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Chicken Ranchers

written by

Liz Cunningham

posted on

March 4, 2022

We have a huge change coming this upcoming season! 


We are bringing our pastured chickens to the home ranch!


Guess we are going to become chicken ranchers 🤠 🐓 


Some of you might be surprised to hear that we have not raised our chickens on our ranch. This has been due to several factors: not having enough help on our remote ranch, difficultly of raising the chickens at our elevation and distance from the chicken processor.


Our chicken producer, Brian, has been raising our chickens for the last several years in the Treasure Valley on different pastures over the years. Brian has worked on perfecting chicken raising over the last several years so with the help of our new team member we can now raise chickens here on the home ranch. 


This last week, Brian has been working on getting the chick brooder assembled and building the portable chicken houses for the upcoming season. We are excited about the new changes and having our chickens raised in our pastures!


Chicks arrive this next week! We are so excited! 🐣


The other change we are experimenting with this season is raising a slower-growing chicken. The reason for this is that the Cornish cross chicken (which we have been raising all these years) struggles to adapt to outside conditions. These are the same breed of chickens that are at the supermarket. The Cornish Cross have an impressive growth rate unlike any other chicken out there, but it comes at a high cost to their health and stability. They are designed to be raised in confinement situations, with little to no temperature fluctuations, which is not possible when raised on pasture.


Slower growing chickens will look and taste different than the Cornish cross that we currently sell, but we promise it'll be a better tasting chicken!

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