FAQs

Our family farms are nestled in the picturesque countryside of Western Australia’s Great Southern Region.

Mt Barker Free Range Chicken is proud to have been one of the pioneers in Western Australia of free-range chicken and we continue to evolve our facilities and management to keep at the forefront of world’s best practice. Our standards meet the outdoor requirements for the RSPCA Standard for Meat Chicken, and all our farms are regularly, independently assessed to meet these requirements.

Some key aspects of Mt Barker Free Range farms are:

• No cages. Birds are housed in large open-plan barns or coops and are free to move within the barn at all times.
• All barns are fitted with doors the full length of each side of the barns. During the day, these doors are opened, and the birds are free to wander in and out as they choose. Note that very young chicks are kept indoors (much like a hen keeps chicks in the nest!) until they have fully feathered and can cope with adventuring outside.
• The outdoor ranging areas have fox-proof fences on the boundaries to provide a secure environment for the birds to range freely.
• Both inside the barns and in the outdoor ranging areas, birds have access to perches and other natural and purpose-made features to encourage physical activity.
• In addition to foraged seeds, grasses, nuts and insects, our chickens enjoy specially formulated feed made from locally sourced grains, that are jam-packed with all the necessary nutrients, vitamins and probiotics they need. We ensure that their feeding stations are always topped up with their feed so that they constantly have access to food whenever they want.
• The water from local catchments is automatically monitored and disinfected, ensuring the chickens always have access to clean and fresh drinking water.
• The barns are equipped with environmental sensors that automatically activate heating, cooling and airflow to maintain a comfortable climate inside the barns: warm in winter and cool in summer.
• Chickens are monitored daily for any signs of distress and access to veterinary care is available on call should it ever be required.
• All staff on our farms undergo rigorous animal welfare and handling training to ensure our birds are always treated with care and respect.

Mt Barker Free Range Chicken* is certified by the RSPCA Approved Farming Scheme. Underpinned by science and evidence based standards, our farms meet over 300 requirements in the RSPCA Standard for Meat Chickens.

Mt Barker Free Range Chicken farms are regularly assessed by specially trained RSPCA Assessors. These assessors check animal behaviour, the conditions where they are kept and how they are managed, all against the relevant standard. As a humane death is also important, our abattoir is also assessed annually.

*Did you know: Mt Barker Free Range Chicken was involved in the development of the RSPCA Standards for Meat Chickens?

Always check your packaging for words like “grown free range” or “raised free range”. Australian food labelling laws dictate that packaging labels be accurate and the claims they make true to certain standardizations should they wish to make those claims. This however should not be confused with “barn-raised” or “cage-free”.

No they are not. Free-range at Mt Barker Chicken means our birds are free to roam outside during the day, then sheltered at night from inclement weather. The chooks are free to roam in doors as they please, with plenty of room to socialise and forage.

As well as the seeds, grass, insects and worms that our chickens pick-up on the ranging areas, they are also fed a special diet that includes the best quality natural grains and protein, supplemented with trace minerals and probiotics. We never use growth-promoting hormones or antibiotics. We strive to grow healthy, happy chickens!

No they are not. We aim for our birds to grow as naturally as possible – this means no artificial hormones or antibiotic growth promoters are used. Mt Barker Free Range chickens grow more slowly than intensively raised chickens, this is one of the reasons they are more expensive to produce but also why they taste so great!

As a Free-Range poultry company, our products reflect the higher standards of welfare, quality, and sustainability we uphold. Our birds take longer to grow and receive more human attention than birds in conventional systems, which means it costs us more to raise each bird. Although our products may be priced slightly higher, we believe our customers see the value in purchasing great tasting chicken that has been raised in an ethical and sustainable way.