As a Mom of two young boys, Brenda Sheffar wants to provide a stable and happy lifestyle on her egg farm for her family. A third-generation farmer, she takes pride in instilling the value of hard work and in teaching her boys aged 8 and 12 that “things don’t just come for free.”  It was how she was raised by her parents Gordon and Valerie Galey and now at age, 40, she can pass on her values to the fourth generation of egg farmers.

“My littlest says he will be a farmer like his Mom. That’s pretty cool, uh? I was pretty proud when he said that,” Sheffar says from behind her modest desk at the Vancouver Island egg farm. She enjoys staying on the farm even though her husband, Steve, needs to travel with his job very frequently.

Raised with three sisters, Sheffar was trained to be a hair dresser. But it was clear from early on that she was the farm girl and would probably follow in her parents’ footsteps. If any extra help is required, however, there are plenty of family volunteers showing up at the farm to do what is needed.  If there is a big snowfall, an employee isn’t able to show up for work one day or Sheffar is just feeling a little under the weather, help is only a call away.

Sheffar and her dad operate a 5,000 hen free-run farm with a registered grading station on the same property.  “He’s the boss; it’s still his farm,” she says, adding that her father will probably always be an active egg farmer and her mother will probably always want to help out at the on-farm store. But now that Sheffar is fully immersed in the business, her father has the opportunity to take vacations lasting a month or two.

It was about six years ago that the Galey-Sheffar family switched to free-run production, going from 20,000 layers to 5,000.  They could see that people on Vancouver Island were changing what kind of eggs they were eating and even where they wanted to buy them. Sheffar has focused her business on farm-gate sales and farmers’ markets.

“We have a demand for it,” she says of the brown, free-run eggs. There is plenty of opportunity to grow, she says, adding that there are plans to add a new building so more hens can be raised to lay eggs.

Many people who come to the farm to buy eggs want to go inside the barns, she says, adding they are really curious to learn what an egg barn looks like. She needs to explain to them the importance of biosecurity in protecting the flock’s health. The farm used to offer tours but just can’t take the risk anymore.

With Plexiglas windows along the sides of the barns, Sheffar is able to provide the hens with both natural and supplementary light.  As a result of the barns’ location, the windows can be adjusted to permit a cool breeze to flow through the barns during hot days while during cold days, heat needs to be provided because of the free-run setting.

With a new flock, there are plenty of floor eggs that need to be picked up manually, Sheffar notes. But the birds soon find the nest boxes, learn what they are for and lay their eggs there. Extra care must be taken to watch for timid hens. Sheffar removes them from the free-run flock and cares for them separately in cages she keeps on hand.    

Despite the shift to free-run eggs, Sheffar still has some conventional white-egg layers.  Some people prefer the taste of white eggs from conventional housing, she says, adding that it is important to give consumers what they want. There is one particular person whose taste she must absolutely cater to. “My Mom has this thing where she won’t eat free-run eggs,” Sheffar says matter-of-factly.

While farming does allow Sheffar some freedom to come and go during her day, it can also mean some very long work hours. After a full day in the barn, grading station and store, Sheffar locks the birds down for the evening around 7 or 8 p.m. And she will often check again as late as 11 p.m. because it is just easier settling down for the night when she knows the hens are settled down, too.