Choosing Chickens

If you follow along with the blog you will remember my frantic call for help a few weeks back as I was in search of chickens ... meat chickens to be precise ... actually meat chicks to be more accurately precise. My original plan wasn't going to work out anymore so I needed to come up with another plan somewhat quickly. Thankfully there were tons of helpful comments posted on the blog, e-mailed, and messaged through Facebook. Now ... we have chicks on the farm and they seem to be doing great.

So ... what did I end up doing? I came up with a solution ... that's what I did! It's not my ideal solution, but I believe it will allow me to accomplish some of my goals this year and then prepare for the future (the future being next year). In fact since I was somewhat late to the game when it comes to ordering I couldn't even really get exactly the chicks I wanted. Here is what I ended up doing ...

Step #1 :: Order 125 Freedom/Red Rangers

• These are the chicks that I have already received and they are doing great
• I was interested in trying them because I had talked with a farmer who raised them at the processor last year and he loved them
• They grow a bit faster than the Naked Necks so hopefully they will be ready earlier than expected

Step #2 :: Order 125 Naked Necks

• I have been very pleased with these birds for the past two years, but I am a little gun shy about ordering from a hatchery instead of a farmer I know
• They are slow growing birds so they will be ready sometime in July hopefully ... perfect for the market

Step #3 :: Order another 125 Freedom/Red Rangers

• This batch is coming from a different hatchery in order to try something different, and because I can add it to an order at the farm store in town (where I used to work) to save on shipping
• Hopefully I can get the scheduling right and then I'll be able to take these into the processor at the same time as the Naked Necks

Step #4 :: Evaluate and Place Following Orders

• While these three sets of chicks are growing I need to decide what to do for the rest of the season
• Hopefully I'll be ordering two more batches of chicks

Step #5 :: Get Ready for 2014

• Thanks to all of the great comments about various heritage breed chickens I have lots to think about
• One thing I'm very interested in is incubating chicks here on the farm ... so lots to research there
• The Mottled Java ... that is one of the breeds that was mentioned and I think I'm going to check them out

It seems like a good plan doesn't it? If it is a good plan I'll let you know how it works out ... and if it's a bad plan ... well, I'll let you know about that as well.

We Need Help!

Today I was going to post a picture of my boots in the mud and talk about how things never go even close to or remotely as planned ... of course that assumes that I make a plan in the first place. I'm sure we'll get to that post eventually, but today what we really need is some help ... and kind of quickly! For the past two years we have raised our Naked Neck Poulet Rouge Chickens as our meat birds. They grow slowly, but do well on pasture foraging and taste great. Unfortunately the source where we purchased our chicks from will not be able to supply them this year so we are looking at other options. Which is where we need help ...

Ideally we want to stick with our heritage or rare breeds that do well foraging on pasture and reach a decent processing weight at 14-16 weeks. I think it is important that we stay away from hybrids because it would be nice to keep a few around and let them go broody so we can begin to raise chickens that work the best for our system. Oh yeah ... one more thing ... they have to be something we can get in the very near future ...

Here are some breeds that I've been reading about ... all of them had seemingly very mixed reviews and there wasn't a lot of information about the amount of time to processing weight.

• White Plymouth Rock
• Delaware
• Buckeye
• Dark Cornish
• Jersey Giant
• And many more ...

If you have any thoughts ... suggestions ... ideas ... helpful insight ... or even want to tell me I'm wrong I'd love to hear your comment. I'm open to all suggestions at this point ...

What About Broilers?

A couple weeks ago I asked for your thoughts on getting some chicks ... specifically some chicks that would eventually grow to be a new laying flock for the farm and at the same time do a bit of pasture sanitation for us. But, laying hens haven't been the only kind of fowl running through our Stoneyfield Farm discussions lately because we have also been talking about guineas and, as today's title suggests, broiler chickens. So, I thought I would throw the topic out there for discussion.

My biggest question is this: What do you raise for broilers? If we were to go ahead with some this were we are talking about doing a very small amount, mostly for ourselves and a few customers that are interested, but I'm not really sure what to get when it comes to ordering chicks.

I have read Joel Salatin's book, "Pastured Poultry Profits", and I know that he (and others) are successfully raising the Cornish X Rocks birds because they have found that that is what the consumers want. But, I'm just not totally convinced on this "franken-bird". It almost looks like a chicken on steroids.

I was able to find this discussion over on the Homesteading Today message board dealing with just this question and I notice that there are quite a few people that raise things other than the "super bird". Do you guys have any suggestions for breeds/crosses/specific places to order from? I would love to hear your thoughts!

Chicks By the Book...

I love my wife! When all these crazy farm ideas started hatching in my head and we began talking about buying 40 bare acres and building a house/farm she was okay with it. When we talked about having wood heat (kind of dirty bringing all that wood into the house) she was okay with it. When we discussed the possibility that we would have to move into the house before it was done she was okay with it ... as long as it had a working bathroom! And, when it was her birthday a bit over week ago I knew that she would love getting "The Encyclopedia of Country Living" by Carla Emery.

So, after I posted my question about chicks the other day I got to think, "Duh! I bet my wife's new book has information on raising chicks". I was right! The book had information on breeds, mail order companies, how to start chicks, brooders, feed, water, and so much more. I have combined all of that information with all of the great information that I received from you all (the readers) and the added bonus of having a wife that raised plenty of chicks and chickens as a child (what can't she do!).

