Are You Interested In Pastured Poultry? (Year One at The Cluckery!)
November 22, 2021
Are you interested in pasture-raised poultry?
I’ve been raising chickens off and on for several years now, and this last summer, after a good bit of research, I raised pastured poultry for the first time. Kevin built me a portable shelter, in which the chickens, being moved once or twice daily, had constant access to fresh grass and sunshine, as well as protection from the elements and from predators. In addition to kitchen scraps, scraps from our garden, and grass and weeds “such as their soul loveth,” we fed them organic feed from a local farmer. End result: absolutely delicious, nutritious chicken!
This method has so many benefits. The majority of chickens in our country are raised in factory farm houses, where they never go outside, never eat a blade of grass or chase a bug, and have very little room to move around and express their God-given “chicken-y” natures. Pathogens are an ongoing issue at factory farms; in fact, many chickens go through chlorine/antimicrobial baths (sometimes several of them!) just to kill off the pathogens. Here, they had plenty of room to move and express their full “chickenness.” Here, the pathogens never got a chance to proliferate, because our chickens never returned to the same ground in the entire growing season.
I would like to begin selling our pastured poultry, starting small by offering it to just a few friends whom I think may be interested, and letting it grow slowly from there, if the Lord will. I would like to offer you a free chicken from the ones that our family raised and processed this year, and if you enjoy it, you can let me know how many you would like us to raise and process for you next year.
Please know that these are NOT USDA certified, certified organic, or officially certified anything. These are just healthy, home-grown, back-yard chickens. We process these together out in the fresh air and sunshine, and the only inspection is what I do myself before we bag each bird. We keep things as clean as possible, and I disinfect things before we start butchering, but we do not chlorinate our chickens or spray them with any form of antimicrobial mixture. We are comfortable with this; just consider whether you are.
Are you interested? If so, let me know, and I’ll bring you a chicken the next Sunday; just be sure to bring a cooler! Of course, I’m happy to answer any questions you have, and you are welcome to come out next year and visit the chickens, or even come out on butchering day to see the process…or lend a hand, if you aren’t squeamish!
For those who like more detail…
Let me know by January 9, 2022, how many chickens you would like. We will aim to be butchering around the end of June or early July. It may seem odd to order six months in advance, but to be sure of getting the number and breed of chicks we want, I have to order them early. You will come pick them up on butchering day, and, Lord willing, we’ll have them bagged up and ready to go. If you would rather that I freeze them first and then deliver them to you after church, I can do that, but I would charge an additional fee of $1.00 per bird, as I have limited freezer space and would have the additional issue of keeping chickens frozen during the summer during a church service!
These are whole birds, just like your sample bird; at this point I don’t plan to cut them into separate pieces, as that extends processing time by about 3-5 minutes each, which adds up if you’re butchering a lot of birds! Some people are intimidated by the process of cutting a bird up into parts; I am glad to teach the technique. I put a gizzard, heart, liver, and neck (“the giblets”) with each bird. (If you just absolutely don’t want those, let me know…I always have a use for them. Chicken stock, anyone? Chopped liver, anyone? It’s really delicious!)
I plan to charge $4.00 per pound next year, unless there is some ridiculous change in feed prices, of which I would notify you. This is reasonable, considering organic poultry prices at your local Kroger or Whole Foods; and I am confident that our birds are superior, due to their living conditions and their feed, the level of care they receive, and even the method of butchering. (If you wonder what I mean by that, just ask.)
This year we butchered our chickens when they were between nine and eleven weeks old; the younger ones averaged just over 4 pounds, and the older ones averaged just over 5 1/2 pounds. Of course, these weights will vary from year to year; this year was perfect for raising poultry because it was so dry during the summer, and they grew rapidly; during a wet, cold season, more of their energy goes to staying warm and dry, so they grow more slowly. (Plus, this being my first year with pastured poultry, I overfed the little beasts…I’ve heard chickens described as pigs with feathers and beaks, and I think that just about covers it! They always act like they’re starving, so you can easily overfeed them.)
One more interesting detail: I briefly mentioned in the main letter the sanitation we maintain for our processing. Actually, skin samples were taken of poultry processed in the manner we follow, and they were compared to skin samples of supermarket poultry to measure bacterial contamination. The results? The supermarket birds averaged 3,600 CFU/ml, the “backyard” poultry averaged 133 CFU/ml.*
If you have questions, I’m always happy to talk chicken!
~~~ Jen
*For more information on the process we follow, see Pastured Poultry Profits, Copyright 1993, by Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms. The test details I’m naming here are found on page 318 of the book. Obviously, it was Mr. Salatin’s chickens who were tested and not our chickens; but still this information is encouraging for people who want to find a better model than the conventional one!