I’ve been a member of a pastured poultry association for a few years. It is a small group comprised of farmers like us who are committed to raising birds on pasture. It mostly exists as a forum for farmers to discuss techniques and practices among ourselves via an online discussion group and a bimonthly newsletter.
They just put together a video showing what pastured poultry looks like. Honestly, the video isn’t quite as great as it could be, probably too discursive for most YouTube viewers. But it does provide good examples of honest pastured poultry (as opposed to the disingenuous marketing claims so common on egg cartons and chicken labels today: free range, cage free, or even some of the pasture-raised claims on grocery store eggs). I’ve never been able to shoot good videos of our chickens, but this video captures in many details a system similar to ours. The farmer in the blue shirt has pasture coops quite close to ours. These setups give the chickens plenty of room to roam, allow them to be in the sun or shade depending on their preference, ensure that they are on fresh grass each day, and provide protection from aerial and ground predators. They work well for us, and the chickens thrive in this environment.
Let me know what you think of the video.
3 thoughts on “Pastured Poultry Video”
Very interesting Dave.
We just got to see this video sent to us by a new farmer in the area who is raising pastured poultry!!!!! It was the only meat I had not yet been able to find truly pastured. I am so thrilled! He too belongs to the PPA. You have no idea how exciting this is living here in the middle of GM corn and soybeans! We are very happy to see this growing, even here in the rural area of KY where everything is done the government way. Perhaps you have spoken to him he is only at it a year. Andre`Foul is his name and Riverside Farm is the name of the farm. He and his family moved here from South Africa some years ago and now they are working on this operation. So happy!
Glad to hear you are finding this in your area too. It is interesting how in urban areas we’ve destroyed food production by paving it over, subdividing, and chopping it up until there are no farms left or farms are too small to be viable. But in rural areas we’ve destroyed food production by going wall-to-wall with industrial corn and beans, so that you can walk for miles without seeing anything that is meant for direct human consumption. If you can find someone who is raising pastured livestock or growing vegetables in the middle of corn-soy country, you’ve found someone who is worth supporting.