What a Sight: Chickens on our Pastures

For many, many years, egg-laying hens have been scratching, foraging, and living their best life on our Indiana pastures, but this year marks the first time in a long while that we've had broilers (i.e., "meat chickens") on our pastures, too.

We've been fortunate to work with a number of trusted chicken producer farmers during that span and continue to do so today to meet the ever-increasing demand for high-quality, ethical pasture-raised chicken.

Earlier this year, I wrote an in-depth article outlining our multifaceted approach to navigating the chicken challenges that our farm was experiencing, along with many family farms across the country that are committed to raising a quality, unadulterated chicken product.

We hear it allllll the time: American consumers are HUNGRY for an alternative to the massive chicken producers whose cheap products line grocery store and big box discount retailer stores.

As I explain in the article, we've made significant investments in three local producer farms we work with here in Indiana and leaned into collaboration for labor and processing. We've also committed to raising birds on our pastures once again.

Bruce and the farm team constructed a brooder last winter, which welcomed our first batch of chicks in April.

Those very chicks soon made their way to living the remaining 4-ish weeks of their lives on grass in our mobile chicken coops. Since then, we've been off and running repeating the cycle and producing an amazing product here on our 550 acres.

With the rest of this article, I wanted to share a few pics to paint a fuller picture of how we raise your chicken.

Let's dive in...

Bruce (the 6th son) snapped this picture as he, Spencer, Jabez, and Joseph headed out to move the coops to fresh pasture, a task we repeat every 1-3 days depending on the status of the current paddock.

If you take note of anything, let it be of the flourishing, rich green pasture our livestock get to call home.

As you can see, these birds haven't quite fully grown into their feathery bodies yet. Ha. That being said, they were old enough to make the transition from the temperature-controlled brooder to life out on our Indiana pastures.

Your eyes do not deceive you. Even when they're in the protective mobile coop, where they sleep at night and sometimes escape the direct sun, they are indeed ALWAYS on pasture.

While they scratch for bugs, insects, and worms and munch on grasses and wildflowers, they also have continuous access to a NON-GMO grain ration in the big red feeders, which supplements their diet (which they NEED as non-ruminant animals).

Here you can see that a few weeks have passed and feathers fill their entire body.

What is there to see above?? Notice the continuous access to sunlight and pasture as the mobile coop walls remain rolled up a few feet for their easy entrance and exit.

Several dozen birds made the choice to enjoy some sunshine while a few security guards provided watch in the back (zoom in to see two Chinese Geese). Trust me: they are VERY vocal when they spot a potential intruder.

Here we stepped back a bit to see the pasture access that the birds can venture out to their heart's content for a meal, curious exploration, or a bit of muscle-building exercise.

Last but not least, I wanted to share this picture we snapped using a drone while visiting an Indiana producer farm nearby.

As you've likely learned from me by now, the principles of regenerative grazing require that we strategically manage pastures to allow for periods of both USE and REST.

Can you see how the grasses in the distance which once housed the mobile coops are now in a "rest and recovery" period? They're in the process of bouncing back with even more vitality after the hens provided beneficial soil disturbance and plenty of poop and pee to "fertilize" the grasses.

It's a beautiful system that improves the land, produces healthy birds...and a significantly better end-product for our loyal and informed customers.

Thanks for reading this message today, I hope you learned something.

If you want to incorporate our ethical pasture-raised chicken into your meals you can shop all our chicken products here.