Our Pastured Egg Model
To fully understand the importance of the pasture model, we first have to explore the current state of our food system. Most meat, eggs, and dairy products are produced in large factory farms. These animals never see sunshine or feel fresh air. (You can learn more in depth on these houses from our Resources page, but for this article we’re going to be exploring chicken confinement housing.) Most commercial egg laying chickens are kept in large “A” or “H-Type” Barren Battery Cages, more commonly referred to as just Battery Cages. These cages are 2-2.7 square feet, and can house up to 9 birds. They are constructed from wire mesh, allowing manure to fall through the floor and eggs to roll down the slope of the slanted floor into trays or assembly lines. According to the 2017 guidelines established by United Egg producers, each bird must have 67-86 square inches of space. That’s smaller than a piece of paper, which is over 90 square inches. The birds are often “debeaked”, in which producers cut off the upper tip of their beaks, without using anesthesia. This is so that birds can live in cramped spaces and won’t peck at each other due to factors like stress or anxiety. They have nothing to perch on at night, no bedding or privacy to lay their eggs, and cannot even stretch their wings. Most birds don’t live more than six months in these harsh conditions.
We’ve all seen the term “pasture raised” on egg cartons when we go to the grocery store, but what exactly does that mean? There technically isn’t an official definition for pasture raised, so unless you go to the farm where they were produced, there really isn’t any way of knowing how the birds are actually being treated. The American Humane Society categorizes pasture raised chickens as those who have, “108.9 square feet per hen of outdoor area during the daytime”. Even if birds are granted this space, there is no guarantee that they are actually on pasture. The outdoor space required to sport that label on a carton could easily be a dirt patch. That is where we are different.
All of our birds are raised and kept on pasture. They live in a mobile chicken coop surrounded by electrified netting. They are moved to a new paddock every couple days, giving them fresh bedding and new snacks. This constant movement is the key to keeping healthy birds and nutritious eggs. By moving them, we are eliminating the possibility for manure and pathogens to build up. The constant scratching and foraging of the chickens greatly contributes to this as well. They mix all the nutrients together and it is absorbed into the soil, therefore fertilizing the earth. Pasture cannot be continuously grazed because it will lose its vitality if the animals are kept on a single patch for too long. It needs time to rest. The effective resting time for pasture is 21 days. We grid out our field so that the birds come into contact with the same patch of land every 32-36 days. This gives the ground plenty of time to rest and absorb the nutrients left behind by their manure. It also gives time for the insects to repopulate. Chickens will completely clear an area of insects in a day or two. This is another advantage to rotational grazing. It allows the chickens to always have a fresh bug bar.
This not only makes for a very happy chicken, it also increases egg quality. Insects are full of protein! As omnivores, chickens cannot survive on grass alone. They need a source of protein, grass, and grains to fully supplement them. This is why many chicken feeds use corn and soybeans. Corn is high in starch and provides quick energy while soybeans are a great source of crude protein (total protein content). If you would like to find out more about what feed we use, the ingredients, and why they’re important, keep your eyes peeled for our article on Feed Breakdown.
Rotating animals on pasture also keeps the local environment healthy. By not allowing manure to collect and sit dormant, we are keeping nitrogen from expelling into the atmosphere. Like I mentioned earlier, the chickens stir the manure into the earth with their scratching. This is only the first step though. The next thing we need to harness the nutrients in the manure, is water. Just like in your garden, pasture needs water to help it absorb beneficial microorganisms. We always hope it rains, but sometimes we need to help the fields along during the dry season. By adding a little water we keep all that manure from going to waste; turning the gases down into the earth instead of up into the atmosphere.
Overall, pasture eliminates a lot of problems in the modern farming infrastructure. If we could eliminate factory houses and large slaughter plants, we would not only have better food but a better environment as well. If more fields were properly managed, the healthy microorganisms would attach to the vapors in the atmosphere, giving us more rain. The most important thing we as a culture can do to fight back against these unhealthy farming practices that plague our nation, is with our wallets. We can protest that we want to shut down these corrupt corporations all we want, but until we stop funding their endeavors nothing will change. Start buying local. I don’t say this just to promote our farm. We need to get back to locally grown, locally sold food. Until we begin to shift our focus off the manufacturer to the local producer, we won’t begin to see the change we desire.
