How We Raise Our Heritage & Rare Breed Poultry: Chickens, Ducks, and Turkeys

French Black Copper Marans hen foraging in the pasture in December.

Responsibility, joy and perseverance

We raise several breeds of chickens for both eggs and meat as well as turkeys, ducks and guinea fowl. Our birds serve many functions on the farm, including:

Feeding our family and our dogs
Improving the quality of our soil and pastures
Pest control, ticks especially!
Providing entertainment – we all love “chicken TV!”
Teaching our family about responsibility, experiencing the joy of new life, the rewards of hard work, and how to keep going even when we mess up or face loss.

Sustainable Hatching

Silkie chick hatched on our farm being gently cradled in the hands of one of our children — Baby chicks hatched on our farm get lots of attention from our children

As part of our journey toward sustainability and regeneration of the land in our stewardship, we have chosen several heritage breeds of poultry for our on-farm breeding program. One goal of permaculture is to increase yields while decreasing inputs over time. One way we strive for this goal is to hatch and raise chicks, poults (baby turkeys) and ducklings from our own flock, rather than buying new baby birds from off the farm every year.

Since baby poultry hatch in as little as 21 days, and we have quite a few hens who love to brood, we have plenty of babies for ourselves and extras to share. If you’d like to build your own self-sustaining flock for eggs year after year, our Holistic Homestead Course includes a dedicated lesson on chicken breeding

Why choose heritage breeds?

An English Blue Orpington hen foraging in the fall pasture. — Many of our heritage breed chickens live to 7-8 years old free-ranging on our farm, with minimal supplemental feed.

Compared to industrial breeds, heritage chicken breeds have strong immune systems and are more capable of free-ranging and foraging much of their own diet. Producers of commercial chicken breeds have different goals than homesteaders. For example, a commercial meat bird eats to grow to a large size as rapidly as possible but our chickens typically forage about 70% of their total daily food during the growing season, so we only need to feed each of our free-ranging chickens about 1/8 pound per day, instead of the typical 1/3 pound per day.

A word of warning: Chicken breeds are defined by appearance, and there are many hatcheries that offer birds that look just like a heritage breed but have not necessarily been carefully bred for foraging ability, predator awareness and other traits that homesteaders are looking for. Whenever possible, buy from a breeder dedicated to their chosen breeds!

Pasture Raised, No Chemicals, No Soy and No Corn

A group of chickens inside a fenced area with grass and a wooden perch. — Chicks stay on pasture in pens until they’re large enough to free-range

Once we have good genetics in place, the next most important step is raising our poultry well from the moment they hatch! All of our chickens are raised with access to pasture from as young of an age as possible:

Weather permitting, they are in outdoor brooder pens during the day from the time they are 2-3 days old.
By 3 weeks old, they live in our outdoor pens day and night, and are moved to fresh pasture daily or more.
Once our chickens are large enough to join the larger flock (about 3 months old) they are allowed to range freely throughout the day.

When we segregate chickens for hatching eggs, we use the same system that we use with chicks – pastured pens moved to fresh pasture frequently.

In addition to pasture access, our chickens receive organic kitchen scraps and feed that is free from soy and corn. We started out feeding Scratch and Peck Naturally Free feed with added herbs and Scratch and Peck’s Cluckin’ Good Grubs and continued that way for many years. We’ve since transitioned to a homemade chicken feed recipe to save money, while still meeting our chickens’ nutritional needs. Learn more on our blog post: Cutting Our Chicken Feed Bill by 65%.

Our chickens are given fresh water, grit, eggshells and/or oyster shells and Thorvin kelp. We add apple cider vinegar and essential oils to their water periodically. Each of these elements helps ensure the chickens have a solid nutritional foundation and natural support for their immune systems.

A large white dog standing in a grassy area, looking towards a wooden house with a brown metal roof, and a coop with chickens visible in the background. — Regardless of whether they are roaming the pasture or in a pasture pen, all of our chickens are protected from predators as they remain under the watchful eyes of our livestock guardian dogs day and night

Why no soy or corn?

When our first child was born, we learned some cautionary information about soy from our pediatrician, and have since learned more and completely eliminated soy from our family diet. Among many other concerns, soy contains phytoestrogens (plant estrogens), which can stimulate the growth of cancer cells as well as causing other health issues in humans⁽¹⁾. Chickens that are fed soy will pass extra estrogen on in their egg yolks⁽²⁾. For more information, see the Weston A Price Foundation’s Soy Alert!.

Corn feed provides more than enough calories, but is too low in fatty acids and certain amino acids, vitamins and minerals for chickens to thrive on and can cause obesity in chickens⁽³⁾. Besides a burst of energy, corn has very little else that chickens need⁽⁴⁾, plus it makes their poop smell so much worse than it has to! For these reasons we avoid corn to keep our hens productive and thriving.

A serene farm scene featuring a variety of chickens and a cow grazing in a green pasture surrounded by trees and a distant fence. — *Sprinkling chicken feed on the cow manure from the previous day’s paddock helps feed the chickens and they spread the manure for us, which spreads the fertility and helps improve the soil*

Farm Sales

Browse our fresh eggs by the dozen, hatching eggs and day-old chicks for sale from our flock. We occasionally have juvenile and adult birds available as well.