By Jamie Salter
Springfern Farm in Cockatoo is closing up shop, as property owner Alison Barkley trades in her work boots for a career in real estate.
It’s the perfect opportunity for those looking for egg-laying chickens to add to their properties, with up to 500 chickens available for sale.
Mrs Barkley moved to a 66-acre farm in Cockatoo about five and a half years ago after growing up in suburbia.
Living on such a large property, she thought of a way to make money off the land and started off with 230 chickens.
“I thought I’d start off with about 30 chickens but I ended up with 230 chickens and then a month later I got another 290 chickens, and it sort of grew from there,” she said.
“It took a little while to build up, but at my peak I had about 1200 chickens and I was getting 1000 eggs a day.
“We also ran cattle here for a while as well so they eat the grass down and the chickens follow after the cattle – it was a really good system.”
Mrs Barkley began selling her eggs at markets in Berwick, Lilydale and Ferntree Gully before making the switch to wholesale.
“I started off doing markets but it started to affect family because I was at markets all the time, so I opted for wholesale and had up to 20 stores selling my eggs,” she said.
“I actually went along to one of the Eastern Dandenong Ranges Business and Tourism meetings and got more local business from that.”
She now houses 500 ISA Brown chickens of thee different ages and spends 30 minutes a day collecting the eggs.
The farm is also home to an Alpaca, which acts as a guardian, protecting the chickens from predators including foxes and eagles.
Mrs Barkley said she had lost a few chickens to eagles over the years.
“Eagles are our biggest threat because they can just fly in and grab them,” she said.
“The eagles are huge but the chickens are always on the lookout for them – they’re very fast and can hide within seconds.”
New chickens are brought to the farm three times a year and older chickens are rehomed after 12 months.
Mrs Barkley said it takes time and effort to train the chickens.
“When the chickens arrive, you’ve got to keep them locked up for a couple of days so they know that it’s their safe place before you let them go free range,” she said.
“We train them to go to bed in the first week, then we get a nest box and teach them to lay their eggs which takes about a month.
“That’s going in there every morning and picking up chickens and putting them where they need to go.”
But working seven days a week has taken a lot of time from away Mrs Barkley’s family.
“It is hard on the family and limits your ability to go away,” she said.
“On Christmas Day we went out for breakfast and then we went to collect the eggs before lunch – we had about 50 chickens out that we had to catch as well as doing the eggs.”
She said although she enjoys the outdoors and the benefits of farming on her physical health, the job had proved to be taxing.
“Especially in winter you just get really crap weather for ages and some days you don’t get a break from the weather and you have to put your jacket, hat and gumboots on and go out in the mud – it’s not fun,” she said.
“If the weather was kind, I’d probably do it forever,” she said.
During the 2021 storms that hit the region, one of Mrs Barkley’s caravans rolled, leaving 400 birds homeless.
“They had to spend one night under a marquee but then we managed to get a spare caravan in from one of my workers,” she said.
That was a turning point for Mrs Barkley, who could have grown her business further but decided to scale down.
“It was to either spend lots of money and get another one but I thought about what I wanted to do,” she said.
She is now looking forward to changing careers completely by working in real estate locally as a buyer’s agent.
“I’ve always had an interest in real estate and trading in my work boots. It’s time for a change and it’s something that I really enjoy.“
The business is closing with 500 chickens up for grabs – 16-month-old chickens for $12 each and 12-month-old chickens for $15 each.
Collections are held at nighttime so as not to cause stress to the chickens.
“People meet me here with their boxes and crates,” she said.
“I don’t let people take one chicken unless they’re taking it home to one other chicken – equal numbers are the best because they like to be with each other.”
Those who are interested are encouraged to SMS their orders to Mrs Barkley on 0417 896 662.
