All-Natural Pastured Meat Chickens
Do you know where your food comes from?
Do you know where your chicken comes from? Do you know what it was fed? Do you know how it was killed and processed? There is an old saying “you are what you eat.” Most of these sayings stick around because they are more or less truthful. Why is there so much obesity? Why so much diabetes and autoimmune disease? We cannot say that food is the only factor in the rise of these health problems, but it has a HUGE effect on our bodies, and it is one of the things we can change.
If a chicken is fed 70% of its diet corn and soy, never sees sunlight or grass, and is walking in its feces all day, does that sound like the ideal and healthy option to fuel our bodies? Seeing pictures like the one to the left was a shock to us, we had never thought about where our food came from, or how these animals were treated while alive.
The video below is of a factory chicken farmer who allowed interviewers into her chicken house.
A continued shock was how these birds are killed and processed in large inspected facilities. Joel Salatin’s book Pastured Poultry Profits explains in depth what the process looks like and why he butchers all of his chickens on his farm instead. If you want to have a visual of how the factory farms process their chickens, I found two videos that I will link here and here. the first one is someone criticizing the process, the other is put out by the processors themselves and is praising how “highly efficient” and “entirely automated” the facilities are. The footage shown is basically identical.
We do not believe that this is the only way to treat chickens. We want to eat chicken that was raised healthily and killed humanely and we want to make it an option for you as well.
Why is our Chicken so much more expensive than in the store?
Chicken in the average grocery store can be anywhere from $1-$3 per lb for an average size 6 lb chicken. This price for a whole chicken is actually quite astounding. This means you are paying an average of $12 for the hatching of the chick, the feed, water, antibiotics, transportation to butchering facility, butchering, processing, packaging, shipping to store, paying all the people involved wages, and the store itself making a margin. How do they make it so cheap?
- Government subsidization on corn and soy (70-90% of these chicken’s diet)
- Automated systems (less labor cost)
- No land needed for pasture
- Thousands of chickens in one concentrated space
Happy and Healthy Chickens
We are using a variation of Joel Salatin’s method for raising broiler chickens. This involves a movable shelter called a chicken tractor that allows the chickens fresh air, sunlight, and safety from predators. The chicken tractor is moved once or twice a day to a new section of grass. This system also gives them access to plenty of bugs and grass, gives them exercise, and evenly fertilizes the grass.
We tested this method on a smaller scale last year and were very happy with the results. We had 20 tasty chickens to last us several months, and it feels so good knowing where they came from and how they were treated.
Image source: https://www.sare.org/publications/profitable-poultry/determining-the-right-alternative-poultry-production-system/examples/
Paying the minium possible for a good quality product
As a small family farm we cannot get the bulk pricing for multiple tons of subsidized chicken feed, nor have automated machines do all of our work. We work hard to keep this good chicken priced fairly for all involved. Our chicken is priced at $5 per lb in order to cover our expenses and keep our farm running. Our chickens are an average of 5 lbs, that makes our chickens an average of $25 per chicken. For that price, you are paying for:
- No government subsidization
- Corn and soy-free chicken feed
- Labor intensive system (moving pens everyday, filling food and water)
- We butcher ourselves on our farm
- Just overall a better quality product.
We know this high quality chicken is not in everyone’s budget, but we encourage everyone to make real food a priority. Our family wants to eat food grown like this, so we are sure other families want it as well.
One more note before the order form…
We will have several butchering days throughout summer. On those days you are welcome to come early and see our process, or come afterward and simply pick up your chicken. You can either order all of your chicken to be picked up on one day, or you can pick up several chicken throughout the summer on several of our butchering days. Up to you! Just please specify on your order form below what you would prefer.
I will be posting the order form in a week or two, after my husband and I have a chance to plan out when those butchering days will be.