The Rural Voice, 2019-08, Page 3228 The Rural Voice
eggs was so tiny that it wasn’t viable.
“An egg is an egg is an egg and you
will fail,” the family was told. But
word spread, and “soon we were
getting calls from retailers and
distributors in other provinces
looking for our eggs,” Poechman
adds.
It had already happened with
Omega 3s. The Omega 3 egg was on
the market for about 10 years before
its recognized health attributes
increased prices. “If it could work
with Omega 3s, we knew in time it
could work with organic eggs, too,”
Poechman says.
In 2013, the Canadian Organic
Standards Review Process reported
news of a farmer in western Canada
who had installed an aviary system.
An important feature is that aviary
systems are cage-free (hens are free
range on a spacious floor), placing
them in stark contrast to battery
cages which still house most laying
hens in Canada and the United
States, and which are considered
inhumane by many animal welfare
organizations. They have been
banned by the European Union and
are now being phased out in Canada.
Battery cages severely restrict a
hen’s ability to fully express natural
behavior such as nesting, dust-
bathing, foraging and roosting. Cage-
free systems allow for the expression
of these behaviours, Poechman says,
resulting in less stress, better
plumage, stronger bones, and fewer
physical injuries. As market research
has shown, these considerations are
also important to a growing segment
of the egg-purchasing public.
Poechman acknowledges that
cage-free systems are not
entirely without welfare
concerns of their own. But according
to the World Society for the
Protection of Animals, if managed
well, they offer a higher level of hen
well-being and are best placed to
meet future market demand.
For some 10 years, the
Poechman’s had been using a slatted
floor model of a single level deck
system. The hens were free range on
the floor and had access to roosting
areas and outside pasture. But with
aging equipment and bodies and no
obvious plan for succession, he and
Marlene realized a decision had to be
Gerald and Marlene
Poechman of Bruce County
have been raising chickens for
decades and recently
upgraded to a cage-free aviary
system to prepare for future
market demands.
Greenhouse and hydroponically-grown greens are fed to the
chickens, above, that are released into a greenhouse-type yard
for free range feeding time as part of Poechman’s organic egg
business near Hanover .