The How and Why We Raise Green Grass Chicken

I believe that knowing exactly how your meat was raised increases your enjoyment and flavor of the meat so here is a little breakdown of how we raise chickens.

The process of raising chickens out on fresh green grass has so many benefits for the health and taste of the birds but it also comes with extra risk and labor.

The birds arrive to us through the USPS mail, and we take them home ASAP and put them in a brooder that has water, feed and most importantly heat lamps for the little 2-day old chicks. It really is very amazing to me that the chicks can arrive safely through the mail like they do!

Once they are in the brooder, we start slowly raising the heat lamp and dropping the temperature so the chicks become used to the colder temps and will be able to survive in the great outdoors. This process last about 2 weeks.

We then pick a time in the week where the weather will be decent for at least 2 days so the chicks can become adjusted to their new quarters in the chicken tractors. The tractors are 10x12 and we make them ourselves. We have 3 different types and we have yet to decide which ones work best for us and our environment. Every morning we move the tractors using a little homemade dolly on one end and pulling on a rope from the other end.

Once the chicks are out in the green grass they really start to blossom, and it only takes a couple days of daily moves before they learn to come forward to the fresh grass. I have seen a baby chick snatch up a worm out of the grass just like an old cartoon.

After a couple weeks out on grass the chickens become large enough that they really benefit from moving the tractor 2x a day. This also helps disperse their poop through more of the pasture. Which is the main reason we started chickens.

Then when the chickens are 8 weeks old, we load them up at dark in our stock trailer and leave super early the next morning to drive 2.5 hours to have them processed at a USDA inspected facility, so we can ship and sell across state lines.

8 weeks is a short amount of time, but they defiantly keep us busy taking care of them the whole time! Depending on the weather we do extra to make sure the birds are comfortable. If it is going to rain at night, we lay out straw to keep them dry. If it is going to be extremely hot, we will run cool water under them to keep them cool, we have even set up fans for them before.

I will not deny the extra work that comes with this model of raising chickens. However, the flavor of these birds makes it 100% worth it! Just knowing that they were raised with fresh air, no antibiotics, no hormones, and only the freshest NON-GMO Feed makes this chicken the best you have ever ate. If you have any other questions, I am happy to answer!