Good eggs
High in the Kaimai Ranges, a small farm puts chickens first, and lets the eggs speak for themselves.
Photos Alan Gibson
It’s a riddle as old as time and one that has left the greatest minds in history scratching their heads. But ask Karlene McGirr what came first, the chicken or the egg, and her answer is immediate.
“The chicken has to come first because that's our priority,” she smiles. “If you look after the chicken, you get a good egg.”
This philosophy drives Kaimai Eggs, the family-owned egg farm situated in the tranquil Kaimai Ranges that was started by Karlene's parents, Otto and Vicki McGirr, in 2011. Now Karlene and husband Jim are continuing to grow the family business, along with all Otto and Vicki's daughters, who are involved in aspects of the farm. The health and well-being of their chickens is something that has been paramount to the whole family since the beginning.
Karlene and Jim Brown.
“Dad's been asked ‘What makes a good egg?’ a few times over the years, and it’s simple: a good chicken makes a good egg,” Karlene explains. “There’s no other way around it.”
“You've got to have a healthy, well-fed, well-watered chicken in a good environment with good people looking after it and all the other stuff kind of just happens,” Jim adds. “Which makes sense. Of course, a happy bird is going to produce better eggs.”
Their farm, which produces free-range and barn eggs, is situated in the tranquil Kaimai Ranges, where the chooks enjoy a view of the hills that’s so stunning it’s printed on the egg carton. But spectacular views aren’t the only thing that sets Kamai Eggs apart.
Otto McGirr.
Unlike most egg producers, they look after their whole supply chain, getting baby chicks at just one day old and rearing them right up until they’re ready to begin laying eggs. From there, they’ll be moved into one of the farm’s laying sheds, where they’ll be able to run free, indoors and out, with the flock. The eggs that are produced are then packed by hand on the farm before going onto their “little truck” that leaves every morning, to deliver them fresh to supermarkets and cafés around the region. Their team even stacks the supermarket shelves themselves to ensure there’s no accidental breakage that goes unnoticed and could leave a bad taste in a consumer’s mouth.
“We’re only as good as the last carton that goes out. We believe, and it’s
true, that every carton is an individual customer,” Jim says, explaining why in this age of automation they remain hands-on. “If you have a bad experience with our eggs, you're not going to want to buy them again.”
The family don’t just talk the talk, they also walk the walk, out on the farm each morning checking on their chickens and jumping on the line to pack eggs.
“We have a great team who supports making this happen seven days a week,” Jim says, proudly.
Keeping the birds happy and healthy is a constant challenge, especially with free-range farming. The trick is finding the balance between quality of living for the bird versus the cost, so an affordable product is waiting on supermarket shelves.
“We’ve invested in some really high-tech monitoring systems for the animals and for people to spend time with the animals,” Karlene says. “And because we rear our own birds, we get to control those that are incoming. Birds never leave the farm. They come in at one day old, and they stay on the farm.”
“It's a low-stress environment,” Jim says. “Because we're not moving the chicken far. It just goes from that shed there when they’re chicks to that shed there when they’re ready to lay. You see in other animals, when they move long distances, they come under a lot of stress.”
The farm has philosophically and financially invested in ensuring their chickens' lives are as stress-free as possible. The chickens live in a big shed where they have 24/7 access to a grassy paddock.
“They can come and go as they please,” Jim says. “But typically they hang around the shed in the mornings.”
The birds are early risers, up at 4am for breakfast, before they start laying eggs at 5am. Around 8am is when the animal welfare team comes in to do their checks and make sure everything is hunky dory, and by 9am, the chooks' work is done for the day and they head outside to enjoy their day.
“The chickens are awake for 16 hours a day. And they get up to stuff,” Karlene says. “They break a lot, scratching and pecking and tapping away.”
“It can be chicken anarchy,” Jim laughs.
Rounding them up in the evening and herding them back into the shed before dark is a surprisingly easy task.
“They're scared of the dark, so they all come in willingly at night,” Jim laughs. “It's like a switch. All of a sudden, they all just start running for home. It's bloody amazing! They all come in, eat and roost, and hopefully give us an egg the next morning.”
Kaimai Eggs' slogan is ‘Your Local Farm’ and that’s something they take to heart. They support local schools in the area, as well as Bay of Plenty Rugby and local food banks and charities.
“We take our social responsibility very seriously,” Jim says. “It's our job to support quite a few organisations.”
“Words are cheap. We want to walk the walk,” Karlene says. “Dad is a big pusher of that, especially with supporting kids in sports and the local schools. It's not optional, it's just what we do. It's all good to go out there and tell everyone that we're local, but you’ve also got to put your money where your mouth is and support local organisations.”
“It's cool,” Jim smiles. “You get to meet quite a few local people doing good stuff in the community. It's rewarding to help organisations in the community. It makes you feel good.”
There’s only one last question for the egg farmers, and it could be the hardest of the lot; how do they like their eggs?
“That's the big question for the egg producers,” Jim laughs. “We've got loads in the shed and we always forget to take them home!”
“And we only get to take the ones that aren’t perfect,” Karlene adds.
“To be honest, it's quite nice to come to the cafés that use our eggs and get them to cook them for us,” Jim smiles, before Karlene jokes, “We're terrible at cooking them!”