CHANTECLAIR HISTORY

The beginnings of Chanteclair Farms were in 1944 in the south of Orleans in France when Guy and Colette began their distinguished careers as poultry farmers. In those days the industry was in its infancy where chooks for the production of meat and eggs were the same. Guy and Colette managed the full facet of poultry farming where they undertook the breeding right through to the marketing of their produce. In those days the business included the shipment of day old chicks to Algeria, egg production and hen sales.

In 1950 Guy and Colette emigrated to Australia with their three children and settled in the Greater Sydney Region at Quakers Hill. Soon after arrival they set up a farm where their chooks were extensively housed. This type of chicken farming is now referred to as “FREE RANGE”.

In 1957 the family had grown to five children and the farm relocated to a more suitable site, still within the same area, where Guy and Colette continued to run their business. At this point the farm was renamed “Chanteclair” The name “Chanteclair” is based on the fable “Renard The Fox” (You will be able to read this fable very soon)

Until 1967/68 Chanteclair continued to produce fertile eggs for breeding. At this point egg regulation occurred and the farm changed to commercial egg production where it operated within the confines of the Egg Stabilisation Act until deregulation in 1988. 

During this period Guy and Colette’s son Phillip, who had always helped out on the farm, concluded his schooling and in 1972 he attended Hawkesbury Agricultural College where he specialised in Animal Production. Phillip worked within the industry, gaining experience in various facets of the industry until 1980 when he rejoined his parents in the family business.

In 1988 with the deregulation of the egg industry Chanteclair decided that they needed to specialise into niche areas. This prompted a joint funding with two other egg producers (Pace Farms and Ringal Valley) where the three companies funded a four-year long, CSIRO project in the production of a cholesterol-free egg. This research occurred while the dietary cholesterol issue was all the rage.

This project, led by two Senior Principal CSIRO Research Scientists Dr. Gurcharn Sidhu and Dr. David Oakenfel, was known as the SUDOAK PROJECT. Unfortunately final commercialisation of this project was not able to be realised due to a number of technical and patent issues. However the work on the SUDOAK Project was not lost as Chanteclair then went alone and continued to research the development of a substitute product.

The emergence of the Body Egg occurred in 1992 and this range of eggs has been in commercial production since then.

FREE RANGE PLUS

Over the years a number of customers have requested a Free Range version and in 1997 Chanteclair started experimenting with barn and free range production to see if they could produce the same characteristics as the Body Egg in a free range environment. The first commercial production of free range occurred in 1998 and the Free Range Plus label has been in production since 1999.

CONTINUING RESEARCH

Over the years, and particularly since the development of the basic Body Egg Omega 3/Vitamin E configuration Chanteclair has continued to consult nutritionists seeking products available to feed hens nutrient sources able to enrich eggs with Omega 3, Vitamin E, Folate, Organic Selenium and, more recently, Organic Chromium.

Chanteclair is a world leader in Omega 3 delivery to consumers. To our knowledge no-one else in the world has developed, to this extent, the ready availability and delivery to consumers of this essential fat - Omega 3.