About CCR

Healthy happy birds, farmers, land, food and customers. It’s so simple, it’s revolutionary.

Our Chicken People are a labour of love, and a source of great entertainment.  I have been owned by birds all my life and they have been my greatest joy. So why not spend the days (and sometimes nights) with them. We deeply respect these birds … who give us their all.

 

We want to raise the healthiest birds we can, and allow them to live as naturally and comfortably as possible.

Certified Organic.    Certified organic products have made great contributions to animal welfare, food, and the environment.  We are proud that Cripple Crow Ranch poultry is certified organic (#86 with KOGS – Kootenay Organic Growers Society).

There are other certifications available locally, but we believe certified organic is the most comprehensive. And for poultry,  organic certification exceeds other local or national certifications for animal health and the health of the the land they are grown on. Certified organic isn’t just about organic feed and no chemicals. Its about how you farm and treat the animals and land.

lazing about eating, scratching and sleeping, protected from the owl and coyote people that frequent this field.

Getting very big…

Organic and Beyond – PASTURED POULTRY is OUR DIFFERENCE.

In addition to being certified organic, Cripple Crow Ranch birds are raised on pasture, not inside a building. We follow many of the practices that Joel Salatin at Polyface farms espouses, and some we have developed from other mentors.

Our Chicken People live in the fields 100% of the time (after the tender brooding stage). They don’t just have ‘access’ to the outdoors. They live outdoors in the fields doing what chickens do and getting micro nutrients from the fields and the insect people. Their shelters are moved onto fresh grass every day.  Depending on which field they are grazing,  and what predators are lurking about, some birds may live in a large open bottomed pen, or they are contained behind electric meshing. Both are moved daily.

Owls, raptors, bears, coyotes and cougars like to hang out in this field. So our little dears are more contained in these open bottomed hoop houses. They are moved once a day to fresh grass – twice a day when they are big like this. Note the pens in the other field… Predators are less likely to go into that field, so the Chicken People are contained behind electric net fencing and have open hoop houses for shelter. Again, the houses are moved daily to fresh pasture, to keep the fields and birds healthy.

3 week old broilers busy in the fields and at the feed trough

Moving our Chicken People every day,  or ‘poultry in motion’ as we like to call it,  ensures they have fresh graze every day and they aren’t ingesting their own manure. And since chickens are omnivores, they also dine on crickets, grasshoppers, and grubs along the way. This diet of bugs and green grass, and ample sunlight, infuses them with vitamins and minerals they can’t get from grain based feed. Once moved, behind them, a fresh blanket of manure is evenly applied to the fields…

…and the circle keeps moving. The sun sanitizes the manure, new grass grows, and before the chickens touch that portion of the field again, we move big herbivores like cows, sheep or old Charlie the horse, to chop down the new long lush grass to an inch or two high (just the height the Chicken People love) and drop their manure behind. This herbivore manure then becomes wonderful bug habitat, and an endless source of entertainment for the chickens.

PASTURED POULTRY – better for the birds, and BETTER FOR YOU: In 2013 a study commissioned by the American Pastured Poultry Producers Association made some interesting findings.

The found meat from Pastured Poultry  was  higher in vitamins E and D3 and had a 69% lower ratio of Omega 6 to 3 compared to non pastured poultry. When it comes to the ratio between Omega 6 & 3, you want it to be lower, as higher ratios have been linked to  inflammation, cardiovascular disease, cancer and autoimmune disorders

And raising birds in this way, produces the best tasting chicken you’ll ever eat (or so we think so).

When the time comes, we steel ourselves, and gently load the birds up in the dark when it is quiet and take them for their last ride.

We welcome you to visit Cripple Crow Ranch to see how our Chicken People are cared for. Just drop us an email to arrange a visitation time.

 

 

 

 

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