How we raise our pastured chicken

As consumers, we want to know the truth behind our food; what's in it, where it came from, how it was raised...

As farmers, we seek to share that truth with you.

Today, we're taking a closer look at how we raise one of our signature items - our chickens. Raised on pasture and supplemented with locally milled, NON-GMO feed, our birds are raised naturally to keep them healthy and happy.

Take a look!

Interested in learning more? Join us on farm for a special field day on Sunday, June 9th.

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Raising pastured chicken at Riemer Family Farm

Video Transcript

[In mobile chicken pen]

(Anastasia) Hi, Anastasia from Riemer Family Farm here, and today we’re gonna take a quick glimpse at how we raise our chickens out on pasture. So as you can see, we are physically in the chicken pen right now. These guys just came out here yesterday. Before then they were in the brooder, which is a shed near our house where they get a little bit of extra TLC when they’re chicks to make sure that they’re strong and healthy before we bring them out on pasture. So like I said, these guys have been in here for about a day now. And they’re in these mobile Joel Salatin style pens that are mobile, so we move them everyday using the hand truck in the back there and the hand dolly in the front and two very awesome team members. So the purpose of moving them everyday is so that they always have new, fresh pasture to graze, as well as a clean floor to live on. So the other thing you’ll notice about their pen is it is enclosed, and that is to keep them safe from predators. But there’s plenty of space for them to kind of roam around in here. The other benefit to the pen design is that there’s a roof on the top, and that keeps them safe from the elements. We’ve had quite a bit of rain lately, and the roof helps keep them dry and on really sunny hot days, it gives them a place to stay out of the sun and enjoy some shade, and stay cool. So the other thing you’ll notice about the chickens is that they have some feed troughs in the front here. Chickens can’t live on pasture alone; they need more in their diet. So we supplement them with a locally milled non-GMO feed, and that has done really, really well for them.

So this was kind of a glimpse into a day of a life of a chicken at Riemer Family Farm. Lots of green grass and sunshine and blue skies. If you want to know more, we are actually having a field day in about two weeks on June 9th. It’ll be on the farm, and we’re going to talk about how to raise chicken and sheep. So if you're interested in that you can find out a little bit more on our website. Otherwise we hope to see you soon either on the farm or at the market. Thanks for watching, we’ll see you soon, bye!