One of the crucial components in any egg producing operation is the quality of the feed.
The five-grain feed developed for Henergy includes added protein, calcium and grit to assist in building both stronger, healthier eggs. The healthier the chicken, the more likely you are to produce healthy eggs.
The shell is the egg’s first line of defence against bacterial contamination. It is largely composed of calcium carbonate (about 94%) with small amounts of magnesium carbonate, calcium phosphate and other organic matter, including protein.
The five-grain feed developed for Henergy includes added protein, calcium and grit to assist in building both stronger, healthier eggs. The healthier the chicken, the more likely you are to produce healthy eggs. This is a major factor in the thinking behind the Henergy Cage-Free Barn.
Completed after a year of careful planning, each of these barns is air-conditioned and centrally heated, completely weatherproof and safe from pests and predators. The open-plan terraced layout gives the roaming chickens an environment of choices – they can socialise, dust bathe or forage down at floor level, rest and relax on the central terrace, or fly up to the top level and their purpose-built private nesting boxes. These boxes have heavy curtains in the doorway for shady seclusion and soft clean artificial grass on the floor. When the hen lays, her egg rolls down to a conveyor belt where it is then automatically collected with minimal handling to protect the quality of her egg.
Their special five-grain feed is placed into an automatic feeding belt to ensure the hens always have enough to eat and never go without.
“Being raised cage-free, our birds have each developed their own distinct personality, their own likes and dislikes, their own individual temperament,” says Graeme Napier, founder of the Henergy System. “When they aren’t happy, they let us know – so we’re always checking to make sure everything is just the way they like it.”
The inspiration for the Henergy Cage-Free barn came from Graeme’s own nostalgic image of the “good old days”, with happy healthy hens clucking around the farmyard coop amongst the wood and straw. He contends that this approach gives Henergy eggs a big advantage over ordinary eggs.
“If your chickens are hearty and healthy, then so are your eggs. Strong, thick shells, golden yolks, silky whites – they look better and they taste better.
