Birds of Agricola
Our naturally raised, pastured heritage chickens provide us with both eggs and meat.
Agricola is now growing a heritage line of meat birds. We are at the 5th generation of our farm hatched birds.
Chickens
Our flocks of Buff Orpington and Welsummer hens provide eggs that we sell to customers, and eggs that we hatch to grow chickens that we sell for meat. These two dual-purpose breeds grow slowly and provide a medium size carcass (3-4Lbs) -- smaller than the average chicken in the supermarket or even those that can be found in small commercial chicken farms.
To move away from the model of quantity over quality, we sell chickens by the bird and not by weight. We dress the birds when the flock has reached its peak (and prior to becoming mature birds), which is approximately 14 weeks for the Buff Orpingtons and 16 weeks for the Welsummers. Our customers pay the same amount for a bird that is 4 Lbs. as they would pay for a bird that weighs 3.5 or 5 Lbs.
Both breeds of chickens are avid foragers and are raised exclusively on pasture with little supplements of organic grains in the winter and no grains from Spring to early Fall – this allows for the production of a leaner meat due to the difference in the meat produced with grains vs. the leaves of a plant. Furthermore, the exercise they engage in during foraging makes the bird leaner, but since they are processed before maturity, their meat remains tender.
Chickens
Our flocks of Buff Orpington and Welsummer hens provide eggs that we sell to customers, and eggs that we hatch to grow chickens that we sell for meat. These two dual-purpose breeds grow slowly and provide a medium size carcass (3-4Lbs) -- smaller than the average chicken in the supermarket or even those that can be found in small commercial chicken farms.
To move away from the model of quantity over quality, we sell chickens by the bird and not by weight. We dress the birds when the flock has reached its peak (and prior to becoming mature birds), which is approximately 14 weeks for the Buff Orpingtons and 16 weeks for the Welsummers. Our customers pay the same amount for a bird that is 4 Lbs. as they would pay for a bird that weighs 3.5 or 5 Lbs.
Both breeds of chickens are avid foragers and are raised exclusively on pasture with little supplements of organic grains in the winter and no grains from Spring to early Fall – this allows for the production of a leaner meat due to the difference in the meat produced with grains vs. the leaves of a plant. Furthermore, the exercise they engage in during foraging makes the bird leaner, but since they are processed before maturity, their meat remains tender.
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