We have been raising chickens on pasture again this year. We purchase day old chicks from the non-GMO flock of Freedom Ranger Hatchery out of PA. These arrived by mail in late April, brooded in our brooder and moved to our field in May. Once in the field we kept them in a moveable pen. This protects them from the local predators – dogs, coyotes, and foxes. And we move it daily so that they can get fresh vegetation.
Here is the pen:
and the path that they followed. You can sort of see how they ate down the grass. And later this summer if we look at the path, we will see that it is greener than the rest of the pasture because of the fresh natural nitrogen application!
We will be processing them soon as whole frozen birds.