A former furniture designer and builder has dramatically changed the course of his career by opening an ethical, free-range chicken farm.
Max Dudley, 30, has launched Cheyney’s Pastured Poultry – a subscription egg service providing vitamin and nutrition-dense eggs to local homes in HP4.
Designing and building the chicken coop from scratch, he has created a modular, mobile, permaculture-led chicken house. The farm, though less than a month old, is already collecting over 100 eggs a day.
Max Dudley said: “Lockdown has demonstrated the importance of food security. It was only a few months ago that we were scrambling around for eggs, which were in short supply due to the virus.
“When lockdown started, my work-stream stopped overnight, so it was ‘now or never’ that I would pursue my passion of chicken farming. Inspired by my travels and a permaculture course I took in New Zealand, I set about building a chicken farm and starting my business.
“Farming is an exceptionally difficult industry to penetrate, and requires a lot of upfront capital, so I went round Berkhamsted speaking to various farmers to lease a small piece of land. And that’s when I met Steve from Hill Farm, who like me, has a passion for more sustainable farming and together we set about making my vision a reality.”
“What people don’t realise is that chicken farming in its current guise is not sustainable, you may opt for free-range eggs but this is not having an impact on production. My vision is to create a more productive farming method, and have better food security, and this is easily done if we change our farming techniques. We deliver a weekly subscription service providing households in HP4 with six, 12 or 24 eggs.”
To find out more, please visit cheyneys.co.uk or visit the Hill Farm Shop to buy eggs.
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