I think I'm going to spend the next couple of weeks seeing if we can get everything cleaned out to do this properly. It isn't an issue of having the space or the right equipment, but rather the fact that we have boxes stored where we would put the chicks. Maybe getting chicks would be a win/win situation. The house would get a little closer to being completed and we could have a beginning to the end of store bought eggs (our chickens are pretty much old and on winter strike).

There is still plenty to think about and get ready, but it would be nice if we could add some egg layers to the farm. One thing that I do have a question about though is specific breeds. After doing a bunch of reading last winter I kind of had my heart set on Barred Plymouth Rocks, but I'm finding that they are a bit difficult to find (at least in the three Iowa hatcheries I know of). Beyond that we would like some of the standards. What are some of your favorite brown egg laying breeds and are there any heritage breeds you are especially fond of?

Tyson Chicken ... Raised Without Antibiotics

I came across some interesting news today as I was scanning the internet today. It seems that Tyson Chicken announced a new product and label this summer. They new product and label is/was planned to be called "Raised without Antibiotics". You can read Tyson's press release by clicking HERE. Now, the reason I wrote "is/was" is that that was their planned label for the product, but now the USDA and Tyson have worked out an agreement to change the label name to, "Chicken Raised Without Antibiotics that impact antibiotic resistance in humans". I have a feeling the words that start with lowercase letters will be in smaller print.

One side note is that Tyson Chicken considers the name change a victory. You can read a little bit about a lawsuit that was filed against them by clicking HERE. Tyson won because the judge noted that they had worked with the USDA to change the name.

Now, this news as all very relevant for the farmer and consumer alike, but I think there are a couple of key details that we need to take out of this whole deal...

First of all, if you take the time to read through Tyson Chickens press release you will notice that their main reason for doing this is because the customers were asking for it. So, the people do want better food ... and ... they are willing to pay more for it (because the new product will cost more than "regular" Tyson chicken). I see this is a large food company trying to play catch up. That doesn't mean that small farmers are winning or even starting to win, but it does mean that the small farmers with their intimate connection with their customers can meet their needs and give them something that they are comfortable eating. Plus, if people want "antibiotic free" chicken that means that they probably also desire humanely raised chicken ... we just need to let them know that it is out there! So, there is a bright side to this sad story.

Secondly, I think this proves (did this really need proving) that the government isn't out there to help the small farmer. Like I said, I'm pretty sure everyone already knows this, but here it is again in black and white. What we need to do is work together as a body of farmers and consumers and then we can begin to effect change. Remember work together ... farmers and consumers!

And finally, this proves that Tyson is producing chicken that has antibiotic impact our antibiotic resistance. Obviously many people already knew that, but once they start running ads on television and in the paper promoting their new product savvy farmers selling directly to their consumers can use it to educate people about real food, real relationships, and real local business.

Let's face it ... Tyson Chicken isn't going away anytime soon (if ever) and I probably wouldn't vote for a governmental law to shut them down (just look how well that works with the USDA as the enforcer!). But, I think we can use this disappointing news for our benefit if we are creative and bold!

Organic Farmers Share Tips...

This past week at a Thanksgiving party I picked up an article from the Iowa Farm Bureau Spokesman (November 7, 2007 issue) that my father-in-law had been saving for me. It was just a short article about a conference that took place in Sioux City, IA, but it did give me some encouragement to see what is happening in my state when it comes to unconventional farmers.

The speaker at the conference was Kim Alexander who currently lives in Texas. An interesting thing about his story is that he had previously lived in Iowa and his family owned farm land. He was not able to farm on the family land because the family decided to put it into the Conservation Reserve Program (new at the time). I don't know all the details, but the article says that he then learned of Joel Salatin and his principals on "growing food people want to eat and how to direct market our farm products" so he decided to grab hold of those ideas and put them to use on his Texas farm. I wonder to myself why he wasn't able to stick around here in Iowa ... maybe this is an illustration of why it is so difficult for young farmers (even those that have farming in the family) to get started in farming. Oh well, he is a making a go of it in Texas (although I'm glad I'm up here in Iowa!).

It sounds like he is doing the Salatin thing all the way around. They have a 40-head cow/calf herd, 2,000 broiler chickens, 1,400 laying hens, 300 turkeys, and a custom poultry-processing operation (that is a good value added option). It is pretty exciting that his family (mom, dad, and eight children) are making a go of it on the farm, but it is even more exciting and impressive that they are doing it on 300 acres of land ... that they don't own! Check out what Mr. Alexander has to say about that: "We rent and lease, for $100 a year, from the city people who go out and buy this expensive $7000 an acre land and then haven't a clue as what to do with it."

That is pretty exciting. The one hurdle that most people always point to is the high cost of land and the lack of availability. I have heard lots of people criticize Mr. Salatin because they believe his ideas don't translate to other farmers because he started out with a serious amount of land. But, the Alexander family started out with nothing ... in fact they might have had a chance at family land, but ended up doing it on their own. Mr. Alexander said in the article, "The shortage here isn't land, it's the shortage of warm bodies who know how to husband the land."

They market their chickens and eggs to local grocery stores and white table-cloth restaurants, but they do other things to make their farm profitable that are slightly more "outside-of-the-box". They collect used vegetable oils to fuel their trucks and build their own equipment for the farm. What an encouraging article for me. Sometimes I wonder if the farming idea is even possible, but when I read articles like this I get another burst of energy and continue to push on.