Our top 10 reasons for growing backyard chickens

Monday in our home means roast chicken on the menu.  I know, I know, Sunday in the United States is traditionally equated with chicken dinner and all the fixings, but for whatever reason, we tend to do this differently at our house.  The lovely thing about Monday chicken is the wonderful leftovers for the rest of the week and the yummy soup made from chicken bone broth on Wednesday. Mmm-mmm.

Anyway, preparing the chicken for the oven today plus a recent conversation about our chicken hobby got me thinking about why we do backyard meat birds.  Initially it started out as a bit of a lark, sort of a challenge to see if we could really do it, but now I would say it has become a way of life.  I mean, there was no question in our minds that we would raise a Mob 3 this spring and probably a Mob 4 in the late summer.  In chatting with some longtime friends over the weekend, the "why" was the question that kept coming up.  Why would you do this?  Why go through all the work?  Why incur the expense?  Why not just continue buying from the grocery?

So why do we raise meat chickens, if not for the challenge?  Here are our top 10 reasons:

1. They taste better.  Seriously, they do.  We get a lot of skepticism from others on this one but pastured raised chickens have a different, more meaty flavor than their limp grocery store counterparts.  The meat is firmer, darker and more juicy.  
2. We know where our food came from.  Our chickens do not hail from an anonymous large scale factory farm.  We raise them cradle to freezer so there is no question about their health or their care.
3. We know what went into our food (and what didn't).  This is a big one, especially considering the recent stories about "additives" such as antibiotics, growth hormones,  and waste product from human food production in livestock and poultry feed.  Our birds receive high quality, properly balanced feed in addition to being on pasture where they readily avail themselves of grass, weeds, garden scraps, and any creepy crawlies that venture into their paths.
4. Our birds lead better lives.  Factory farms are not pretty places, even the organic ones.  Birds on these farms are confined to small cages where they are stuff full of questionable feed in an effort to grow them fast.  Disease is often an issue. Injuries often result.  Birds are not allowed to roam, graze or exercise.  In a word, it's unnatural.  Our birds are well cared for, well-fed, babied if injured, and enjoy fresh pasture daily.  They are also socialized, cooed at, and in general, have a fuss made over them daily.  In a word, they're spoiled in the very best way.
5. Their deaths are more humane.  I won't go into detail on this one, but we care for our birds even in death.
6. The meat is healthier.  Studies have shown livestock of every kind, including poultry, benefit from living more natural, pastured lives.  This equates into healthier meat higher in omega-3's, lower in fats and calories, and higher in vitamins and minerals.  See Eat Wild's Health Benefits of Grass Fed Products for a detailed synopsis.   
7. It's fun.  If you haven't gotten this from the number of times I've waxed poetic about our Mobs, I'll just say it outright.  It's fun to raise chickens.  
8. We're teaching our children about the food cycle.  Our boys are well aware of where their food comes from now, and the process that goes into producing a single chicken.  They have a much greater appreciation and respect for the meal on their plate.
9. It's good for our land.  Our yard benefits greatly from having the chickens work it over and then deposit fresh-made fertilizer on it.  You can definitely tell the areas where we pastured the chickens compared to those areas where we have not yet.
10. Our meat is organic, pastured poultry for less money.  Now while I could get conventional non-organic grocery store chicken for less money than it takes to raise our Mobs, as I've demonstrated in a previous post, there is no way we could buy organic pastured chicken for what it costs for us to raise them.  Even on sale.  And if you want to start talking what organic chicken goes for at the farmer's market (often $5/lb or more around our area) than we're saving serious money.