{"id":599064,"date":"2026-04-11T01:45:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T01:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/599064\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T01:45:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T01:45:13","slug":"tamworth-teen-max-lye-is-no-chicken-in-the-egg-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/599064\/","title":{"rendered":"Tamworth teen Max Lye is no chicken in the egg business"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tamworth teenager Max Lye might be the one to answer the age-old question: what came first, the chicken or the egg?<\/p>\n

The 14-year-old’s passion for chooks began at the tender age of two, and the youngster now has dreams of owning his own egg farm.<\/p>\n

On his family’s property near Tamworth, in northern New South Wales, the young entrepreneur already has a growing egg business called Max’s Cluckers.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Max Lye as a toddler, with one of his very first chickens. (Supplied: Sam Lye)<\/p>\n

“It all started when I was about two when Mum and Dad got me some chickens when we were just on a little farm and we had five chickens,” Max said.<\/p>\n

“As I got older I got more \u2026 and now I’ve got about 70 [chooks].”<\/p>\n

Now 12 years down the track, the teenager has a good idea of how to look after his hens.<\/p>\n

He does the feeding and caring himself, and any pocket money or income from his eggs is ploughed back into the business.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Max Lye has been growing his passion for chickens since he was two. (ABC New England: Lara Webster)<\/p>\n

“I know lots about the chooks and how to care for them and what they need when they’re sick or if they’re happy or not,” Max said.<\/p>\n

“They’re such a small animal and they’re so quiet and they’re easy to handle.<\/p>\n

“I think that’s what I enjoy about them.”<\/p>\n

Eggs and more eggs<\/p>\n

While he studies hard at school with dreams of becoming a vet, Max has steadily been building his egg production.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

At the moment Max Lye’s chooks lay about 30 eggs a day, and he has a growing customer base. (Supplied: Sam Lye)<\/p>\n

In 2024, when he sold his first carton of eggs, Max had just 24 chooks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two years later and with 70 chickens now in his coop, Max gets about 35 eggs a day and is struggling to keep up with demand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Every day more and more people are wanting eggs,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of those customers is MasterChef Australia winner Julie Goodwin, who met Max while hosting a cooking show in Tamworth at his aunty’s place of work.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Max Lye supplied Julie Goodwin with eggs at a recent cooking event near his home town. (Supplied: Sam Lye)<\/p>\n

The celebrity chef needed some eggs, and Max was in the right place at the right time.<\/p>\n

“My aunty got me on to giving her eggs and then she came around again,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Mum reached out to her manager and she wanted eggs again \u2026\u00a0she got another dozen and used them in [another] show.”<\/p>\n

Proud as punch<\/p>\n

Watching on behind the scenes is Max’s proud mum, Sam Lye.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sam Lye is proud of Max and his love of chickens. (ABC New England: Lara Webster)<\/p>\n

“He just fell in love with them [the chooks] \u2026 he’s just got a real passion for it,” Ms Lye said.<\/p>\n

“It makes us very, very proud because he puts in all of the work, we really don’t do anything.<\/p>\n

“It makes us very proud to see it growing from such a small \u2026\u00a0side hobby.”<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Max Lye dreams of having his own farm one day. (ABC New England: Lara Webster)<\/p>\n

As for the future, Max has big dreams, for his chickens and himself.<\/p>\n

“I want to work towards owning a farm so hopefully [egg production] is another enterprise on my farm when I grow up,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I think being outside and working with animals is what I love the most \u2026 I want to be a vet when I grow up.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s fascinating to learn about them [animals] and how they grow.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tamworth teenager Max Lye might be the one to answer the age-old question: what came first, the chicken…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,133653,292137,1886,134,292136,292134,292135,51235,144009,194187],"class_list":{"0":"post-599064","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-chickens","11":"tag-egg-business","12":"tag-eggs","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-free-range-eggs","15":"tag-max-lye","16":"tag-maxs-cluckers","17":"tag-poultry","18":"tag-rural-youth","19":"tag-teen-business"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}