Ok, so I'm not an OT with chickens by any means, but I've been a nurse for 30+years and am very interested in the biology behind the scenes so to speak. After reading Michael Pollan's The Omnivores Delimma: A Natural History of Four Meals. I decided I had to do further investigation. One of the reasons I decided to venture into raising my own birds was that only 4.3% of organic, free ranged birds are contaminated with salmonella vs 28.8% of commercially raised birds and 39.7% of those contaminated are resistent to some of our antibiotics. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/30/less-salmonella-organic-chicken_n_842703.html). I decided if I was so irritated with the way our food is raised and processed than I needed to make a change. Who knew it would be so rewarding. I grew up on a farm with cattle and horses but we never had chickens. Now I have free range chickens and turkeys for eggs and meat and I couldn't imagine going back. Thank all of you OTs for sharing your experiences.
