The First Pasture for Young Chickens
This blog is part of our Home Farm Stories, about the original family farm in Fairview, NC.
Watch our newest chickens venture into the pasture for the first time. At about four weeks old, these young chickens are ready for the real world – a mobile coop on our home farm. They get to roam, explore and discover bugs and grass for the very first time. Their journey home includes a short trip down Sugar Hollow Road – a scenic byway also known as historic Drover’s Road, which earned its name back in the 1800s when early settlers “drove” flocks and livestock to market on these same paths. Interns Trinity and Savannah – under the watchful eye of Savannah’s dog, Wilson – carefully settle the chickens into their new home. Now, and throughout their life cycle, our chickens have ample space to explore and exhibit all their natural behaviors, as they grow strong and healthy.
These young chickens are an old line of Cornish Cross, with genetics that pre-date modern Cornish Cross chickens bred for large-scale confinement. Juvenile chickens are called pullets (female) and cockerels (male). They’ll move to fresh pasture every day until they reach maturity at eight weeks of age. In addition to all the bugs and grass they can peck, our chickens get organic, non-GMO feed that we make in-house, with corn, small grains like wheat or barley, expeller-pressed soybean meal, plus vitamins and minerals optimized for their needs.
