Your Questions About Chicken - ANSWERED
Table of Contents
- What do you feed your chickens?
- Why can’t your chickens forage for their entire diet?
- Why are your chicken products sold in a range of sizes?
- What does it mean that your chickens are pasture raised?
- Why is your chicken healthier for me?
- Is 100% of your chicken raised in the United States?
- Is your chicken certified organic?
- How has bird flu affected your flock?
- What breed of chickens do you raise?
- Are your chickens given vaccines, antibiotics, or hormones?
- Is your chicken sold fresh or frozen?
- Why is the flavor better than store bought?
Q: What do you feed your chickens?
A: Our chickens eat a combination of non-GMO feed and anything they forage for on our pastures! This includes insects, worms, grass (yes chickens eat grass), seeds, and plant roots. The non-GMO feed is a blend of mainly corn and soy. It is mixed with minerals and vitamins to ensure our chickens are eating a balanced diet.
Q: Why can’t your chickens forage for their entire diet since they’re pasture raised?
A: Chickens are not ruminants and have a very different digestive system than cattle or lamb. They cannot forage for their whole diet and still grow healthily. We receive chicks from the hatchery when they are 1 day old. They live in a heated brooder for 2–3 weeks, depending on the weather. From there we move the chickens into moveable chicken coops called "Schooners" where they live their best lives until 7 weeks old. Giving our chickens access to feed ensures they are meeting their nutritional needs while moving them daily to new pasture ensures they have continued fresh access to forage on grass, bugs, and whatever else they can find.
Q: Why are your chicken products sold in a range of sizes? Chicken from the grocery store is usually the same size.
A: Our chickens are raised much differently from conventional chickens! Our chickens are grown outdoors in an environment we cannot control. Chickens that are raised indoors have very consistent conditions. Temperature, humidity, light, and feed is highly controlled when chickens are raised conventionally in a CAFO. These chickens are typically living their whole lives on antibiotics (they put it in the feed and water) and are given vaccinations. ‘Factory farming’ regulates the growth of their chickens down to a science so that every chicken is finished at a similar size.
Since our chickens are exposed to a wide range of conditions, our products tend to have variation. For example, our pasture raised chickens grown close to the summer solstice grow larger than our chickens grown at the end of summer and early fall. This is due to longer daylight hours where the chickens will spend more time eating and end up a bit larger! This is why we sell our products as an average weight or a range of weights, rather than a ‘price per pound’ model.
Q: What does it mean that your chickens are pasture raised? Do they have access to the outdoors?
A: We don’t have any growing barns here. Our chickens are raised in what we call “schooners”. They are like mobile tents on skis. We pull this mobile chicken schooner to fresh pasture every day. The bottom and the sides are completely open, so they live in the fresh air, sunshine, and on healthy, nutrient dense pastures. The chickens are free to roam as they please, or if it’s an especially hot day they’ll choose to stay in the shade but still have access to peck and scratch at the fresh pasture below their feet.
Q: Why is your chicken healthier for me than conventionally raised chicken?
A: Our chickens live as close as possible to a ‘natural’ lifestyle that you can give to a domesticated animal. They are moved daily to fresh ground. They are allowed to practice their natural instincts such as scratching, foraging, pecking, and running.
Chickens that are crowded into a grow barn cannot practice these instincts and have very little space to move. They have to live their lives on antibiotics because if they weren’t on antibiotics, many of them would become sick, not grow correctly, or die.
There is still research emerging on stress levels throughout an animal’s life and how that affects their meat. Animals that experience higher stress will live their lives with elevated stress hormones such as cortisol and corticosterone. I can guarantee you that chickens living in a crowded grow barn, never able to express their natural instincts, live a much more stressful life than our chickens raised on pasture!
Nutritionally speaking, pasture raised chicken has a healthy balance of omega-3 fatty acids to omega-6 fatty acids. Conventionally raised chickens raised on a diet of 100% grain is incredibly high in omega-6 fatty acids. This imbalance of fatty acids causes inflammation in your body which can lead to sickness or disease.
