Oustanding Article in Mother Earth

[BerdooFarm]

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Whole-Foods-and-Cooking/2007-10-01/Tests-Reveal-Healthier-Eggs.aspx



Yes my chickens are pastured.

 

[BerdooFarm]

Ya know, I wonder if I posted this in the wrong forum.
I was hoping this subject would get some feedback- any feedback.
The article is about the results from Mother Earth News' own study measuring nutrition in backyard (pastured chicken) eggs.
At any rate, in the article there's a quote from none other than Joel Salatin, owner of PolyFace Farm praising Mother Earth News for conducting the study. Micheal Pollan wrote about Salatin and PolyFace Farm in Pollan's Book Omnivore's Dilemma (It's a pretty darn good read.)

If a Moderator believes the topic would be better received/or seen in another forum... please move it.

Thanks, Andi

 

[BerdooFarm]

Thank You Moderator!

 

[McGoo]

Andi,
Thanks for the info from Mother Earth News - yes great article and so is the book - Omnivore's Dilemma! It was a turning point for me deciding to get some chooks!

 

[speckledhen]

You're welcome, Berdoo.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Hi Andi,

i have read this article before - GREAT article! When i first read it i posted about it here, and didn't get a ton of responses. i think because everyone here already knows how great their free-range chicken eggs really are.

Hopefully, great substantiating evidence like this will encourage more local communities to allow backyard chickens. Let's envision a future where doctors are writing prescriptions for a couple backyard hens, rather than medications!

 

[wren]

Good job chickens!

 

[1acrefarm]

I have read it too. It basically reinforces what I figured I knew. You can't put natural in a feed bag.

 

[devora]

"True free-range eggs are those from hens that range outdoors on pasture, which means they can do what’s natural — forage for all manner of green plants and insects."

I really dug this part. Our girls are so crazy for gettin' out in the mornin' I can't sleep in anymore! "Let us out! Wanna eat a bug, wanna eat a bug...."

 

[ruth]

I enjoyed the article. I'm guessing this is an on-line version of MEN cause just last night I was reading their newest edition December/January 2008 and there a couple of good articles on free range chickens. One short article said that she bought two batches of RIRs and fed them the same thing. However, one batch was kept confined in a coop and run and the other free ranged from the time they were feathered. The confined RIRs laid at 28 weeks and the free range at 16 weeks - 12 weeks earlier. Another full length article is on Homestead Chickens. I couldn't have agreed with the author more. He is totally against confining chickens. He gives tips for free range protection netting and other suggestions. He says "It's better to get the birds out onto healthy, green pasture where they can enjoy the sunshine, fresh air and exercise and forage a significant part of their diet. " Regarding commercial feed - he says "We'd like to think that such "scientifically formulated" feeds are the best diet we can offer our birds. As yourself, however: What would the chicken eat if completely on her own in a natural setting? Though we do not think of chickens as grazers, they actually eat a fair mount of grasses, clovers and broadleaf weeks. They relish wild seeds of all sorts and live animal foods such as earthworms, insects, slugs and snails. All of these foods (plants, seeds, small animals) are alive and unprocessed. Comerical feeds are anything but alive or unprocessed; they are made from highly processed ingredients. I gurge you to take the feeding of your flock into your own hands."

I know I free range my chickens - just open the run's gate and let them out each morning. They spend the day running miles over our property. You see them here, you see them there, no, wait, they're over there. They have a ball and are non-stop energy machines.

So far, all thanks to God, I've not lost a chick to predators nor had one with an illness, prolapse or other condition, no lice/mites. As the people who come over here say "Those are the fattest happiest chickens I've ever seen".

Not to start a heated debate but there's also an article in same magazine about Bird Flu and how it's primarily a commerical poultry industry caused problem relating to how they raise their birds confined in own filth and that not a single backyard flock has gotten bird flu. "Unfounded claims that wild birds were to blame for the spread of dangerous strains of bird flu were used as a smoke-screen to take the focus off industry practices and government policies. But the blanket of protection is being pulled away. A 2006 international science conference.....came to the consensus that the main means by which this virus is spreading globally is not via migrating birds, but rather the multibillion dollar commercial trade in poultry products....NEVER ONCE HAS SUCH A VIRUS BEEN KNOWN TO EMERGE IN A PASTURE-RAISED CHICKEN FLOCK."

Finally, it's amazing how buying a few chicks in early Spring has changed my life. I didn't know there was such a thing as Mother Earth News till I bought my first one yesterday, along with Hobby Farms - now I'm going to subscribe to both and we are all moving to a farm in the country in Mississippi - closing was held Friday. There's a barn and stables and a hen house. Green Acres here we come.