As a direct-to-consumer farmer there are many things that I enjoy that the average commodity farmer never experiences. One of the most significant is the opportunity to talk with, and get to know, the folks that consume my products. It’s a two way street, we have the opportunity to hear the questions and ideas from our customers and in turn share our passion for food production, and how we go about it. It’s a lot of fun!
Today, I want to address a question pertaining to chickens. So, here we go. We raise and produce eggs and chicken, simple right? The first thing to know, however, is that these are two very different farming enterprises, completely separate flocks, and raised quite differently. Here’s some information about the breeds that we use for our egg and meat production, as well as our production methods. Hopefully you find this educational.
Over the years, chicken breeders have developed many, many breeds of chickens. They range from unimpressive and pretty normal looking to handsome and outlandish. They range from tiny to almost turkey sized, and almost every color in the book. A few breeds have stuck out and gained a lot of popularity. In commercial agriculture today, almost all poultry is a hybrid, a cross between 2 or more genetic lines. The most significant development is the “Cornish Cross” meat chicken. There are a number of lines of these hybrids and are proprietary cross breeds owned by Aviagen and Tyson, some of the big players in the commercial poultry space. These chickens grow extremely quickly, have an excellent feed to meat conversion ratio, and produce a very attractive carcass with lots of meat on it. The super fast growth traits of these birds isn’t with out it’s downs sides. It is possible to push these chickens too hard to the point that they become very unhealthy and lame. In general they are very wimpy chickens, with poor survival skills. While most of these birds are grown by the big CAFO companies, it is possible for the little guys like us to buy them as day old chicks. Despite their race-car genetics, they perform well in a pastured setting, and in fact live a much healthier life than their confinement-barn-raised cousins. To date, this is the type of chicken that we produce for meat. There are a couple other meat-chicken options, both hybrids and heritage breeds, that are smaller, and slower growing, but at this point we have not ventured into those options, as we feel that our production methods are the greater variable in meat quality that the breed that we raise.
Here's a good picture of a grown, ready-to-butcher, chicken.
Now, that was a lot of info on meat chickens, but where do the eggs come from? You got it, there are breeds that have been selected for consistent and high volume egg production, and consequently marginal carcass quality. Here, there are a lot of great options, and diversity of breed is a whole lot easier to accomplish than with meat chickens. While most commercial laying flocks consist of hybrid layers, they are not the complex hybrids of the meat industry. Instead they are simple 2 way crosses that could be recreated from readily available heritage breeds. Our laying flock consists of a number of hybrid crosses like “Golden Comet” “Black Star” and “Amber Link”. In the past we have also had Rhode Island Red heritage layers, and found them superior in vigor and intelligence. We are getting ready to start a new group of chicks this fall that will be next summers laying flock. They will be Rhode Island Reds or a comparable heritage breed.
Lets talk housing and production. While all chickens require similar basic care like shelter, feed, water and protection from predators, we go about these things differently with the two different flocks.
We affectionately call our hen house the “egg mobile”. It is an old wagon with a shed built on top. The shed is outfitted with a wire floor (so it stays clean) nest boxes, and roosting bars. The hens consider this their home, and even though they have access to pasture, they consistently return to their roosts each evening. We contain the hens around the egg mobile with a portable net fence. This fence helps to protect the hens from pesky predators, and also enables us to control what areas of the pasture receive the impact of the hens foraging. We move the egg mobile and netting once or twice per week depending on the season.
The EggMobile:
We raise meat chickens a bit different. First off, they spend 3 weeks in an indoor brooder pen. This area is warm, dry, and the perfect spot to get baby chicks off to a great start. Once they get a little bigger and grow out a few feathers we take them out to pasture. There they are housed in “chicken tractors”, mobile pens siting directly on the ground. These pens are moved every day, and the birds inside enjoy the daily flush of insects to devour. These pens work excellent for younger and less agile birds that would otherwise not go up into a wagon style coop.
Here's a shot of our chicken tractors that house our meat chickens:
That’s about it! Getting those chicken out on the land, and out of confinement barns is the key to a regenerative poultry operation. The pastures and soil love the fertility from the chicken manure that is left behind, and the resulting lush grass is a sight to see. The feed the chickens are able to forage, and the fresh air they breathe makes their meat and eggs nutrient dense and tasty. It’s a win-win-win!