Our customers have commented on the appearance of our chicken. The color of the fat on our chicken is yellow, while conventionally raised chicken has white fat. There is a direct correlation between the color of a chicken’s fat and the chicken’s diet. Chicken with yellow fat have consumed a diet with grass and vegetation. The chlorophyll in these forages actually change the color of their fat.
You are what you eat, and the chicken you’re eating becomes what it eats too! Chickens that do not have access to pasture and forages will have a less nutrient dense diet, meaning their meat will also be lacking in nutrition. Chickens that are raised in a pasture raised environment will be mentally and physically stronger and will absolutely produce a nutrient dense meat that is higher in vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and healthy fats.
Q: Is 100% of your chicken raised in the United States?
A: Yes! In fact, 100% of our chicken is raised in the state of Michigan. We have partnered with Joe’s Farm in Three Rivers, MI to help us keep up with our chicken production. Joe raises his chickens the same way we do, so we trust that his chicken is up to Rebel’s standards! You can learn more about our partnership with Joe here.
Q: Is your chicken certified organic?
A: We are not certified organic and proud of that fact. The truth is that in the current state of our food system – organic means very little if you don’t know the farmer that raised the food you are eating. This label claim, just like pasture raised, grassfed, free range, cage free, etc. have all been hijacked so they no longer have any meaning behind them. A large amount of ‘organic’ food is even being imported from outside our country where we have no idea how it’s treated, raised, or processed. Unfortunately, labels have become yet another means of greenwashing customers into believing that their food is being raised in alignment with their values.
We believe in knowing your farmer because that’s the only way you will know your food. If you’re not familiar with greenwashing, we wrote an article on the topic that goes into further detail: Greenwashing🌱 - An In-Depth look into the Deception of Big Ag
Q: How has bird flu affected your flock?
A: We have not encountered any fatalities from bird flu in our flocks to this date. We will not be using a bird flu vaccine on our birds.
Q: What breed of chickens do you raise?
A: We raise Cornish Cross chickens. We’ve chosen to raise this breed because they grow quickly and are ready to be processed by the time they are 7 weeks old.
Q: Are your chickens given vaccines, antibiotics, or growth hormones?
A: Our chickens are never given any vaccines, antibiotics, or growth hormones. Since they live in the open air and sunshine, our chickens are healthy and have no need to live their whole lives on antibiotics. We see no reason to vaccinate our chickens either since they are raised in a healthy environment.
As for growth hormones… Their use was banned in poultry production by the FDA in the 1950s. Anytime you see a chicken label that claims their chickens were raised without added hormones has added that to their label to fool consumers into thinking their chicken is different or raised healthier. The reality is that there are no chickens raised in the United States with growth hormones.
Q: Is your chicken sold fresh or frozen?
A: Our chicken is immediately frozen after they have been processed. Our chicken product is then transported to Rebel Pastures in a climate-controlled semi truck that keeps the chicken below freezing. After our packaged chicken is dropped off at Rebel, we work quickly to move these boxes into our freezers where we store our product at -10℉.
Local pickup orders are stored in our Pick up Room freezers until they are picked up. Shipped orders are packed with dry ice to keep the product cold until it is delivered to your home. Our chicken never goes through periods of thawing and refreezing. It is frozen from the time it is processed up until you receive your order.
Q: Why is the flavor of your chicken so much better than store bought?
A: The flavor of our chicken is noticeably better than store bought chicken. Our chickens eat a diverse diet of forage on our pastures including grass, clover, vetch, dandelions, mullein, plantain, sorrel, dock – just to name a few! We embrace the weeds on our pastures because plants have compounds in them called ‘phytochemicals’ which contain various micronutrients that are not found in typical chicken feed. Diverse pastures = diverse phytochemicals in our chicken’s diets (and improved flavor)!
Our chickens live low-stress lives, which we believe has a positive impact on the quality of the meat.
Conventional chicken is often injected with saline during processing to increase the weight of the chicken and to add flavor. We do not inject our chickens with saline. We think the flavor is pretty damn good as is.
When you are ready to try it for yourself, just click the button below to see our Pasture Raised Chicken ⬇️