Retailers such as Woolworths enforce a Code of Practice, verfied by regular independant audits
to ensure compliance. Outside of the responsible retail sector, use of the Free Range label is largely
unregulated in South Africa - this is because Regulations pertaining to minimum Free Range
standards are in a DRAFT format awaiting changes to the Act to allow promulgation.

 

The Free Range Chicken Co. ascribes to the Woolworths Code of Practice for Free Range layers,
aspiring to set leading international standards with regard to Free Range egg production such as those
of FAI Farms ,the Welfare Quality Network, and Compassion in World Farming.

 

Life as a day-old chick at the Free Range Chicken Co. starts on Sherwood Farm, where chicks
are reared under our management and to our specifications in heated barns on softwood shavings.
Our pullets are not beak-trimmed, rather undergoing infra-red beak treatment to avoid cannibalism.
We farm with selected docile Hy-Line hens which, in future, we are confident will not require
any form of beak treatment when farmed under the appropriate, conducive conditions.

 

Our hens are free to range and can sleep in spacious secure barns by night. Popholes are left opened,
the only exceptions being obligatory confinement under veterinary advice as stipulated by the State
or extreme weather conditions.

 

The key motivator to invest in our new endevour, Melsetter Foods, is to allow us the opportunity to deal with our
hens at the end of their productive lives without resorting to the industry practice of live sales to informal traders.

 

 

 

More and more consumers favour Free Range over other eggs. We thus invite you to join the Free Range Revolution and become a Free Range Champion. Free Range is not only the best ethical choice you can make, it also carries a positive marketing message for your brand. Many retail stores, like Woolworths, are promoting the use of Free Range egg in their products.