Organic Meringues, Eggs, Hens at Laydilay Farm, Devon

LAYDILAY ORGANIC EGGS

Welcome to our site. We are Laydilay - a small family run business producing cracking eggs and a few spin off products. All Organic, and all ours. Feel free to look around and have a look at our products - hens (when available), eggs, mayonnaise(see meringue page) and meringues

March 2012

SPRING IS SPRINGING, WELCOME TO SOME NEW ADDITIONS AND AN ARTICLE IN COUNTRY LIVING:

The weather is starting to improve and the daffodils are in full bloom - we welcomed the arrival of 6 Whitefaced

Dartmoor Ewes, due to lamb in April.  This is a new venture for us ........ not sure what to expect!!

We are very busy with the hens having just moved our youngest flock into their 'big girl' laying house so we now have 4 flocks of 300 (1200 hens) laying at the moment.  We will then tackle the brooding and rearing sheds ready for the next lot of chicks due in April.  One thing is for certain, there is never any room for boredom with hens!!

The kitchen is starting to get busier with the improving weather.  Meringue and mayonnaise sales go quiet in winter and then reach manic proportions in the warmer summer months.  Ever on the lookout for more products to make (yes I, Mandy, like to experiment) we have started making tablet for sale. So what is tablet - no not an edible apple product, but a Scottish Fudge that my grandmother introduced me to as a little girl.  There is nothing 'eggy' about it but one of our retail customers asked if I would have a go at making it and it is proving popular.  The sugar and butter used are organic but, unfortunately we have not been able to source organic condensed milk - maybe another venture......?  We are also experimenting with organic macaroons - being someone with gluten sensitivity I am really interested in gluten free products - everything we produce to date is gluten free.

And finally, we are thrilled to be featured in the April issue of Country Living, unfortunately there is no link available at the moment but as soon as we can, we will link up to it.

You can also catch up with us on Facebook or Twitter @Laydilay

LAYDILAY - A Brief History:

April 2004, owing to an increased demand on Organic Eggs, Mandy started up a small organic egg enterprise with 70 mid lay hens in a small rented orchard in Buckfastleigh.  Having worked with dairy cows in the past, Mandy was a little uncertain how she would take to hens - as it turned out they were an absolute delight - magnificent, majestic black rocks.  They were proudly called 'Ladies who Lay'.  As we were still deciding what to call the enterprise, Mandy's mother suggested that the name should reflect 'ladies who lay' and it was Andy's younger brother that pointed out that there was a song by Bob Dylan called 'Lay Lady Lay' - hence Laydilay was born. Having registered with the Egg Marketing Board and Soil Association  we set about selling eggs and quickly realised that the demand for local organic eggs was larger than initially realised. A  new chicken house and 100 young hens followed in June.

It became apparent that if we were to expand further we would outgrow the orchard quickly so we set about looking for land of our own.  Fortunately for us 18 acres of already organic land just below Haytor in the Dartmoor National Park was up for sale and with an understanding bank manager and a house on the market - our bid was successful.  As with all best intentions, the sale took much longer to go through than anticipated but by February 2005 we were up at 'Eggy Barton' with a further two new houses and  another 200 young hens. 

The concern  of leaving rather valuable stock to the wiles of nature - particulary foxes - led to the puchase of our 2 alpacas in July 2005.  Reasearch and talking to people indicated that alpacas and llamas are very territorial and are useful at protecting stock from intruders like foxes and badgers.  Although we use electrified poultry netting, we felt that extra pairs of eyes at the site when we were not there would help us sleep more easily at night.  It is hard to judge their efficacy but since their arrival we have only had one fox strike and I feel I must attribute some of  that to Bobby and Antonio - ever vigilant!

Now we have more than 1200 laying birds and 400 young stock.  We feel we have reached the maximum that the land can comfortably hold without disease build up and where we can give the hens the attention we feel they need and deserve.  A big THANKYOU must go out to all our customers who have supported us and to all their customers who have bought our eggs, meringues and mayonnaise.