Raised the old-fashioned way, just like grandma’s!

You may ask “why should I pay more for your chicken than what I can buy it for at the store?” First of all let me say we are not trying to produce cheap meat so we can compete with Wal-Mart. What we are doing is producing a high quality healthy meat at a reasonable price.

So what is different between our pastured poultry and confinement poultry?

We keep our chickens in small groups of 100-200 chickens in large well-ventilated coops where the chickens are free to come and go as they please. The chickens have access to fresh pasture surrounding the coops. The coops and pasture are fenced off from predators with a movable electrified netting fence. This system allows the chickens to have constant fresh air and sunlight. In contrast, confinement chickens are kept in large groups of around 10,000 in a chicken house. It is dark and dusty in these houses and the chickens require antibiotics and medicated feed to survive. By exposing our chickens to fresh air and sunlight our chickens’ environment is healthy and we do not use antibiotics or medicated feed.

As a result, pastured poultry is a denser high quality meat. Confinement poultry is a more porous meat that tends to soak up water from chill tanks during processing. Tests have shown that 10% of the weight of a store bought poultry is water. Another difference is that we hand process the chickens right here at the farm in a state inspected facility, whereas commercial processing plants use machines. These machines tend to tear open the intestines and get fecal matter on the carcasses. The fecal matter is then transferred into the water in the chill tanks. Remember how we said 10% of the weight of store bought chicken is water from these tanks? Our chill tank has clean water and the dense meat of our poultry will contain very little or no water.

Approximately 30% of our chickens’ diet is green pasture, mostly alfalfa and bugs like grasshoppers. This is very healthy for the chickens and really does make a difference in the quality of their meat.

In raising our poultry this way, we feel comfortable and at ease that we are providing you with the best, most healthy poultry. Many people are concerned how and where their food is raised and processed, you can place your trust in us. Humane treatment of all poultry in our program is always a top priority.

So why not try a few and compare, you will be glad you did!

Click here to see our March 2010 Newsletter

Click Here to print a 2010 Farm Fresh Pastured Poultry Form