Papanui is divided into about 150 separate paddocks so we can manage the pastures to the high degree we desire. Typically each paddock will only be grazed by cattle for 1 to 3 days at a time, and pasture plants have a recovery period of between 30 and 120 days before being grazed again. As a result an average paddock on Papanui is only grazed for 12 days each year, leaving 353 days without cattle trampling it.

Our chooks follow behind the cattle on the lower land where access is easier for our mobile houses which we have made from old school buses. Each bus has about 500 hens, with enough roosting space for all, plus large communal laying boxes that allow the freshly laid egg to roll away from the chook to keep it cool and safe until it is collected each day.

The chooks enjoy the pasture conditions that exist after a large herd of cattle has passed through – we run between 200 and 400 cattle in the mob in front of the chooks. The resultant flattened grass and cow dung is a perfect place for a chook to get a great feed each day. The chooks also have access to fresh water and a commercially produced layer ration at all times.

Additionally they are protected from predators by Maremma dogs that live with them, 2 for each bus. There is no fencing or any other barrier, the chooks can roam as far and wide as they desire – the only time they are enclosed is every few days just after dark, when we move their bus to a fresh area, sometimes we move them 300 metres, sometimes 3 kilometres, it just depends where the cattle ahead of them have been.

We collect the eggs each night, at the same time we feed the dogs – we can't feed the dogs until the chooks have gone to roost or else the chooks eat the dogs' food, the dogs just stand and watch their meal disappear - they are so dedicated to looking after the chooks! The eggs are stored in our coolroom until we deliver them to our retailers, cafes, caterers and restaurants.

We raise our replacement chooks from day olds on Papanui, it was the only way we could obtain healthy chooks with a full beak, commercial growers want to debeak if delivery is to be past 12 weeks of age. We think a full beak is important for the chook to be able to forage properly. Intensively run hens are routinely debeaked to combat cannibalism, we don't find it to be a big problem with our chooks, we suppose that they have plenty of other things to keep them occupied! Pecking does occur – you've heard the term “pecking order”? Well thats how chooks figure out who is the boss.