Our dual purpose roosters are getting ready for harvest so it is time to toot their horn. First let's look at why we have them. We are part of a small but growing group of farmers who have rejected the status quo of the poultry industry. There are two types of chicken in the world now, egg layers and meat birds. They are very different. The meat bird both males and females are F37 hybrids that can barely walk at age 39 days when they are processed. Yes, you read right, 39 days. The egg layers are slim egg laying machines; the females lay for 18 months and then they are spent. The egg laying male chicks are sorted at hatching and end up in a meat grinder. This all happened after the Second World War when a huge effort was made to put a chicken on every plate. Great strides in production were made mainly at the expense of the chicken and it's treatment. Before that time there were traditional breeds such as our Austrolorps.
The females Austrolorps lay a good amount of eggs and thrive on pasture. The males, raised for 16 to 18 weeks, are turned into tasty chicken. They neither produce as many eggs nor as big breasts as the hybrid mutants of today. But the benefits, I believe, far our weigh these production orientated mantras. A chicken on Eatwell Farm does produce great tasting eggs and meat but let's not forget that those aren’t the only benefits. They poop! Scratch and eat numerous bugs and seeds. This eliminates our need to truck in fertilizer or spray our crops.
Lorraine prepares a heritage chicken for a farm-cooked meal.
Our breeding flock produces eggs which we hatch and raise, no meat grinders involved. Each year the very best birds are monitored and selected for the breeding flock the following year. When you buy a bird from us we can say it was laid, hatched and raised on the pastures of Eatwell Farm, loud and proud.