Pasture Raised Non-GMO Chicken in the Freezer!

First batch of pasture raised chickens is in the books! It is the hardest batch with the crazy Missouri weather changes that we have. They have bred meat chickens to grow really fast and big, not to be tolerant to weather changes. But we want to have your favorite non-GMO chickens available as soon as possible in the year, so we get them as early as we can and as late into the season as we can. 

We have learned a few things over the last 3 years of raising pasture raised chickens. We are far from experts and we learn something new every year. This year we had a small run in with a fox because our guard dog started getting lazy and wanted to just hang out on my parents porch all night. Luckily the fox only got a few because Cameron went out every night patrolling and reminded Prince, our dog that he had a job to do. 

After that we haven’t had an issue, knocking on wood now that will continue. The chicken tractors have always been kept pretty close to the houses/barnyard to help keep critters away. I don’t know how it would go if they were in a far away pasture like the pasture pigs are. 

We do skip the hottest part of the year because we learned that as much the chickens dislike the cold, they are even less heat tolerant. There is a reason commercial barns are temperature controlled and the birds are on a constant watch for illnesses. 

We think the extra work to raise them outside in the fresh air and green grass is 100% worth it! If you have tried our chicken, you probably agree too. They don’t even compare or look the same as commercial chicken! 

With the first batch going to processing the second batch will be out on grass in a short week! I love how quickly we can move the second batch out because the weather is so much more suited to them. Then in a short 6 more weeks they will go to processing and it will be too hot to raise any more until it cools down a bit. We will also be getting turkeys in around the middle of August. Which is nice and hot but the baby turkeys love the heat so it works out well. 

This also means that we will be fully stocked on all your favorite chicken cuts next week! If your not signed up for our email newsletter, you want to do that because they will get first dibs.