New kid on the organic block

Don Howden describes his change from years of working as an insurance agent, to running organic free-range hens, as a mid-life crisis. It took some guts to follow that dream. JILL GALLOWAY talked to him at his Manakau hen farm.

Don Howden had been working as an insurance agent for 16 years, then he and his wife Julie Sperring owned and ran a flooring company. He later left to study furniture-making, a two-year course at UCOL in Palmerston North.

Now he thinks cabinet-making will always be a hobby and one he'd like to have more time to do. But at the moment, the organic free-range eggs at the Manakau property in Horowhenua, take precedence.

He and Ms Sperring live on a one hectare property on Forest Lakes Rd, towards Otaki.

But they want to find a place with perhaps 7ha, where they can build their own organic, free-range egg farm.

At the moment, Mr Howden is on a property towards the hills behind Manakau, and it is leased.

"It was all set up for organic egg production. The property was already certified organic, and the hen sheds and equipment was all here," Mr Howden says.

He got hens much earlier than the six months it usually takes to order pullets, and away he went.

That was July this year. After just six months in the business, he sees himself as the new kid on the organic egg block. Almost all the eggs from the 2000 birds go to the Eco Eggs company, which has marketing links to many major supermarkets.

It means Mr Howden can concentrate on his hens and egg production, and he does that with delight.

There are about 2000 birds on the farm, and that is expected to go up to 2400 at the end of January.

"They can go in and out of the shed, to the outside paddock at any time, They exhibit natural behaviour, such as dust bathing, scratching in grass and dirt, roosting in the low branches of surrounding trees and seeking shade."

Mr Howden said the hens come as point of lay pullets, from conventional breeding places. They are not set up to rear their own birds.

"They are 16 weeks old when we get them. We keep them inside for two-three weeks. The conversion period from conventional to organic is six weeks for the birds. They've never seen the daylight before. They are completely naive when they can first go out."

But it doesn't take long before they get the hang of this free range business.

"They learn to hide from hawks and display `normal' hen behaviour. But the hawks can be a problem. In this pen, I lost 11 hens to hawks."

There were 750 hens before he lost 11.

Then thankfully the trees sprouted leaves, and the hens had more places to hide from the marauding hawks.

Swooping hawks can be a problem for outside hens, but there are other health issues that they are not plagued by.

It has not been necessary to treat them for internal parasites or lice. They do get an organic treatment for mites. The fact that the hens have a bit of free-range space and can dust bathe helps enormously, Mr Howden thinks.

The hens on the property are all brown shavers. Next year's early arrivals will be brown hi-lines, and Mr Howden hopes they don't get clucky.

"Clucky birds, particularly at this time of the year, are a real problem.

"I put them in small cages, enclosed spaces, and it seems to take up to 10 days for them to go off the cluck, and start laying again."

Mr Howden said he doesn't have enough small wire cages to put the clucky hens in at the this time of the year.

When the clucky hens lay again, he puts them back in with the other laying birds.

But woe betide anything that is not laying, at all.

"You can check the pelvic width. If a hen is laying, it should be two fingers wide. If it is less, then she isn't laying."

Mr Howden thinks clucky birds probably don't meet the two-finger test. But they get the benefit of the doubt, unless they stay really clucky, and sit even in the small wire cages they're put in to.

"These two are still sitting, I don't think they're going to lay again."

They are likely to be culled – feeding a non-laying bird is not an option.

Feed for organic egg production doesn't come cheap.

"It is about twice the cost of conventional feed. It all has to be certified organic. The soya is all imported. Maize is the bulk of the feed, and it comes from New Zealand. Then there's calcium and proteins. The feed comes as pellets, ready-to-go."

Most of the big feed companies are not interested in an organic product. There is not enough critical mass when it comes to buyers.

The feed makes up about 90 per cent of the birds' intake. The rest comes from the grass, bugs and plants the chooks forage outside.

There are strict rules surrounding the organic ruling and they are audited every year. The hens must have access to the outside 24/7. There has to be a nesting box for every seven hens. But they like some boxes more than others.

"Some have 100 eggs in the boxes in one corner.

"The hens have squeezed in and laid, sometimes three hens to a box. Others, there are just a few."

He collects the eggs in the morning, and the cacophony is sometimes overpowering.

"You know the noise a hen makes when she lays. Well, imagine hundreds of them."

Even later in the day, there is plenty of clucking. The hens are all inquisitive and gather around to check out the newcomers.

The organic egg industry is not a large one. Mr Howden estimates about 90 per cent of eggs sold are from caged birds.

"Then there are barn eggs, free-range eggs and organic free-range eggs. The organic eggs are the only ones that are inspected annually."

He wants to see more muscle for organic eggs.

"A small percentage of every hen goes to the Egg Producers Federation. Most of its revenue comes from caged birds."

So there has been little promotion for organic eggs, and the free-range system they must be kept under.

After six months in the egg business, he wants something bigger that sustains him and his wife, Julie, as much as possible.

"We work well in business together. We worked in the flooring in Wellington."

But it is getting the work/life balance right that is the hard part.

Mr Howden expects to be in egg production for many years.

"I want to still be working when I'm 70 – health permitting. I can work here for seven days a week. But the grandchildren can come and collect the eggs and help."

He likes the family connection and wants it to be part of their life.

"We want to be rural. There is not enough land at Forest Lakes Road, where we are.

"We're looking for a bigger piece of land, perhaps 15 acres, and having a reasonable income from the eggs. At least for one of us."

He would like to have bigger economies of scale, including more automation of an egg washer and sorter.

Ms Sperring is an arts administrator in Wellington.

Both of them lived and raised their family in Wellington.

When Mr Howden and Ms Sperring took on their new challenge in July, "it was a massive shift for me", says Mr Howden.

"We had a bloody good lifestyle. I guess it was a mid-life crisis."

He doesn't regret it and loves the outdoor life. There is no thought of going back to being an insurance agent.

He uses his woodwork skills to build new chook sheds, but Mr Howden expects to have more time in the future for his love of furniture-making and has opted for quality of life, and less stress.

- © Fairfax NZ News