From Farm to Fork
REARING THE CHICKENS
When the chicks first arrive at James Potter Eggs, they go to the rearing farm…
The first thing we do to ensure that they get the very best care is to vaccinate them. Once this is done, they get placed into the rearing system.
Our rearing system is designed to allow our chicks to grow into the healthiest hens possible. With limited ramps, it encourages them to jump/fly between levels, and gets them to move as they would as adults. We also provide them with plenty of lucerne every week. Lucerne contains high levels of fibre, protein and methionine making it the perfect feed for growing hens!
These hens stay at the rearing farm for 15 weeks.
PRODUCING THE EGGS
At around 15 weeks old, our hens move from the rearing farm…
Their new homes are where they will stay until they are 88 weeks old if they are brown hens, or 110 weeks if they are white hens. At this farm, they get to roam as they would like, indoors or outdoors and we provide plenty of enrichment to encourage them to act naturally.
Like at the rearing farm, these chickens also get plenty of lucerne which we grow ourselves. We also provide them with vitamin and mineral supplements, as well as our own Potters feed rations, giving them the best possible nutrition.
All of our hen houses have central nest boxes which provide our hens a cool, dark place for them to lay their eggs. These nest boxes are on a slight slant so that when the hens stand up, the eggs gently roll away onto a central egg belt. Our farm operative then runs the egg belts daily, at which point an egg packing machine prints and stacks the eggs in trays ready for transportation to the egg pack house.
Occasionally, some hens will lay their eggs either on the system or on the floor. The farm operative walks the shed throughout the day, collecting these eggs, which would normally be sold as Class B due to being slightly dirty.
THE PACKING CENTRE
The egg grading process is in all respects a simple one...
They arrive from our farms, are checked for weight and quality, and are put into boxes ready for dispatch to customers. However, within this simple process lie a lot of complex systems and checks to ensure that the quality of your egg is maintained throughout.
Pallets of eggs are collected every other day from our farms using our own temperature-controlled vehicles transported by our experienced drivers. Once the eggs have arrived at our packing centre, they are visually checked by our quality team and booked using a barcode system to ensure full traceability of each pallet. Once ready to use, each pallet is loaded onto our Moba Omnia PX Grading machine, where each individual egg is counted and checked for defects such as cracks or dirt. The eggs then go through an Ultraviolet disinfectant process to kill bacteria, and then they are weighed and stamped with a best before date. This grading process ensures that only the best quality eggs are packed into the egg cartons.
Each packed egg carton is stamped with a traceability code and best before date so that we can check exactly when the carton was packed and identify the pallet barcode from which the eggs came, ensuring full traceability throughout. The egg cartons are then packed into an outer box and put on pallets ready for distribution to our customers.