Organic Chicken
Our Chickens live in small groups in houses that are moved a short distance every week to ensure they are always on fresh ground. Not many people realise that chickens like eating grass. They also search for insects and worms, which they really enjoy. This way they find their own natural healthy food and have very enjoyable lives.
We keep some hens to produce eggs. Marans, which are brownish-black, lay very dark brown eggs, and Leghorns, which are white, lay very white eggs. Organic eggs are tastier with naturally dark yolks. They lay eggs for us from 19 weeks to 2 years of age, after which they are sold to small-holdings and replaced.
We keep some chickens, called Naked Necks, for meat. They produce excellent quality, lean meat. We raise them for 100 days as opposed to 39 days for most commercial chickens. They live outside from an early age, eating grass, worms and insects.
Our chickens are also given flint grit to help them digest their food plus calcium-rich ground oyster shells to strengthen their bones and their egg-shells.
We use different breeds from those you buy in the supermarket because they are slower growing and are healthier. They do our fields good by eating bad bugs and fertilising the soil with their poo!
We have to shut our chickens in their houses at night to keep them safe from foxes. We aim to ensure that they always have 14 hours of daylight per day. So, during the winter months, we have daylight bulbs in their houses.
Most supermarket chickens live in cramped cages and overcrowded dark sheds and never get to peck around in fields and live interesting, happy lives like ours do.