But the welfare of the birds who lay the eggs to hatch, the chicks in the classroom, and at the end of the project must be paramount!! The main media issues that arise tends to focus on the fate of the chicks at the end – but we would like to address all areas of welfare within Eggucation projects.

🐣 ALL the eggs that go into our partner schools are from our own flocks of pampered Rare Breeds, ALL on the RBST watchlist. All our breeding pens are uber high welfare, clean, airy sheds, with outdoor grassed pens. We know our individual birds well and all managers are responsible for the daily care of their birds.

We do not use eggs from commercial hatcheries where the parent birds are kept in intensive industrial conditions.

🐣 Our chicks are happy and content in classrooms. Animals don’t thrive unless they have the environment they need – clean, well fed, and correctly stimulated, for their behavioural needs. Research has shown that birds exposed to lots of different stimuli at a young age are far more resilient to stress and in fact grow better and lead lives less stressed by every day changes.

🐣 With an Eggucation project the eggs and chicks are NOT the property of the client. We strongly believe that for such a project to be ethical, the clients should NOT have the ownership or onus of responsibility for the chick at the end of the project! This is UNETHICAL as it can lead to many issues….

🐣 These are eggs that we would be hatching ourselves and the chicks are a vital part of our breeding programmes and conservation work. None are hatched purely for our schools or events work….ALL chicks are collected from our schools at the end of the experience (if your school wishes to keep any chicks this has to be pre-arranged to ensure you have suitable breeds).

🐣 ALL chicks are grown on in warm sheds and then free ranging on grass. Most will go onto pet/breeding and showing homes – due to the quality and rarity of our breeds we have a strong demand for both males and females. Some males who are not of breeding standard will be grown on BY US,  free ranging,  as table birds. 

🐣 We have an active role in the conservation of rare poultry in the UK, working with the Rare Breed Survival Trust, taking our rare poultry to shows around the country to help them promote rare breeds and raise money for their work.

🐣 Debs is on the Poultry Working Group for the RBST – this group safeguards all rare poultry in the UK by setting policy for conservation and advising government on protection matters.

🐣 We promote the breeds by showing our birds (and winning at National level!), and taking an active role in getting rare poultry into famous farms such as Cotswold farm park.

🐣 All our branches are fully inspected under the new Animal Welfare Regulations 2018, by animal health officers, and have to pass rigorous health and welfare standards to obtain their licences.

🐣 We are member of & have signed the RBST pledge which ensures the welfare and quality of our birds, and that we are preserving them from extinction.

We firmly believe it is not possible to carry out a fabulous experience like this more ethically, humanely and with higher welfare standards.

We don’t rehome – we just bring them home!