Early Bird Ranch - Our Methods

OUR METHODS
[Chickens] [Turkeys]

CHICKENS

Early Bird Broiler Chickens live a comfortable life based around the simple principle of treating them like chickens. Our methods rely on letting our birds express their “chickenness.” By raising them outside in the fresh air and sunshine, housing them in low-density populations, and providing them with a diverse and nutrient-dense pasture-based diet, Early Bird Broilers are naturally healthy, active, and flavorful.
Our chickens are purchased when they are one day old from California hatcheries (some as close as Santa Cruz), and usually arrive at our local post office within 24 hours of hatching from their eggs. From the first moment we can, we take complete responsibility for our birds’ health and safety—although, we certainly appreciate when our town’s wonderful post office staff drape their sweaters over the chick’s boxes to keep them warm while we make the 5 minute drive from the farm to the post office to pick them up. For the first 2-3 weeks the chicks are housed in the brooders. These structures allow us to keep them warm and safe until they are tough enough to venture out onto the pasture. These first few days are crucial to the overall health of the chickens and our brooders are specially designed to help the chicks grow strong bodies and vibrant immune systems with fresh air flow, lots of sunlight, and a biologically diverse and active environment.
To keep our brooders fresh and odor-free, the sides of our brooders can be completely opened to let the coastal breezes refresh and circulate the air inside, which keeps the chicks’ lungs clear and makes brooder chores a lot more pleasant for us. The brooders also have large glass skylights that provide heat and natural light. This light cuts down our heating costs and stimulates the chicks’ pituitary glands, encouraging their bodies to grow quickly and naturally. The floors of the brooders are made of a deep composting bedding. By maintaining a healthy carbon to nitrogen ratio, the chicks’ waste is turned into an incredibly rich compost that not only sanitizes the brooders, but also becomes home to a vast array of tiny plant and animal life that provides diverse nutrients and a powerful inoculant of probiotics that helps jump start the chick’s immune systems.
Once the chickens grow their adult feathers, they are moved out onto the pasture where they spend the rest of their life. In order to work with natural habits of the Cornish Cross breed, we use a mobile pasture shelter to maximize the chickens’ access and ingestion of fresh pasture and ensure their safety from the wildlife that live on the farm. Our pasture shelters are 8’x8’ wood, poultry wire, and corrugated roofing structures that house no more than 50 birds at a time so that all of the chickens can comfortably lounge and stretch on either the shaded or the sunny side of the shelter.
The most important part of our operation is the mobility of these pasture shelters. As the chickens grow their waste can become a serious liability. Keeping them in one place becomes too taxing on the land and on the immune system of the animals. In order to keep our chickens healthy and fertilize our farm’s pastures at the same time, the pasture shelters are moved onto completely fresh grass twice every day at sunrise and a couple hours before sunset. This continuous movement away from waste and onto pasture keeps the chickens healthy and maximizes their ingestion of nutritious clover, wild grasses, and bugs, which in turn create a more flavorful and nutritionally-dense product. At around 8 weeks of age we process our birds on the farm. This is not only a crucial part of our business, but it allows us to control the treatment of our animals and make sure they are respected at every stage of their life.
If you are interested in learning more about our chickens or placing a pre-order, please visit the Product section of the site.

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TURKEYS

Early Bird Turkeys a seasonal treat for the farm during the late Summer and Fall. Like our chickens, our turkeys live outside and are regularly rotated onto new pasture. This keeps the birds healthy, and produces a nutritious, tender, juicy, and divinely flavorful bird for you and your family.
Our turkeys are sourced from the Lazy 54 hatchery in Oregon. They arrive as day-old poults and spend their first 8 weeks of life living with our Early Bird Broilers in the brooders and mobile pasture shelters. During this stage of their lives, turkeys are very vulnerable. Turkeys have notoriously curious minds that can get them into a lot of trouble. Many farmers simply won’t raise turkeys because of their propensity to find new and unexpected ways to perish. Working at Polyface Farms in Virginia taught us a lot, but one effective trick that we are thrilled to employ on the farm is the use of chicken tutors. By raising the turkeys with the chickens and with a ratio of 4-5 chickens per turkey, our poults quickly learn from their chicken teachers what things to avoid and where to find feed, water, and shelter.
After 8 weeks living with the broilers, the turkeys’ size and appetite for grass outgrow the mobile pasture shelters. At this point our turkeys are kept in a 1/8 acre paddock that is moved every 2-3 days onto new grass. This provides them with all the grass (especially clover- their favorite) they can possibly want and plenty of room to run and explore. In addition to their access to grass, the turkeys are fed the same supplemental feed (free of anti-biotics and synthetic hormones) as our broilers, however, they also receive a fortified rock grit that provides them with essential minerals and aids in their digestion.
When they are 16 weeks old we process our turkeys on the farm and sell directly to customers.
If you are interested in learning more about turkeys or placing a pre-order, please visit the Products section of the site.

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