Pullets Plus Inc. has been expanding since Clarence Martin bought it four years ago from Bruce Weber.
Weber “retired” and took on the challenge of developing a townhouse condominium development because he wanted a nice place to live.
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| Clarence Martin with his free-range nesting boxes |
Martin, who was born and raised on a farm and was a livestock trucker for 17 years, bought the business because it’s in his home community and because he could see a need for the services that Weber pioneered to continue and expand.
“I thought there would be less regulation than the trucking business,” he said. Then he began to learn about marketing boards and how they several times hassled Weber.
He’s therefore careful to stay within the four corners of the regulations as he does his best to serve customers which range from Chinese immigrants looking to buy one or a few red-feathered pullets to slaughter to farmers who were “grandfathered” to have up to 500 birds when the Egg Farmers of Ontario marketing board lowered the limit to 100 to pullet growers who have a few score or hundred extra pullets for which they need temporary housing because a new flock is coming soon into their barn.
The “pullet motel” is a HACCP-approved building where he can provide temporary housing for these pullets.
But his main business is providing pullets to farmers who want to keep 100 or 500, many of them to produce eggs to free-range or cage-free standards for the increasing consumer demand.
He not only sells these farmers ready-to-lay pullets, both for the brown and white egg markets, but also accepts their eggs for Ontario Pride’s grading station and province-wide distribution network.
Martin’s pullet customers range from several in the Windsor area to Earlton and New Liskeard and east into the Ottawa Valley.
He delivers pullets, using cages and his pickup or, for large orders, a trailer that can haul up to 2,000 birds. That’s a sign of growth; the previous trailer’s capacity was 1,200 pullets.
Sometimes egg and pullet farmers hire Martin to truck their birds because it’s well-suited to flocks of less than a big-truck load.
Martin has expanded to offer equipment and housing for hobby farmers and back-yard flocks in city settings. It ‘s common for families to buy two to eight birds as a project for their children or grandchildren and to provide fresh eggs and hands-on practical education.
Martin builds coops for these customers with a wire-mesh area on the one end for outdoors exposure and an enclosed area with a hen-sized door at the other end. It retails for $600 which, says Martin, “is a lot less than some of the Cadillac mansions I’ve seen people build themselves.”
He is also having a local business manufacture sets of nesting boxes for free-range hens.
That resolves the challenge of hunting for eggs and also improves egg cleanliness and hen hygiene because the eggs, as they’re laid, roll out into a collection area, just as happens in housing for caged birds.
The nesting boxes have a flexible flap covering the entrance, making it easy for hens to gain access, but also providing privacy while they’re laying an egg. Any manure they drop falls through the caged floor which is better for the hens and for the eggs.
There is a perch in front of the nesting boxes.
The assembly rolls open for easy and thorough cleaning of the nesting boxes.
He also sells drinkers, feeders and all of the paraphernalia a hobby farmer might wish.
Martin enjoys watching his Asian customers come to pick out hens for a meal. They prefer pullets because they’re smaller than dual-purpose birds, yet big enough to provide a meal when they have reached egg-laying age.
“They will look over a pen of birds very carefully to choose the one they want. Sometimes they notice nearby birds I have caged for delivery to a customer, and that’s what they’ll want,” Martin said.
He has noticed a steady increase in city customers, including those living in cities that have not yet amended their bylaws to legalize a back-yard flock. He had a flurry of business when Waterloo City Council decided to amend its bylaw to ban backyard chicken flocks, but offered to “grandfather” those who had flocks before the end of the month.
“We had quite a spike in business on the last two weekends of that month,” Martin said.
As yet one more service, he will collect and truck spent hens to a slaughter facility.
As for regulatory nuisances, he takes care to fill out the paperwork to obtain a licence to transport birds from the Chicken Farmers of Ontario marketing board and recounts how “two big inspectors over six feet each” tried to bully Weber because they noticed he was taking pullets for slaughter and they thought he might be violating chicken board regulations.
Weber got a letter from the chicken board recognizing the business as pullet growing.
The chicken board was also aggressive in pursuing a neighbouring businesses, such as Bonnie’s Chick Hatchery in Elmira and Frey’s Hatchery in St. Jacobs because they have a lot of small-scale and hobby-farming customers for egg-laying and dual-purpose chicks.
Martin said the egg board keeps a close watch to ensure that farmers are not exceeding flock limits of 100 or 500 birds, and he’s a convenient focal point for their vigilance.
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