Every single St Ewe egg comes from free-range hens that have plenty of space to roam in the clean, fresh air.
It is well known that hens will only venture outside in the day if they know their roosting place is safe for them to return to, so we make sure each hen has plenty of room to perch at night. It stops them squabbling with their neighbours as they bed down and means they head out happily each morning!
In our case, the chicken does come first and she always will! We look after our girls in the best way possible and in turn they look after the eggs, that look after you!
The hens are fed specially developed feeds and live in traditional, single tiered housing with generous room for them to roost at night. By day they range the countryside, scratching for natural foods, freely displaying all their natural behaviours and getting up to all sorts of mischief!
We continually enhance our hens’ living and ranging conditions by investing in new housing and flock monitoring that provides us with a constant flow of data on their health and productivity.
We know our hens, their health and well-being inside out. As a result we have a fine flock of birds with glossy feathers and shiny eyes that produce high quality eggs, packed full of nutrients with amazing colour and flavour.
The eggs are collected by hand every morning, just after the hatches open. We grade our eggs twice; the first grade is done by hand, separating at least 75% of the cracked and misshapen eggs before going to the Packing Centre.
The second grade happens in the candling booth Packing Centre, where we are able to see through the shell for any internal imperfections no matter how small.
The eggs are then date stamped and printed with the Red Lion seal of approval, before being packed into their brand specific boxes.
Our impact on the environment is always at the forefront of how we operate therefore we only use 100% recycled and recyclable egg cartons, as well as using renewable solar energy to power our Packing Centre.
All our hens are reared to exacting standards that comply with the RSPCA Assured accreditation and their welfare is paramount to us. A full vaccination programme, frequent physical checks and regular land rotations ensure that the health of our pampered girls is second to none!
We’ve been keeping free-range hens for more than 40 years and over that time we have meticulously observed and recorded the effect of what a hen eats on the quality of her eggs.
Working with our dedicated UK based feed supplier Humphrey Feeds and Pullets we have combined all this valuable information with the latest scientific thinking to create our own unique feed rations that have helped our eggs gain an incredibly tasty reputation.
Nutrition, both human and avian is of the utmost importance for St Ewe and therefore it was only natural to welcome an in house Food Scientist to the team who has over 25 years experience in food and education, with a portfolio of new product innovations. He has led disciplines of food microbiological and chemical analysis, trained staff and lectured with large and small food businesses throughout the South West.
It is from this well versed understanding and learning that we have been able to diversify our feed to produce bespoke feed allowing us to deliver speciality eggs like Super Eggs and Rich Yolk to the market.