Pastured Poultry
We raise meat chickens on pasture in Joel Salatin style chicken tractors. These chicken tractors allow our meat chickens to basically free-range in a protected area from weather, sun exposure, and predators. We order day old chicks from a hatchery and raise them in a brooder for roughly three weeks, and then finish growing them in the chicken tractors for at least six weeks. During the first three weeks in the chicken tractors, the chickens are moved daily, then during the last three weeks they are moved twice a day. Moving them this way allows them to always have access to fresh vegetation while keeping them from depleting the nutrients in the soil, thus helping us fertilize the land for our garden.
What makes our meat chickens better than store bought chickens? The combination of fresh grass, space, and fresh air make the difference between the big commercial chicken house chickens and the pasture raised chickens we are raising. I can tell you without hesitation that pasture raised chickens taste so much better. If you’ve ever been in one of those big commercial chicken houses, you have smelled the strong ammonia odor from chicken urine and feces that will take your breath away, that there is very little room for each chicken to move, and that they do not have fresh grass to eat or scratch around on. There is no doubt in my mind that pasture raised chickens such as ours are happier, healthier chickens.