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A FLOCK of Keith chooks have taken their eggs on the road and are having a crack at the nomad lifestyle.
Their homes are some of the first chicken caravans in South Australia, an idea hatched by Bill and Sally Hood while travelling Australia three years ago.
The Hoods were traditional beef cattle farmers at the time but on their travels they struggled to find great tasting eggs like those back home.
They set out on a mission to produce backyard, pasture-raised paddock eggs, while teaching consumers about sustainable choices around food and farming.
And so the chicken-mobiles came to roost on their property less than a year later, in April 2014.
The Hoods now produce 25,000 pasture free range eggs every week, and the demand for them continues to grow.
The chooks are living a nomadic, natural lifestyle stocked at a density equivalent to 18 chickens on land the size of the Adelaide Oval.
Because there are no fences they are lovingly protected by a Maremma shepherd dog.
The “chookens” - as the Hood's call them - spend four nights in each spot before the caravan is wheeled to a new position where fresh land allows the chickens to happily scratch, dig and dust bath.
“Our mobile chooken houses are designed so that the chooks live outside, that’s what makes them special," Mrs Hood said.
“They're only inside if they are sleeping (perching) or laying an egg.
“In a normal free range environment the house is designed for the chooks to live inside ... going outside only if they want to."
Pastured farming also has beneficial impacts for the environment.
By rotating the animals over fresh soil, their waste enriches the soil rather than harming it.
The Hoods are also sharing their success.
“One of the best things about this business is being able to give eggs to people who need them,” Mrs Hood said.
Hoods Earth Eggs consistently support the Kick Start 4 Kids school breakfast program by pledging all there pullet eggs to the cause, and they donate eggs to Oz Harvest each fortnight at the Adelaide Showgrounds Farmers Markets.
The Hoods’ venture has inspired other SA farmers, with three others near Mount Gambier now producing eggs using the same system.
