Year Two at The Cluckery!
December 2022
Here it is the middle of winter — yet like a true-blue crazy chicken lady, I’m talking chicken! Please let me extend a big thank you to those of you who ordered from us last year, and for your kind words of encouragement. “… the best chicken we’ve ever tasted!” “My child usually hates chicken…but he likes yours.” Others just express thankfulness for a source of good, clean chicken. What a joy to hear!
Yes, we are about 5 months away from receiving our first batch of chicks for the season, but this is truly the best time to order. You may even have chicken left in the freezer from last year, but to get the best pricing and to be sure of getting the quantity and breed we want, it is best to pre-order our chicks far in advance. Make sure you think ahead and try to figure out how many chickens you and your family would like to eat within a year.
For those who may be new to our farm, we raise “pastured poultry,” which means that after three weeks in a brooder, they are put out onto fresh grass in a portable chicken shelter, being moved once or twice daily. They have constant access to fresh grass and sunshine, as well as protection from the elements and from predators.
The pastured model is full of 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. Pathogens, leg injury, and lung damage are an ongoing issue at factory farms; however, being raised in the pastured model, our birds have room to move, breathe clean air, and express their full “chickenness.” Here, the pathogens never get a chance to proliferate, because the chickens are moved before pathogens can get established. And on top of being good for the chickens, our soil is improved at the same time: you can literally look at our grass and see by its lushness the path the chickens followed. In the picture on the left, those strips of brighter green show last season’s path. What this means in the long run is that the soil AND the chickens improve year to year, because that ongoing process of fertilization continues to add to the health and nutrition of the soil and therefore to that of future chickens raised on it.
Obviously, we all know that prices on things are going through the roof. This also affects the cost of our poultry feed and supplies. However, while of course there is an increase in the cost per pound of the chicken, the price I am charging is not exorbitant; I have carefully calculated what it will take to make a reasonable profit for the work and expenses involved, and I have compared it to what one can expect to pay for good pastured chicken elsewhere. Compared to other pastured poultry, this price is very competitive! I believe if you do cost comparison yourselves, you will find this to be true.
In addition, please remember that “you vote with your dollars,” so why not vote for clean, local, nutritionally dense food? It’s good for you, it’s good for your family, it’s good for the community, it’s good for the environment, and as described above, it’s even good for the chickens! Good for the environment, you ask? Yes, because not only does this method utilize fully the waste the chickens put out each day, we even compost the offal (fancy term for “the guts”), the feathers, the parts of the chicken we don’t eat, so that, rather than going to our already over-full landfills, it goes back to the earth and turns into healthy soil, which then can grow more abundance. What a beautiful cycle!
This year our price is $4.75 per pound. In order for you to have some idea of what you can expect to pay per chicken, last year they averaged a little over 4 pounds each. That varies based on many different factors. Last year was cool and wet, so more energy went to staying warm rather than to growth. However, you may anticipate weights of about 4.5 pounds, with some in the 3-pound-something range, and some up over 5 pounds.
Lord willing, we will have a couple butchering dates in mid-July and probably again in mid-August. You will come pick them up at the farm on butchering day, and we’ll have them processed, chilled, bagged up, and ready to go. There will also be a couple of delivery options available, but there will be an additional fee of $2 per chicken, as this necessitates our pre-freezing them and then keeping them frozen during delivery in the middle of July and August!
As I said last year, while our chickens’ primary feed is organically grown by a local farmer, they are not “certified anything.” They also receive table scraps, garden scraps, etc., and although I grow my garden “organically,” it is not certified. These are just healthy backyard birds, raised and processed out in the sunshine in a manner which has been proven to be sanitary, and it’s what I feed my family. If you’re comfortable with it, too, then I’m happy to be your local chicken farmer!
Those of you who have ordered from us before are receiving two order forms. Now that we’ve gotten our feet wet, so to speak, it’s time to start slowly expanding our base of customers. I would love to have a customer base built by word of mouth from satisfied customers, so if you are enjoying our chickens, would you please tell a like-minded friend? For each person you refer who buys from us, we will give you a $10 credit on your order.
Please, feel free to stop by and check out our farm, ask questions, whatever! Last year we had several customers who came out on butchering day to see the operation and even lend a hand; of course, we appreciated the help, and it was a lot of fun for all of us. It’s a neat opportunity to “meet the farmer” and give your kids or grandkids a taste of the country and some connection with where food actually comes from! (Hint: It’s NOT the grocery store freezer!!!)
Questions? I’m always happy to talk chicken! Just ask my long-suffering friends ;-)
A little more detail…
2022 was a year of growth on the homestead. I don’t mean we drastically increased our operation, but there was a lot of learning and a few great changes. We finally have not only our meat birds on pasture, but our egg layers, as well. We built a portable coop called a “Chickshaw,” which along with portable electric netting means we can move our layers anywhere: in the garden to help prepare soil and eat bugs, in the yard to fertilize grass and eat bugs, or in the garden AFTER the season to clean up and eat bugs! (You see the theme of eating bugs…chickens are NOT vegetarians; they are omnivores! They love green things, AFTER they have found and eaten every bug! They also won’t “turn up their beaks” at any stray frog that makes its unfortunate way across their paths!)
We got to tour the farm of a fellow pastured poultry farmer, who impressed us with his level of organization and cleanliness. Poultry farms do not have to stink! If they do, you’ve got a management problem; it was great to meet someone who proves that. Kevin and I were also greatly inspired on our homesteading journey by a conference we attended in October. I got to meet some of my “homestead heroes” and chat with like-minded people who actually DO so many of the things we dream of.
Egg layers: I get asked all the time if we sell eggs. We do, but not many. It would be easy during the spring, summer, and fall, when they can be on pasture, but each winter, they HAVE to have access to an indoor coop. On the worst days they don’t want to go outside, and indoor crowding is just about the worst thing you can do to a chicken, for stress levels and for health. I mentioned about lung trouble in factory houses: that comes from too many chickens in too small a space. (too much manure = too much nitrogen = ammonia fumes) “A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast,” Proverbs 25:10. Expanded winter housing…let’s just say that’s in the 5-year plan! I’ll keep you posted!
On a very serious note, a question I get asked often, when people find out we raise and - oh, horrors - process our own chickens, is “How can you do it? You look them in the eyes, care for them, and then butcher them!” I’m not going to pretend it’s easy, and I assure you we have some “pets” we wouldn’t dream of butchering. But if I am going to eat chicken, and I am, SOMEONE has to kill them; I know how, so I may as well be that “someone.” BUT first I give them the BEST life I possibly can, and that makes me very, very happy. With me, they get to express the full “chickenness of the chicken,” to quote my mentor Joel Salatin. They scratch, peck, and enjoy fresh pasture every day. They are not stressed by living indoors with tens of thousands of other chickens, finally to be loaded into crates and hauled hours away for processing. They just live contentedly until the last possible moment. No, it’s not always easy. I really am fond of my chickens! I confess to a sense of discomfort at the beginning of processing day, although it gets easier. But in order for us to live, something else has to die. It’s just the way it goes. And there is a beautiful doctrinal imagery in there! So I come at it with a deep sense of thankfulness to my God, who has given us this way of sustaining our lives.
~~~ Jen