Near Lake Macquarie on the central coast of New South Wales, Belinda Stauner-Dawson is running what appears to be a chicken utopia. Her 60 egg-laying ISA Brown hens – a popular laying breed – have the run of a 1.4-hectare paddock. Each day they have access to fresh, green pasture and they come and go as they please from a chicken caravan – a trailer with a water tank, feed and roosting perches. Keeping a watchful eye over them are two permanent guardian maremma dogs. Stauner-Dawson prides herself on happy chooks and their eggs, with golden yellow yolks, which are sold to farm-gate customers and to an organic butcher.
The utopia is not without challenges. Stauner-Dawson worms her “girls” twice a year and moves the caravan regularly to reduce parasites, and is wary of diseases, such as avian influenza, which may be introduced from wild birds. Predation has also been a major problem in the past.
