The "pastured poultry" method is environmentally friendly because the area of pasture the chickens are on at any given time is only used once per year avoiding high concentrations of animal waste. In addition, the rural landscape remains in grass instead of steel and concrete confinement buildings.
Our chickens are housed outside in floor-less portable shelters that provide protection from predators and weather while still allowing easy movement to fresh, clean pasture every day. These shelters also allow the chickens to be chickens; foraging for food, scratching the ground and basking in the sunshine. We house only 50 chickens in each 8' x 8' shelter, eliminating the overcrowding problems common in the conventional confinement poultry industry. Provided in each shelter is fresh water and a custom feed mix consisting of corn, soybeans, wheat, vitamins and minerals.
Our chickens are carefully processed by hand when they are between 8 and 10 weeks of age. Typically, our chickens range between 5 and 7 pounds (dressed weight),
not including the giblets and necks.
Not only is Pastured Poultry HEALTHIER, it's also TASTIER. In a blind taste test, the New York Times food editors chose a free-range bird as the tenderest, most flavorful and juiciest of all. ** This is the best chicken you can buy. The flavor and texture are far better than what is available in the stores. Once you eat Pastured Poultry, you may never go back to "store-bought" chicken again!
The difference is in how they are raised -- a clean, low stress environment with plenty of good feed, green pasture, fresh air and sunshine!
Pasturing poultry is a method of raising chickens for meat that provides them with fresh air, sunshine, a balanced feed supply, clean water and most importantly, fresh green grass and natural foods. Pastured chickens get as much as 30% of their nutritional needs from insects, grass, clover and other greens.**
In return, they provide us with a healthy source of protein that is higher in omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins E and A, folic acid and carotenoids. In a recent study, pastured broilers were found to have 21% LESS total Fat, 30% less saturated fat and 28% fewer calories. It also had 50% more vitamin A and 100% more omega-3s than commercial birds.**
Copyright (c) 2003 - 2004 Providence Pastures Farm. All rights reserved.
Nutritional Information in Italics marked with ** are taken from the book
Pasture Perfect by Jo Robinson
