Chickens

Our chickens are truly free range, raised in the sun and fresh air of East Texas. Our preference is for the larger heritage birds considered dual purpose, good to eat and also are good layers of brown or blue/green eggs. We are collecting breeding stock of the absolutely beautiful blue laced red Wyandotte's and for Ameraucanas that lay the pastel blue and green eggs. Ameraucanas lay all summer long when the rest of the birds have quit laying. And we are also starting up a colony of Buff Orphingtons again. They are just the best layers. And they are so easy to clean for meat. We're working on simplifying and then separating the breeds to be able to develop our own lines. Raising these fine birds the right way, slowly, with lots of pasture, especially with organic feed supplement, is very satisfying, and quite tasty. Unfortunately, the economics is a bust on any kind of scale. If you start mass-producing them, you get the mass-produced bird results. We need to go back to the old way where everyone had a few chickens in the back yard. We raise birds for a few "friends." You really can raise your own! We'd be glad to help you learn how. Our birds are raised naturally, the old fashioned way, out on pasture chasing grasshoppers and taking dirt showers. Ours scratch for most of their food on developed pastures. But natural also has its risks. With our new 8' predator fence protecting our birds, they can finally roam worry-free on 4 acres of our land, well, except for hawks. Still have a problem with hawks catching the babies.

We do supplement their diet with gluten-free organic feed. We never feed them chemicals such as arsenic or growth hormones. They are grown slowly, full of the wonderful firm flavor God gave them, very unlike mass-produced birds. We give them supplemental flax seed for extra Omega-3 goodness. We're proud of our animals, which we consider better than organic!

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