How do we raise chickens?

Good morning!

Why does your chicken taste so good? Well, the simple answer is: a happy healthy chicken is a great tasting chicken. And really this applies to most things we eat. I would like to take a few minutes to tell you about how we raise chickens and why we do it the way we do.

Today I’m going to focus on the first step of the process: baby chicks.

Step 1: Prepare for their arrival.

There is tons of work to be done before the chick is even hatched. The hatchery plans the breeding of which hen to which rooster, then the eggs are collected at calculated intervals and incubated. All this planning for a specific Monday hatch day when all the chicks hatch, are counted and put in special boxes and shipped to the post office near us!

But for us, our work begins the night before the chicks arrive. We prepare their new home, which we call a “brooder” — referring to the brooding job of the hen when she has new chicks. Chicks need warmth, up to 100 degrees in the first few days of their life. So we turn on the heat lamps, fill up the waterers with water, a dash of Organic Apple Cider Vinegar and a pinch of Organic Sugar. Then we fill these “crowd feeder” trays with chick feed and top it with a sprinkle of grit (small stones they need for proper digestion). The bedding is all Peat Moss for a dry and comfortable environment.

Step 2: Bring the chicks home!

Once we’ve picked up the chicks at the post office, we bring them back to the brooder to get them food, water and warmth as soon as possible. Each box has about 50-60 chicks in it, and we get them in batches of 225. I took a time lapse video, pictured below, what I’m doing is dipping each chick’s beak in a dish of water so they know water is near and it helps them then go look for more water and food.

As you can imagine, food and water are critical to the young chick. They have amazing energy reserves left in their body from growing inside the egg, but by the second day it is beginning to run out. So it’s get them in their quick! (with a little help from time-lapse)

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaDwMKeGM0w)

We choose to mitigate stress and sickness with good management: warmth, introduce them to good food and fresh water, plenty of space, dry bedding, natural sunlight. This is the first step to a happy, healthy, delicious chicken.