Chicken Tractors

We moved the chicks on pasture on Saturday so they've been in their new homes for 5 full days now. The photos show the two types of chicken tractors we built. The top left one is a "Salatin style" tractor named after Joel Salatin of Polyface farms. It is sturdy and solid (and heavy). It is harder to move than the second type and we've since learned that chickens in Texas don't do well in these type of tractors in the heat of the summer. Apparently, the tractors are so well insulated that the chickens cook. That's not good.

The second type of tractor is one that Hadley designed. Since he is raising 24 chickens himself (we're sharing the mortality), he decided to house his in a separate pen. His tractor is lightweight, easy to move and after adding the tarp it provides some protection from the wind. We can get some pretty strong winds out here so we are still waiting to see how it fares when the big winds hit. He stakes them down with soil filled plastic bags.

We had one more unexplainable death last Tuesday and right now I have one chicken in the hospital. That guy (or is it a girl?) has been there since Saturday. He barely moves. I gave him beef liver (for vitamin B-12) on Sunday after self-diagnosing Mareck's disease. The chicken's feet have curled up and he sits on his haunches, almost completely immobile. On the 3rd day I really thought he was not going to make it and I did more research and gave him the homeopathic remedy Causticum 30C in his water. Yesterday he seemed to rally, though he didn't eat much. I said a prayer for the little guy last night - you know, "take him if he's going to suffer or make him stronger." I fully expected a dead chicken this morning and, wouldn't you know, he is now quite alert and eating and drinking more but still can't move.

I was thinking about this whole death thing today when I was (what else?) mowing. It seems ironic, I guess, that I would go to these pains to save this chicken, knowing that I am going to slaughter him in another month. Keeping him as a pet isn't an option even if I wanted to because he is a Cornish Cross. These are fast growing chickens that will not live long after that 8 week period because they are bred to grow so fast that they will die sooner than later if they aren't "processed." Cornish Cross are the industry standard and yet one that many pasture based chicken farms still use because of their nice breast size. It's a catch-22. People expect plump, full-breasted chickens and yet to get that, genetics are compromised and the chickens are not as sturdy and resilient. My chicken's leg paralysis is actually very common in factory raised chickens. It is not unusual for the bulk of the chickens in factory farms to not even be able to move at all because they are too heavy to carry themselves. Pasturing Cornish Cross's helps to mitigate that problem but these birds are still genetically prone to leg weakness.

So, while I will be happy to enjoy a plump chicken when I cook it, I have decided to try a different breed next time. I am looking into different heritage breeds or the "newer" hybrid Ranger Chickens.

Even if this was a breed of chicken that could live longer, I would still be planning to slaughter him. Growing your own food forces you to be very honest about the way you eat. I eat meat so it is not fair for me to pretend when I buy a neatly wrapped or flash frozen chicken from the store that those chickens didn't die. I know the living conditions of my chickens and I know the living conditions of factory raised chickens. I'll take my "happy to be on pasture" chickens any day. As my friend Ruddy said, "they have a great life and then they have one bad day."