Note that if you purchase something via one of our links, including Amazon, we may earn a small commission.
Luie Nevarez, a third-generation San Diego farmer, and his wife, Chloe, are raising champion eggs.
Updated April 1, 2025
I park my car in the dusty parking lot outside the store at Happy Hens Farm, a highly productive regenerative chicken ranch in Ramona, California. The farm’s llama, Dolly (yes, Dolly llama) greets me immediately — maybe not so much greeting me as approaching me like I’m a predator. Dolly guards the hens with the help of two Anatolian shepherds, a type of “livestock guardian” dog bred to protect hens from any predators that might creep down from the mountain range above. The ranch is situated just below a mountainous nature reserve rife with bobcats, mountain lions, and coyotes.
“Predators were a real issue for us in the beginning,” Chloe, wearing a cowboy hat and scuffed Blundstones, tells me. “We lost so much to bobcats and coyotes. Our goal is to work with the ecosystem. We don’t want to trap or do anything to hinder the system around us. We really want to do things that are going to be beneficial to our entire environment. The dogs do great at just keeping things out, so we don’t have to do anything to hurt any of the animals around us.”
Growing to Meet Demands
In the wake of national egg shortages, Luie and Chloe have expanded their operations significantly to meet growing needs without compromising the integrity of the product. What began as a small regenerative farm has grown to include about 16,000 hens, with another 2,600 set to arrive in April. The increased demand has also driven more people directly to the farm; Happy Hens eggs often sell out quickly in stores, with deliveries limited to once a week. This growth has allowed them to remain committed to their original mission: producing the best possible eggs without cutting any corners.
Expanded business has meant a growing community as well. In addition to their farm store, Happy Hens now features a playground surrounded by a petting zoo for both adults and children to experience a taste of farm life. They’ve launched a weekly educational program for TK (transitional kindergarten) through 8th grade and other classes for up to 12th grade. They also host a weekly ministry gathering. Soon they’ll open a coffee shop and will offer farm-to-table dinners to showcase local meats and produce and share more about all they are creating at Happy Hens.
Thousands of Hens
The pasture is lush with greenery at the moment after a particularly rainy season. There’s plenty of wild grass and juicy bugs for the ladies to enjoy as they graze around the pasture. In addition to the wild vegetation, the hens have access to the highest-quality, completely organic-certified, non-GMO, corn-free, and soy-free feed. The ingredients in the feed are sesame seed, alfalfa, milo, barley, and wheat. Not only are all of those ingredients verified and certified, but Happy Hens also conducts their own additional testing to make sure there is absolutely no GMO or glyphosate pesticide residue on the feed.
While the hens spend their days outdoors, they do have access to mobile barns for laying and sleeping at night. Happy Hens actually coined the phrase “Truly Outdoors.” The mobile barns are equipped with open slatted floors, so after the chickens eat the grass and bugs from the ground, they deposit it as manure back into the earth. The barns, and hens, are then moved to another part of the pasture so the land can regenerate. This practice helps to create the most nutrient-dense earth for the hens to graze on.
The value of this pasture isn’t just in the open space or the access to wild-grown food and bugs, it’s also in the long days out in the sunshine. The hens have access to shade and shelter whenever they want, but they love to sunbathe — and in Ramona there is usually no shortage of sunshine. Between their diet of healthy greens and their lifestyle of nearly endless sunshine, these birds are laying some super nutrient-dense eggs. Happy Hens produces eggs with exceptionally high levels of beta-carotene as well as vitamins A, D, E, K-2, and B-12. Chloe says these eggs contain about seven times the nutrients of a conventionally produced egg. “They really become like a golden egg,” Chloe giggles as a lone white rooster lets out a warning call. They’re trained to warn the flock of any predators overhead like hawks and eagles; although today the predator might have been me.
Open space is no issue for these birds. At Happy Hens, the birds have 218 square feet a piece! The property itself is vast, spanning 60 acres. With the mountain range behind it, the pasture feels virtually endless. I imagine from the birds’ point of view that it is endless.
What Does “Free Range” or “Pasture Raised” Mean?
I was shocked to discover that there is currently no legal definition for “free range” or “pasture raised” in the United States, meaning that foods with these labels can be packaged and sold to consumers with no unilateral definition of what they mean.
The Humane Farm Animal Care (HFAC) has created their own researched-based definitions and criteria for these labels: The “pasture raised” requirement is 1,000 birds per 2.5 acres or 108 square feet per bird. Their “free range” requirement is two square feet of space per bird and birds must be outdoors (weather permitting) for at least six hours per day. This is opposed to the USDA’s (and industry standard) definition that says “free range” birds must have access to the outdoors, which could be through a “pop hole” as opposed to full-body access.
The HFAC “pasture raised” requirements include the aforementioned open space, rotating fields, and a year-round life outdoors (weather permitting) with access to mobile or fixed housing where hens can sleep at night. Chloe mentions their commitment to going above and beyond any certification standards that exist. “We’re here to serve people. We’re here to love people and give them this great experience of reconnecting to where their products are coming from.”
Their devotion to excellence has not gone unnoticed. Happy Hens has been rated the number one egg in California by the Cornucopia Institute’s Egg Scorecard. They are also rated number three in the nation after Eight Mile Creek Farm in New York and Oregon’s Sublime Organics.
Third Generation Egg Farmers
Luie’s grandparents moved to Ramona from The Netherlands in 1957 and started a small chicken farm not too far from where the Happy Hens farm is now. As a young man, Luie decided he wanted to do things differently, step away from conventional egg farming, and develop a truly sustainable and regenerative program that would be most beneficial for both the environment and the consumer. He earned a bachelor of science in agriculture and business from Cal State Poly, and started building Happy Hens in 2012.
As he was building the business, he continued to work on his family’s conventional chicken farm. “There’s usually a large building, temperature controlled, with thousands of birds packed together,” Luie says. “You’re basically trying to get the most eggs you can by producing them on the cheapest possible route.” Luie is tall and slightly sunburned with ocean blue eyes. He wears a Carhartt vest over a flannel button-down and a gray hat that reads Happy Hens. “It was the exact opposite of what we are doing here,” he laughs. “We give our chickens the most room we can and produce way fewer eggs, but in the long run, your egg is way more nutrient dense and your chickens are way happier.”
Thousands of Eggs
A hen producing at a 100% production rate would lay approximately one egg every twenty-six hours. At Happy Hens, the birds average around 80% throughout their lifetime. With about 16,000 chickens on the farm, this means roughly 12,000 eggs per day. The team at Happy Hens collects, cleans, and packs that many eggs daily to get them out to stores as soon as possible. This workflow, combined with their network of local retailers, creates a unique distribution process for some of the freshest eggs on the market.
What struck me most about the whole operation is how much of an open book it is. Luie says he has two main goals: to give hens the healthiest environment and to give customers the most nutritious egg possible. On their website’s home page they say they value transparency above all, and it is very clear to me that this is true.
The Hen House farm shop is open Monday through Saturday, 9 am to 5 pm, and sells all kinds of wonderful locally produced products like kombucha and bone broth. There are also many grocery stores and restaurants in San Diego, Orange, and Los Angeles counties selling their eggs.
Looking for a delicious way to use eggs and extra kitchen scraps? Try this Zero-Waste Kitchen Quiche, a Kitchen Sink Frittata, or Veggie-Packed Baked Eggs.
