Welcome
to our Pastured Poultry Page!!
We
raise chickens for eggs, and stewing purposes. We
also raise broilers and turkeys.
We
raise several types of poultry. We believe in
raising them in a healthy environment as we use
them for food for ourselves and others. We heard
and read too much about how poultry is raised
commercially. All of our poultry is raised out in
the fresh air with plenty of fresh forage and
sunshine. We don't feed them hormones or
antibiotics. They do this commercially because
they are cramped in small cages with many other
birds, all of whom never see the light of day and
breathe fecal dust continually. This is a
breeding ground for disease. So, they have to
pump them full of medication so they will make it
to slaughter age. We have our feed mixed to our
specifications adding natural ingredients such as
kelp.
We
have raised laying chickens the longest. We did
bring three hens and a rooster with us when we
moved from Florida. Our one Araucana rooster and
Araucana hen belonged to our son, and since we
were bringing them, we brought along two more of
our hens. We had always raised Rhode Island Reds
and Barred Rocks along with the two Araucanas. We
had hatched out some of our own eggs, so we had
what looked like a Barred Rock hen, but she laid
green eggs!! :) We decided to try some different
breeds after we moved. We bought mostly Buff
Orpingtons with a few Buff Rocks and a few more
Araucanas. Then through the local Amish we got
some Golden Buffs. These are much smaller than
any of the other breeds, but boy, they outlay the
others with more and much larger dark brown eggs!
Our layers are doing pretty well. Currently we have
Golden Buffs, some Black Sex Links and Araucanas. We have
two roosters. One is an Araucana and one is a
Buff Orpington. We have lots of people who want
our eggs. We usually feed them extra corn, oats
and lots of cayenne pepper in the winter. We were
told the cayenne would help warm them into laying.
When we are not faithful with the cayenne, our
egg production does go down. Our chickens free
range, so they are out in the sunshine and fresh
air. When it is cold, they spend a lot of time in
the coop but they still scratch some in the snow.
We are also trying Banty chickens in our big barn
with the cows. We only have a few of them out
there. We were told they are an excellent help in
fly control. They scratch through the manure and
eat any bugs and eggs. I had one white Silky
rooster. He looked like a miniature ostrich having
a bad hair day!! Some animal got him and so I need to get another one. Our poultry eats lots of natural forage as
well as a feed we have mixed for them. You will
notice the difference in our eggs. The yolks
stand up tall and are a deep golden orange. Since
the chickens free range, these eggs have more
Omega3 fatty acids otherwise known as the "cholesterol
reducer." These are "good for you"
eggs from happy, healthy hens!!
These are some of our chickens out on pasture.
Here is one of our son's Araucana rooster. His
name was Fireball. We lost him awhile back. We don't know if it was old age, or the younger rooster stood up to him and he just gave up. He is
the rooster that we brought from Florida.
These are other roosters we have had and a couple
of hens. The one up front is also an Araucana.
The one at the top of the picture is a Buff
Orpington.
Here is a picture of one batch of chicks in the brooder. Our dog, Star LOVES baby chicks. She does not hurt them, but loves to lick them. She is very gentle with them. She trembles with excitement whenever we get a new batch.
This is the chicken coop my son and I built at
our last farm. It was on skids, so as we moved
our cows on pasture, we could move the henhouse
as well. We are hoping to build one here sometime in the near future. We are using a small old one that was on
the property. We hope to put it up on an old hay
wagon we have to move around after the cows. The
new one will be winter quarters for all the hens
and spring/summer quarters for the new chicks
each year.
We
also raise pastured broilers. The one main
difference of how they are raised is that the
broilers are in movable pens. We move their pens
every day, then twice a day as they get bigger.
We try to get them out in the pasture as soon as
we can. This way they have fresh forage as well
as their feed. In the heat of the summer, we have
to check their water a couple of times a day and
often fill their feeder again as well. Then at
around eight weeks, we butcher them ourselves. We
get many comments on the quality of our chickens.
People also feel good because they are making a
healthy choice for their family. We have the
world's toughest inspectors.... the customer. :)
We also fill our freezer full, so that we can
make the healthy choice year-round. It is amazing
how fast these birds grow. At eight weeks they
dress out at an average of 5.6 pounds. Some
weighed seven pounds and up. Their feet are so
huge, they look comical. We have several pictures
below.
This is the moveable pen that we built. This one
was made out of wood. We used it as a back
up pen or we have used it as a puppy pen when
Star had pups. We gave it to someone to else who wanted it.
Here are some of the laying chicks in the old
brooder.
Here they are at 4 weeks out on pasture.
These next 2 are of the birds at 8 weeks right
before butchering.
 
Here
is a picture of the current pens we use. They are
much more user friendly
We
raise turkeys each year for Thanksgiving. We also
get rave reviews on them as well. Everyone told
us that we could not raise turkeys without
medicated feed. So, we tried it anyway. :) They
did great. The one thing we did different was
while they were still in the brooder, we gave
them goat's milk and grass. They ate much more
forage when they were outside. They really ate
down the grass and greens. We raised them for
almost 17 weeks. They were much more fun to raise
than the chickens. When they were still in the
brooder, they would sing. When they are outside,
we can go out and gobble gobble at them and they
talk back to us. We only have one picture of the
turkeys, but here it is.
All writing and photography on Amazing Graze Farm is Copyright © 2005-2008 by Marci Blubaugh All rights reserved.
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