Organic Chicken Farming – Why It Has Become A Widely Practiced Method When Raising Chickens
People who choose to live a healthy lifestyle usually consider eating organic foods. Perhaps this is the reason why not only the vegetable farmers but even the poultry raisers are now considering organic farming methods. In the poultry business, organic chicken farming has become a widely practiced method. Here, the chickens are raised without using any synthetic chemicals, which are proven to be harmful to the fowls. This gives the people a healthier choice for meat and eggs.
Because of the increase in the demand for organic chicken meat, several companies have shifted to organic chicken farming. However, this method is not often taken on its basic principles. The people who are running the commercial chicken farms are not actually implementing the free range farming style, which is the best attribute of organic chicken farming. Free range chickens are allowed to roam and get natural diet foods such as grains. This makes the chickens organic. In most commercial poultry farms, the chickens are not actually “free range”. Due to the size of the flock, the chickens are often enclosed in an area that provides only a small amount of space for roaming around.
If you want to raise purely organic chickens, the first thing that you should do is to practice the free ranging style of poultry farming. Allow the chickens to roam around and do not coop them up inside a wire mesh cage for the rest of their lives. The flock can be trained not to stray too far from the coop so you do not have to worry about their whereabouts. You just have to make sure that the environment where you want to keep them is safe from predators. If you are just starting out your own organic chicken farming from your backyard, it is best to keep them inside an enclosed area that has enough roaming space. Do this until the chickens are ready to wander outside the fenced area, or as soon as you are certain about the safety of your fowls outside the vicinity.
Aside from letting the chickens out in the open, you should also give them proper feeds. Even if they could hunt for their own food, they still need a balanced diet. You can prepare premixed organic feeds for them. The feeds include whole corn, wheat, oat groats, and soybean meal. Grit is often added to the feeds to ensure the effective digestion of food. The water for their drink should also contain natural juices such as the apple cider vinegar. In some instances, you may even acquire premixed feeds for organic chicken farming from some poultry feeds stores.