We have always enjoyed raising "free-range" chickens here on the farm. While housed safely in their coop at night, during the day our chickens have the run of the place (except the garden!). We have kept a variety of breeds in the past, but have decided to now focus on a single breed that we found was on the American Livestock Breed Conservancy's Critical list.
Buckeye chickens are a very hardy, active and gregarious breed. They are a rich, mahogany colored chicken that lays a brown egg. They are tightly feathered and have a "pea comb" which helps to make them very winter hardy. In fact even on cold, snowy days, they are always the first birds out of the coop.
Buckeye's are very active foragers and we notice a drastic drop in the amount of food they consume as soon as the weather warms a bit in the spring. We have also noticed that having free-range chickens around the barn has noticably helped decrease the fly population.
Free-Range chickens, means Free-Range Eggs!
Eggs that come from happy chickens. Free-range eggs have been found to be nutritionally superior to caged chickens eggs and the thickness of the white and the deep gold of the yolk are with out
compare. See the article on the findings on Free-Range eggs in Mother Earth News by clicking on
the button above.
Visit the website for "Chicken Out"
the British campaign working for the "Free Range Future" and humane standards for raising chickens
