What is Pastured Chicken?
These Cornish Cross chickens are the same bird you are familiar with buying from grocery stores and local farmers. At Hickory Hill Farm, we have raised them with added love, sunshine, grass and bugs to produce a meat that nourishes the ecosystem as much as it nourishes our bodies.
As day old chicks, they arrive at the post office. Our children are always excited to pick them up and get them settled in the brooder. Every day they get fresh grass, weeds and bugs from the garden. Watching them run about busily is endlessly entertaining for the whole family!
When they are big enough to thrive outside, we move them into pasture shelters. Our mobile floorless pens keep them safe from predators and the elements while providing them access to the grass and bugs in our field. Daily or twice daily moves keep them off of their own manure and on a constant supply of fresh pasture. We open the doors each morning to give the birds free access to the farm, and shut them at night to give a secure sleeping spot.
These birds get as much non-GMO grain as they would like, but because we allow them to range, they get more exercise, greens and bugs than any other chicken you can buy. Our model is different from even famous pastured poultry producers--we encourage our birds to roam, waddle, jump and fly, and we think the chickens and the people who eat them are healthier for it!