The Life of a Monitor Barns Chicken
Last week was the conclusion of the Monitor Barns Farm’s pastured poultry season. Since April, 900 chickens have passed though our hands and its a bittersweet feeling to see them go… The three hours dedicated daily to their chores and maintenance can now be focused elsewhere on our bountiful harvest of the coming autumn, but we all enjoyed the daily rhythms and interactions with our little avian friends.
Our main goal with the chickens was to allow them to live out their lives with as many natural instincts and inherent chicken traits as possible. In short, we want to raise happy, healthy chickens which in turn provide us with tasty, nutritious poultry. To keep our birds happy and clean, we kept them on pasture and moved their little homes (we call them tractors) twice a day and let them out of their tractors whenever weather permitted.
For anyone who doesn't believe Cornish Cross actually graze, take a look at this picture.
As with any system in its first season, this was definitely a learning process. Through the first two batches we refined our systems to become more efficient and profitable. In this final and last batch of 300 birds, we felt we had finally gotten all of our bumps out and ended up producing a great batch of birds (even with a small incident with a hungry raccoon). One of the crew leaders, Angie, was able to create a holistic budget for the birds that tracked every cent it took to produce them… results will follow. The interns here at MBF were able to learn every part of raising these birds- from raising the chicks in the brooder, to maintaining them on pasture, to processing the birds and finding a market for their sale.
We raised a breed called Cornish Cross or Cornish Rock. This is the generic white breed that commercial poultry producers use and has been hybridized and bred to put on weight quickly with an efficient conversion of grain and produces large breasts and legs. Generally, this is the breed that American consumers want. However, many people in the world of sustainable agriculture look down upon these super-hybrids as lazy and weak. And, while there is definitely more health issues with these birds than more-hardy, heritage breeds we saw excellent results. Our day old chicks were very active and healthy- we got them from Mt. Healthy Hatchery in Ohio. We kept a pretty low mortality rate and tried to get them out on pasture as early as possible (around 2 weeks). It was blatant to us that the earlier we got them out on pasture, the better they were at foraging and utilizing those chicken instincts we were hoping to foster.
We hope you’ll enjoy feeding these chickens to your friends and family knowing how well they were cared for! Please inquire with Amanda Payne, VYCC Farm Coordinator if you are interested in buying a chicken. 802.434.3969 x145
Raised with care and dedication,
Ben, Angie, Kelly and Melissa (The Monitor Barns/VYCC Farm Crew)