Ya...one of the guys here at work just got chickens a few months back!
Wow, she is a bellwether!
Oh this is my absolute favorite subject right now!!!!
People are beginning to make the connection between what they eat and how it was treated. Hunters have long known that an animal that’s been killed quickly, that isn’t suffering and stressed before it is processed tastes better. When you see beef being led to slaughter using electrical prods and with their legs bent under them, barely able to walk...you gotta wonder if the meat is really that good and is it worth it.
Obviously it’s only good enough to sell in bulk and serve as hamburger to school kids...I guess they’re not connoisseurs of fine beef.
And who are these people prodding the cattle repeatedly or shuffling through rank chicken houses filled with manure to select chickens of just the right size? Illegals, mostly, I would imagine. Are they vaccinated? Are they healthy?
People are starting to weigh their options and are seeing that raising their own food in their own back yard can be done much more humanely and cleanly. It’s why when anyone finds out we’re doing it grill us with questions and want to know if we’ll sell them some. At any time they know they can stop by and see our chickens, clean...well cared for...basking in the sun or dusting themselves in the dirt, snacking on the grass and whatever bug wanders near. Since they know us, they know that we treat them humanely up until the very end of their lives and that we’re healthy too.
It’s gotta make for a better product. Pastured chickens sell for about $12 a bird here in the Tulsa area...I couldn’t sell mine for that much to my friends. They cost us about $3 each to raise not including my time and effort.