Our Animals

                           Laying Hens

Our Hens live the high life! Not only do we raise them from chicks on pasture but we supplement their pasture diet with certified NON GMO feed.

We also choose to raise old-world and heritage breed chickens. This is because we believe that hybrid production breeds (ones that are bred to pump out eggs) live less like chickens and more like grain eating machines. Heritage breeds may lay a few less eggs a week but they are more prone to scratching and pecking, giving their eggs a deep orange yolk and incredible taste.

                              Meat Birds (Broilers)

Like the laying hens our broilers are raised on pasture and can roam free (with fencing to protect from predators of course). They too are fed NON GMO certified grain in addition to their pasture diet.

Almost all chicken sold in groceries and farmers  markets (yes even the organic pasture raised ones) are the same breed of chicken the "Cornish cross" (or a hybrid thereof). This chicken has been bred to be a fast growing, huge breasted chicken that spends its days sitting at its feed bin eating, barely able to move. They grow so fast that their legs can't keep up with their body's growth that they have trouble walking. 

For this reason Fiddler's Green chooses to raise a breed called "Pioneer". They are a slower growing, smaller breasted breed that actually desire and have the ability to roam and scratch and forage. The end product may have less breast meat per bird than its counterpart but the meat is rich and flavorful.

We process our birds on-farm! This ensures that the chickens are handled with the most respect and dignity as we can offer. It also means that the end product is extremely high quality. This is because we do things that packing plants don’t, like letting the meat rest before packaging it so when you open the package it’s not just full of water.