How we Raise Chickens on Foster Farm

Billy took a few minutes away from farm chores to talk about chicken rearing.

Our first chicken day of 2017 is coming up on June 24^th.  For us, this is the final step in raising a clean, healthy, tasty chicken. We have taken these cute little two-day-old chicks and in less than eight weeks, raised them into strong meaty birds ready for harvest. 

The breed of bird we raise are the growth sprint super stars of the bird world. So it’s no surprise that like any other top performer, they need top care to perform at their best. For us, this is done 100% naturally using nothing but GMO-free grain, forage, clean water and a pasture environment. We learned a long time ago that happy healthy animals reach their full potential. Here are some of the steps we take to raise our happy tasty birds. 

Keeping the baby chicks warm and cozy is our top priority the first few weeks.

Once the chicks have grown enough to have the feathering they need to keep warm, they are moved outdoors. For a short time, the young birds are kept closed into a coop farmers call a chicken tractor. This allows us to get them outside earlier while keeping them safe. The coop is built without a floor so when it is moved to fresh grass every day, they have clean grass and clover to eat.

After about four weeks, the front of the chicken tractor is removed giving the birds free range within the safety of electrified netting we circle around their living area. Every day, the chicken tractor is slid to fresh ground which keeps the birds clean and healthy. This planned migration through the field not only keeps the birds happy, but also evenly distributes their manure (we call it fertilizer) across our hay fields.

Any chicken, whether it is a laying hen or a broiler (meat chicken), needs some grain to grow. To raise a healthy meaty bird, you have to feed them grain. Even a laying hen needs grain during its development. We feed a non-GMO grain which was raised without the widespread use of herbicides.

In addition, we also make sure they have plenty of green forage to eat. The grass inside the fence (shown on the left below) shows how quickly they forage down their area in about a week’s time. In this case, the grass really is greener on the other side!

Below, the ladies are relishing some fresh forage recently fenced off for them. The chicken tractor is toward the back of the image.

Often we will fence off larger areas to give them more space to hunt insect and forage. We have found they love to hunt grasshoppers and crickets. In this image, you see two batches of chickens in the same enclosure. The russet birds in the foreground are Red Rangers. We found our customers preferred the pale Cornish cross (shown above) so that is the breed we have stuck with.

We feel strongly that our birds get to be chickens: they hunt and peck in the open air, and do not spend their entire life in a crowded building standing in their own filth. This respect for the birds is held every step of the way. All our birds are processed here on our farm by us. It would make no sense to put all this care into raising them in a stress-free environment and then undo all that work by putting them through the stress of transport and the scale of the processing plant. Here we can be sure they are treated humanely and safely throughout the entire process. 

We will have fresh birds ready for pick-up at the farm this Saturday, June 24^th after 2:00PM. If you can’t make it to the farm, we will be making deliveries of frozen birds to IDEXX in Westbrook and as always, you can pick them up right here at the top of the hill at Foster Farm.

Mushroom Growing at Foster Farm

On this warm spring day, Billy and Paulette are out doing farm chores. I've posted this story from Billy on his behalf.

Of the 100 acres our farm covers, 80 acres are wooded. Aside from the firewood that we cut each winter to heat our home, the land does not generate any income for us. Sure, I could cut firewood to sell or we could have a logging company come in and harvest, but neither of those options really appeals to us.

We love exploring our woods, enjoying nature and savoring the quiet time it provides. It’s important to us that these woods be a sanctuary for nature and wildlife away from the plowing, haying, mowing and grazing of the farm. Having said that, the town still expects us to pay taxes on these 80 acres of forest.

So I was intrigued when I read an article about farmers using oak logs harvested from their woods to grow shiitake mushrooms. It sounded like it could be a good match to our farm as we were already harvesting firewood in the winter off-season. Also, most of the “mushrooming” work happens before the frenzy of spring farm work arrives. Knowing the overhead was minimal and just few hand tools were needed to inoculate the logs, we decided to give it a try.

How We Inoculated 75 Oak and Beech Logs with Shiitake Mushroom Spore

In spring 2016 (yes, that's spring), Tank and Arnie dragged some logs out.
The logs were then cut into “mushroom logs” which are about 3 ½ feet long.

We used a high-speed grinder with a special drill bit to bore holes along the log which were then filled with the mushroom spore. Here are the inoculated logs waiting to be taken back to the woods.

Once inoculated, the logs need to remain fairly moist so the mushroom spore can colonize the log. This helps maximize production, as well as occupying any niches that could be populated by wild mushrooms. The logs are stacked on “bunk” logs close to the ground in a shaded location for at least six months before any mushrooms will fruit.

It worked! Here’s our first (and only it turned out) mushroom from last fall. Typically, if inoculated in the spring a log will begin fruiting in the fall. Because of the drought we had last summer, we only had this single perfect shitake fruit for us.

So the good news is that this spring has yielded some very nice mushrooms and the logs look like they survived the drought very well. We are picking about a pound a day right now and we expect this to increase a bit as things warm up.

Sharing Shitakes

We will take orders for shitakes through the spring, or as long as the logs continue to fruit. To give folks an incentive to try something new, we have adjusted the price to a bargain $8.00/lbs. 

This price will rise over time to match the market, but we as are starting this new venture, we want to share these “wood fruits” with as many people as possible. 

Email us at fosterfarmpolandme@gmail.com if you’d like to order some. 

A Simple Way to Enjoy Shitakes

Combine butter and garlic in saute pan. Heat until butter is melted and garlic starts to sizzle, about 30 seconds. Do not let garlic brown.

Add sliced mushrooms and saute 3 to 4 minutes, turning until lightly browned. Season to taste with salt and pepper, sprinkle with parsley and serve.