Growing Meat Chickens

The process starts with the arrival of day old breeding chicks from a parent breeding company. The chicks are placed at one of our two rearing farms in the Stanmore area.  They are grown under strict biosecurity conditions until approx. 22 weeks. At that time, they are transferred to one of our three breeding farms in the Harlin area.

Hatching

The fertile eggs from the breeding chickens are transported in refrigerated vehicles to our hatchery based at Beerwah. The eggs undertake the three week incubation/hatching process to produce a day old broiler chick.

Day old chickens

The broiler chicks are transported to one of our farms on the Sunshine Coast in specially designed air-ventilated trucks. Our farms are intensive, highly mechanised operations with the broiler chicks able to run on litter (e.g. wood shavings) floors in large poultry sheds and NOT IN CAGES.

Shedding

The broiler sheds are either naturally ventilated, with the sides of the sheds open to fresh air, or tunnel ventilation which have fans at one end of the shed which draws air into the sheds through cool pads. The temperature in the sheds is monitored and controlled to provide the broiler chicks with the optimum environment to grow. All broilers are grown to RSPCA (Aust) Meat chicken standards. View RSPCA approval.

Growing chickens

Feed line pans run the length of the shed and are supplied automatically by silos from outside the sheds. Water lines run the length of the shed, with nipple drinkers at regular intervals. Water and feed are placed so that chickens are never far from food and water.

Commercial Eggs

Similar to the process with meat chickens, the day olds from external providers are grown in the rearing farms and then transferred to the laying farms. The eggs laid are collected and transported to the egg grading facility at Beerburrum where they are washed, graded and packed for distribution to businesses in south-east Queensland. All eggs are produced, graded and packed to Safefood Queensland standards which includes egg stamping for traceability.

Feedmill

Woodlands produces feed for all of the chickens at the feedmill at Beerwah. The feedmill produces approximately 100,000 tonnes of feed a year.