Family farm opens the cage doors
When Ian Higgins was knee-high to a grasshopper his father bought a small, free-range hen farm in Whanganui that would eventually distribute eggs nationwide.
From 5000 hens to 100,000 hens, supply and demand has rapidly grown for the Higgins family since the 1950s.
At 16 years old, Ian got stuck into the family business and suggested cages for an ever-growing number of hens.
The thought of cooped-up birds may have ruffled a few feathers 40 years ago, but now the push for freerange hens is bigger than ever.
Ian’s son David is the third generation to run the farm, which in 2014 obtained resource consent to expand its free-range and barn areas. By November 2017, the Higgins farm will be completely cage-free.
For now, 32,000 hens remain caged – featherless from their necks down as they stretch their heads out through metal bars, gazing aimlessly into adjacent cells.
The ‘‘dirty little secret’’ remains a shameful reality for David who vows to move them all into barns where they can finally flap their wings.
‘‘They can jump, they can forage, they can dust-bathe, they can display any natural instinct they desire. We have a family farm here – both Dad and I think that’s the way to go.’’
The barn is set up as an aviary that lets the birds roam and jump from perch to perch.
As the free-range section is expanded, barns are a way to provide a cost-effective product that is still humane, David says.
The hens are able to ‘‘do things birds do’’.
‘‘They enjoy it outside, no question about it, but the barn ones equally enjoy it because they’ve never been outside.’’
The hens in the barn have the feathers, colour and energy the caged hens lack.
Higgins sells SPCA approved freerange eggs and it is waiting for SPCA approval on its barn hens.
Ian says he ‘‘was particularly hot against colony cages’’.
‘‘They make them out as some wonderful new welfare system but they’re not. They’re a cage that’s slightly bigger – 60 birds in a cage instead of six.’’
The farm produces 50,000 eggs per week, and is working with Countdown as it moves towards making its egg brands cage and colony-cage free.