Chickens part 2: Broilers

The chicken you buy at the store, is the Cornish x or Cornish Giant. Cornish have been selected and bred for fast weight gain. So fast, that it can cripple them. they grow and their legs cannot take it. They are shipped from the hatchery into a barn as day old chicks, and there they remain until they are harvested at 8 weeks. No sunlight, no grass, no fresh air.

Our chickens are raised in open air brooders for the first few weeks. Baby chicks need heat, so they are in brooders with heat lamps. As soon as they start to feather out, and depending on the weather - we move them out at 3-4 weeks.

Here are pictures of 4 week old broilers, their first evening out on grass:

They get to scratch in the dirt, catch bugs, eat grass - things that chickens are meant to do.