Broiler chickens are the meatier, squattier cousins of egg-laying chickens. They have been bred to put on weight in a short period of time, and are harvested around 8 weeks of age for their meat.

We purchase our all of our chicks from local hatcheries located in Texas. Windy Meadows Hatchery has been a long time favorite - both personally and professionally. We raise them up in mobile brooder pens at our various land client locations, and then they graduate brooder school and move on to tractors between 2 to 3 weeks of age.

Their diet consists of fresh grass, whatever poor insect has the misfortune of crossing their path, non-GMO chicken feed. Being raised in a field they also get fresh air, sunshine and the occasional rain. Because we move them every day the flock receives a daily, fresh and unsoiled buffet of grass. It should be noted while grass makes up a minor portion of their caloric needs, it dramatically affects the fat and nutritional profile of the chicken, not to mention its well being.

Our birds graduate brooder school and move on to tractors between 2 to 3 weeks of age. Our birds have the best tractors a farmer could want. They're 12ft x 10ft x 2ft floorless shelters and we move them every day in order to provide the flock within a fresh and unsoiled buffet of grass. The cover of the tractor also protects them from varmints and aerial predation (find your lunch somewhere else owl). We keep our groups at 50 to 75 birds per tractor to ensure a low stress environment. The final number per tractor depends on the number of reservations we receive from customers going into the chickening seasons (in Texas that would be the Spring and Fall).

Our flocks move every day, living an active life under the sun and out of squalor. Because of this, they stay clean and need far less intervention for pathogen protection. Their brethren raised in factory settings can't say the same...which is sad and proven to be worse for everyone involved (the chicken, the farmer, and the end consumer). Hopefully we can play a part in changing this status-quo.

The birds are processed between 7 and 8 weeks of age, which means they're tender and delicious. We process all birds at a small scale and by hand using a few crucial tools and machines (here's looking at you plucker and scalder). This is critically important to the quality of the meat we promise and deliver to our customers. Curious why this method of processing is so important? See our next question - the one about factory vs. small batch processing.

A very high percentage of factory birds (close to all), regardless of the food given (organic, conventional, etc) are processed by electrocution and gutting via robotic arm and hook. Because of this method, a couple of key things happen. The bird goes through shock with stress hormones flooding their body, and the entrails are often ruptured, spreading fecal and organ contents on the meat. Obviously, that's a problem for meat intended for consumption. The industry solution to this self-made problem is to bathe all meat in multiple baths of either chlorine or organic acids. We dispatch and process by hand in small batches. Our method is humane and ensures the chicken goes through minimal shock by severing the main artery while leaving the windpipe in tact. Most, if not all, blood is drained before plucking due to the method we use for dispatching birds, and our processing by hand means no ruptured entrails and fecal matter all over the meat you plan to eat. This also means no need for organic acid or chlorinated, body fluid soup baths or showers for your meat. Your chicken took on average 10 minutes from kill to chill in an ice bath before it reached it's final destination of vac sealed, frozen bliss.

We prefer pick ups to shipping for multiple reasons: 1. Local pick-ups mean we have the opportunity to meet our customers face to face and establish what will hopefully be long-term relationships in the community. 2. Our customers have the opportunity to meet us and our family in person! We've all had that experience at the store when we question and/or realize we have no idea where this particular food product came from. It could be from anywhere: one town over, across the country, or across the world. 3. Accountability. It is much easier for mass producers and big-box stores to ignore you and brush mishaps under the rug than a small producer who lives and works where you live and work. We are not a faceless entity that conveniently bends whichever way is most profitable or popular at a given time. We are accountable to our customers and are proud to be part of the local food and small business movement in Texas. 4. We all save money. We understand the likes of Amazon have popularized overnight and 2 day shipping, but we are not a large corporation nor will we ever be. By not shipping the meat to customers, we collectively get to partake in the aforementioned points AND Farms for Fields doesn't have to charge customers unreasonable prices for the same product you could pick up 1-2x a month. 5. We reserve the right to reconsider this stance if we are wildly successful and our customer base is willing to pay the full price of the ice and shipping on top of the meat priced as-is, but for now it's not our focus. 6. Let the pick-ups begin!