Getting My Ducks In A Row

Red Rooster broilers in our chicken tractor field pen.  Moving the birds to fresh pasture each day provides them with plenty of grass and bugs which allow the birds to grow healthier than industrially raised birds.

I've been trying to get all of my ducks in a row while I'm cooped up inside awaiting spring.  Before you know it new broiler chicks will be in the brooder growing big enough to put out in the field pen.  In a few short weeks I hope to mail out our first (of many to come, I hope) newsletter talking about the products we'll be selling and hope to sell in the future.  The newsletter will be a way to communicate with our customers and potential customers.  It will be a way for us to educate and inform them about things going on in farming and the food system as a whole, and a way for us to show that our products are superior to the industrial fare.  The newsletter is still a work in progress and I'm stressing about it a bit because I don't want to come off as a cocky know-it-all who is "holier than thou", but still yet I need to inform people in our community of the problems with the food that is most dominant in our communities.  I need to be eloquent in my writing and educate the public and then to allow them to choose for themselves without being bullied into buying something.  

I've also been pricing out feed for these birds.  Although prices are likely to change come spring time, I figured I needed to get an idea of what it's going to cost to feed these birds.  At a minimum we'll be growing 100 broilers this year, which will require a little more than 1000lbs of feed during their short lives here.  The feed dealer tells me that for 100 birds it will take about 1300lbs, but the fact that the broilers will be on pasture should reduce their feed consumption quite considerably from the industry standard.  We have every intention of feeding our flock non-GMO feed this year. GMO stands for Genetically Modified Organisms.  For those of you who don't yet know that term, it's bad.  Very bad.  I'll post later on about the evils of Monsanto and their GMO world.

I've also got to get my equipment bought and purchased for butchering the chickens.  I'm going to use a home made design that I've got the blueprints to already, but I'll need to purchase or scrounge the materials to make my scalder, plucker and evisceration table.  

I'm worried about people understanding that the reason our chicken will cost more is because we are doing it on a much smaller scale than Tyson or Perdue and that meat worth eating actually costs more.  That is where the education of our patrons will come into play.  I feel confident that we can produce chicken and eggs that are worth far more than Wal-Mart grade pseudo-foods.  Your truly do get what you pay for.