I rehomed chickens from Josh's Rainbow Eggs

In late 2025, Farm Transparency Project put a call-out to anyone who had participated in Josh's Rainbow Eggs 'rehoming' program for spent hens. We were contacted by someone who had bought 200 ex layer hens from the farms over 5 years ago. This is the statement that was provided to FTP. 

I'd like to share my experience with 'spent hens' I purchased from Josh's Rainbow Eggs. This is going back more than 5 years; however it contributed to the closing of my business. I would prefer to remain anonymous due to concerns for my safety going up against a company like Josh's Rainbow Eggs. I've seen how they treat living things. I would not put it past them to seek retaliation against me for sharing my story.

At the time, I was owner/operator of a small, organic, regenerative pastured egg business. I've worked with chickens for more than 25 years and have had all sorts of chicken including heritage and 'commercial cross brown chickens.'

We ran 200-250 heritage breed hens and produced an 'actually' rainbow dozen with blue, green, white, olive, brown and dark brown eggs. The hens and several roosters were kept in a chicken tractor surrounded by solar powered poultry netting, guarded by 3 alpacas and only fed supplemental organic feed. Our chicken tractor was never closed, and the birds were never confined to a barn or coop. We moved the tractor every week or two depending on how the ground was looking and the season.  Heritage breed hens – especially as they age – are slower in egg production than your commercial cross hens or 'ISA Browns'. We kept our flock as they aged, rehoming them when they were 4-5 years old as opposed to killing them as many commercial producers do.

To help supplement production, I sought out Josh's Rainbow Eggs to see if they on-sold their 'spent hens' or hens that were more than 18 months old. I spoke and delt with Tamsyn and other staff. I agreed to purchase 200 spent hens at $1 per bird.

I collected the birds from Josh's farm.

I was surprised by what I saw as it was different from the advertising and public image of the business.

There were several chicken tractor barns that had small poultry mesh pens around them. A Maremma was on guard.  The buildings looked semi-permanent – meaning they were not moved – and the birds were let out via flaps in the barn. The ground around the barns was in good condition (not grazed) and there wasn't obvious evidence of the barns being moved to provide new fodder or regenerate the soil in other places.

As it was getting dark, the birds were going in for the night. The barn was appropriately cleaned but contained a large number of birds – the 200 I took didn't put even the smallest dent in the population. There were many, many feeders and next boxes. It appeared that the birds lived in the barn and were let out for a short time. I did witness 2 dead birds while I was working with the workers and Tamsyn to catch my 200 birds and load them in my trailer.

When I got the birds home, it was fairly clear that they didn't understand how to use a chicken tractor – meaning they didn't go in at night and when I moved the tractor they slept in the initial spot on the grass. It was like they lived in a barn most of the time. It took over a week of constantly putting them inside at night to teach them the new living situation. For other birds I've had, it takes a maximum of 3 nights.

The truly concerning thing was the behaviour and health of the birds. Within a few days of getting the birds to my farm and on to the organic feed, they began to die off. In a few weeks we lost over half of the chicken we purchased from Josh's. I was so concerned that I took them to the vet who recommended I take them to Monash for testing to see if there was some sort of communicable disease. The outcome was negative for any communicable diseases. The only thing the vet could offer was that it was a reaction to new feed.

I performed a necropsy on several of the birds early on and noticed that they had enlarged organs, fatty liver and internal tumours. They were not healthy on the inside.

What was even more concerning was the behaviour of the birds when they were introduced to my heritage hens. Josh's brown chickens systematically rounded up any of my hens that were black – Australorps and Marans were particular targets – and pecked them to death. As in, a group of Josh's hens (6+) surrounded one of my heritage birds and pecked heads and bottoms running around with their intestines and eating my hen's internal organs. It took them only minutes for them to kill another hen. I witnessed this on several occasions. It was absolutely horrific and like nothing I have ever witnessed chickens do.

Josh's hens also picked feathers of some of my heritage birds and ate the feathers or picked at the blood spots created by feather picking. In each instance, it was like they were seeking (fiending for) protein. To watch them it was like a hardcore drug addict, crazed with withdrawal seeking their drug of choice.  My organic feed was at a minimum 18% protein, which is an appropriate level for a healthy laying hen.

After about 3 weeks then hens evened out and stopped killing other birds. Their lay also notably declined in this weaning off time period. It was as if whatever drug or stimulant that was in the feed they were given as Josh's had worn off and was out of their system. The first night/morning they were with us, they laid more than 200 eggs – more than one per bird. As time progressed and whatever stimulant was in the food wore off, we were lucky to get the equivalent of one egg every two days per hen. I have no direct proof that the birds were drugged, other than my observation of behaviour that was very un-chicken like.

I lost so many of my beautiful Heritage girls as a result of this. In the end, we closed our business and rehomed the girls. Purchasing hens from Josh was a big part of this.