?

I'm still trying to find a chook with a blue tick on it's arse.......

tdgeek

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#1736138 14-Mar-2017 00:05

@Fred99 Very good, love the white picket fence! I shall look around an whats around chook house wise to build me own, I have all the tools

Cheers

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dafman

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#1740490 16-Mar-2017 20:06

Yet more nonsense behaviour from Countdown

tdgeek

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#1740498 16-Mar-2017 20:18

dafman:

Yet more nonsense behaviour from Countdown

Disagree

But Countdown says any refunds will have to wait until the Serious Fraud Office has conducted its investigation into the claims Palace Poultry has been misleading consumers.

Lets get it settled first, then they can refund and go after Palace. Palace has committed fraud over everyone. But a carton of "these" eggs may be fully cage free, another isn't, thats the issue

dejadeadnz

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#1740545 16-Mar-2017 22:19

tdgeek:

Disagree

But Countdown says any refunds will have to wait until the Serious Fraud Office has conducted its investigation into the claims Palace Poultry has been misleading consumers.

Lets get it settled first, then they can refund and go after Palace. Palace has committed fraud over everyone. But a carton of "these" eggs may be fully cage free, another isn't, thats the issue

If a business wants to sell something as X, the Fair Trading Act now requires them to justify the properties claimed. Countdown clearly can't in all cases -- morally and legally they should refund the buyers. Seriously, it's not going to kill them. Any argument to the contrary is plain nonsense.

SepticSceptic

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#1740632 17-Mar-2017 09:51

I'm mightly annoyed that I got ripped off, I pay a premium for these eggs.

tdgeek

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#1742974 17-Mar-2017 20:18

dejadeadnz:

tdgeek:

Disagree

But Countdown says any refunds will have to wait until the Serious Fraud Office has conducted its investigation into the claims Palace Poultry has been misleading consumers.

Lets get it settled first, then they can refund and go after Palace. Palace has committed fraud over everyone. But a carton of "these" eggs may be fully cage free, another isn't, thats the issue

If a business wants to sell something as X, the Fair Trading Act now requires them to justify the properties claimed. Countdown clearly can't in all cases -- morally and legally they should refund the buyers. Seriously, it's not going to kill them. Any argument to the contrary is plain nonsense.

Ok, lets target Countdown, forget about the grower. After all its nonsense. Its totally irrelevant if it will kill Countdown or not Or does that actually matter?? If so, we target the party that can afford it, Countdown, and ignore the party that may not be able to afford it, the grower, who in this incident is fraudulent. The grower grows non cageless eggs, and also labelled them as their brand and they aren't. Yeah, ignore them, Countdown can afford it.

tdgeek

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#1742975 17-Mar-2017 20:19

SepticSceptic:

I'm mightly annoyed that I got ripped off, I pay a premium for these eggs.

Ask Countdown, its their fault.

Pumpedd

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#1743015 17-Mar-2017 21:06

Concerns me a bit to see people saying have live chickens in their backyard an option. These birds are livestock and do not take care of themselves.

SPCA says that only about 50% of backyard chicken owners do an adequate job in terms of animal welfare.

Too have any animals needs responsibility...

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#1743025 17-Mar-2017 21:29

Pumpedd:

Concerns me a bit to see people saying have live chickens in their backyard an option. These birds are livestock and do not take care of themselves.

SPCA says that only about 50% of backyard chicken owners do an adequate job in terms of animal welfare.

Too have any animals needs responsibility...

Regrettably that applies to any animals in human care. I think chickens are under a similar law or council rule as to numbers allowed as other animals? And I assume that the law allows for all animals to be treated properly? There will always be some that are great carers, and others that are poor.

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