A little bit about our chickens.

As spring has officially begun, farm life is getting busy (as you can tell from the date of our last post...sorry!).  Some of our patrons have asked us about our chickens.  We have a variety of chickens which is what gives us such a variety of colors for our eggs.

What gets a little frustrating for small time farmers like us, is the lack of consistency with egg carton labeling.

Here are some quotes taken from http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org:

“Free range” labels are regulated by the USDA only for poultry produced for meat – it’s not regulated for pigs, cattle or egg-producing chickens. Nor are the requirements very high: poultry can use the label if the chicken had any access to the outdoors each day for some unspecified period of time; it could be just a few minutes, and does not assure that the animal ever actually went outdoors to roam freely.

Our chickens are true free range chickens.  They are let out to graze on the farm from morning until night.  We do keep them in a secure coop with an outdoor run at night to protect them from predators.

“Cage free” means that birds are raised without cages, but it tells you nothing about any other living conditions. For instance, cage-free eggs could come from birds raised indoors in overcrowded spaces at large factory farms.

Again, our birds are allowed lots of room.

We welcome you to visit the farm.  Give us a call and we can set up a tour.  You will actually see where our chickens roam.  You be the judge.  =)