The average American ate arecord - breaking 93 pounds of chickenin 2018 , making it by far the primary informant of creature protein in the American dieting .
This high-pitched need for wimp has make bottom line - driven factory farm . Conditions in these look very different from the backyard flocks and small - scale farm of our antecedent .
Many mass want to more sustainably produced food for thought for themselves point to raise chickens for core or eggs . And , as an added motivator , Fannie Merritt Farmer can sell organic , farm - raised chicken for profit to restaurants and grocers , as well as directly to customer .
Certain factor — such as provender , grass access , housing and breeds — put constitutive volaille farms apart from others that may use alike land practices . Here are some thing you need to bonk if you want to keep crybaby in a healthier , more natural way of life .
The Difference Between Organic and Pastured Chicken
Pastured Gallus gallus is not the same as organic chicken . If you keep chickens that are “ pastured , ” you ’re doing just that : producing poultry that ’s been raised on pasture .
These could be costless - range wimp that may or may not be kept inside a predator - cogent evidence , fenced area . Alternately , your wimp can be retain in mobile chicken coops called chicken tractors .
Pastured chicken are not subject to laws regarding antibiotic role , parasite ascendence , GMO grains or amendments that might be utilise to the forage . So a pastured chicken is n’t needfully organic .
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StrictStandards for Organic Chicken
Chicken that ’s labeled “ organic , ” must be raised consort toUSDA National Organic Programrules from its 2nd mean solar day after hatching . These rule include :
If a chicken being rear organically make ghastly and needs antibiotic , it has to be take out of the constitutive programme . More than half of the antibiotics fed to manufacturing plant - farmed animals , include chickens , are identical to the ones mete out to world .
The crybaby diligence has made major advancementsto reduce the amount of human antibiotics fed to chicken . Overuse of such antibiotics can lead to strains of bacteria resistant to the antibiotic drug . This opens doors wider to the potential for human disease .
you could provide out-of-door access through a small door in a enceinte warehouse that contain thousands of chicken . Alternately , you could grass - raise chickens throughout their whole lives .
Organic grains are not genetically modified and are produced harmonise to NOP standards .
Certified - organic Gallus gallus feed will not contain any of the following :
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How Do You Know If You Have Non-GMO Grains?
Even chicken raised on pastureland expect grain in their diet .
While cattle , sheep and horses can go by eating eatage alone , chicken have a digestive organisation that does not allow them to process locoweed expeditiously . So you have to append their diet .
If you ’re flow your chickens certified - organic feed bought from a feed mill or feed store , you’re able to be confident that it does n’t contain GMO grain .
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peradventure you purchase grainsnotlabeled as constitutional or non - GMO from a farmer or a feed mill . If so , necessitate the feed mill or sodbuster to ply write testimonial their grain are n’t GM .
You must be capable to try out that your feed is certified organic to the certification inspector , so keep cargo deck of all certification .
You ’ll notice pretty quickly that constitutive poulet feed and non - GMO chicken feed are more expensive than GMO grain . This is because it is more expensive to produce non - GMO grains and because most of the corn and soybeans grown in the U.S. are GM . So organic and non - GMO feeds are specialty items .
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Set Up Mobile Chicken Coops
On an constitutive poulet farm , one choice for volaille keeping is in a peregrine chicken cage .
ordinarily calledchicken tractors , mobile Gallus gallus coops can be built at plate or purchased . There are different styles of coops to choose between base on your preferences , the issue and kind of Gallus gallus you keep , and your clime .
Joel Salatin , sustainable - farming advocate and generator ofPastured Poultry Profits(Polyface , 1996 ) , among other Book , plan a 12 - by-12 - animal foot pen that ’s 2 feet marvellous , which is pop design among farmers raise pastured meat snort .
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Other mobile chicken coops are taller , feature of speech nest boxes and roost for laying hens , or have a long and narrow design to give more of a straight - away for dynamic Gallus gallus stock to run . The University of Kentucky College of Agriculture provides a downloadable excogitation for build up a whippersnapper , inexpensivehoop systemthat ’s proven pop .
One thing all pastured - poultry mobile chicken coop have in rough-cut is marauder proofing . Chickens are largely defenseless againstpredators , so it ’s crucial for all chicken farmers to protect their range meat bird from daytime , nocturnal , domain - free-base and aerial predators .
Heritage Chicken Breeds
Certified - organic chicken does n’t have any breed requirement .
Cornish - Rock hybrid cockerel are a uncouth commercial , factory - farm crybaby strain . While some pastured - poultry and organic - Gallus gallus farmers use this fast - growing breed , too , others use Freedom Rangers or Red Rangers .
These stock do not uprise as fast as breeds developed for factory land but do produce more rapidly and efficiently than heritage crybaby breeds .
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On the other hand , there are farmers and wimp keepers who require to carry on inheritance chicken breeds . They appreciate the flavour that come from a slower - growing poulet . A few heritage chicken stock that uprise specifically for meat output include :
Nutritional Content of Organic Chicken
Chicken has a wide nutritionary value .
One 4 - ounce serving of ley - raised volaille knocker provides about 35 g of protein , or 70 percentage of the urge everyday note value . There are gamey amounts of amino acid — cysteine , leucine , isoleucine and valine — that are important for support of cardiac and skeletal muscle .
Chicken is also a particularly helpful food for thought for obtaining vitamin B3 ( supply about 98 percent of the dietetic reference intake per serving ) , vitamin B6 ( more than 40 pct ) and choline ( more than 20 pct ) . It is a well source of other B vitamins , as well .
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what is more , in term of minerals , chicken is richest in selenium and provides about 57 per centum of the DRI per serving . It also allow for zinc , copper , phosphorus , magnesium and iron .
However , it ’s difficult to prove if organic wimp are actually more nutritious - dense than conventionally raised chickens . The meat ’s nutritionary message can depend on a smorgasbord of factor , including diet and overall health of the live chicken .
Find Organic Chicken Farms Near You
possibly you ’re more interested in purchasing constitutive Gallus gallus and organic ballock than you are in having an organic chicken farm . There is potential a farm near you that raise certified - organic chicken .
Likewise , if you require to start an organic chicken farm , you should visit other farms to see how they raise their chicken and crop fowl .
Find an constituent chicken farm near you using these source :
With a basic sympathy of what constituent chicken land is about , you’re able to further search how much of a market there is for organic fowl Cartesian product in your area .
Talk to other constitutive Gallus gallus farmers about their pastured meat hiss , non - GMO feed , heritage volaille breeds , mobile chicken chicken coop and more .
