Elgin Free Range Chickens

Although the word FREE RANGE is a loosely used term that has no official authority body to ensure standards in South Africa, this family owned business pride themselves in maintaining the most stringent of standards to consistently produce authentic free range chicken of a superior quality whilst upholding their core value of respectful and humane farming practices.

Elgin Free Range Chickens’ passion continues to educate consumers on the benefits of eating free range chicken, thereby promoting general well-being through nutrition and is evident through the continued support and recognition as one of the trusted producers of authentic free range chickens in South Africa.

Their ethics reach beyond the humane and health issues as their management team continue to focus on growing, training and developing their employees to ensure a workforce that is both dedicated and motivated and who, as a result, make a positive contribution to the community.

Jeanne Groenewald explains a day in the life of an ELGIN Free Range Chicken

The chicken sheds have pop holes on both sides so chickens can move freely to the outdoors. Sheds help keep chicks warm in the brooding process and provide protection and shaded feed and water for our chickens. If the weather is good, the sheds are left open up to 24 hours a day for birds over 21 days to forage freely, and eight

hours a day for younger birds that still haven’t developed sufficient feather covering and will be susceptible to the cold. Elgin plants kikuyu pastures and worms, insects, grass and small pebbles are part of their natural diet. There’s a period in the rearing cycle when there are no birds in the houses, so pastures do have time to recover. Animal by-products, antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) and medication never forms part of the diet or growth cycle of an Elgin Free Range Chickens chicken. They’re raised in a stress-free environment, so their immune systems are enhanced, which is why we don’t use AGPs, which are banned in the EU.

Our chickens are housed at a lower stocking density and have access to natural grass pastures. Our chickens can’t reach the same body weight in the same time that commercial chickens can because we don’t use AGPs and our chickens are far more active and so they eat a lot more due to their energy expenditure. Even though at Elgin, feed is the biggest cost in chicken production we ensure Free-range bird feed has only top-quality raw materials natural to a chicken’s dietary requirements.

Elgin’s internal code of standards, based on international best practice, is regularly audited. Woolworths, who we supply, also has a code to verify that we’re producing birds to a free-range standard, and this is audited by an independent firm on a surprise-visit basis.

We have a very strong following ranging from the COMPASSION IN WORLD FARMING and NSPCA authorities,  acclaimed Food Specialists and Celebrity Chef’s to our loyal fans and consumers which makes the effort of maintaining our standards and our mission to educate on the nutritional benefits of free range very rewarding.