Graig Farm - What is Organic? > How our animals are reared > Organic & Additive-free Chicken - Rearing

Organic & Additive-free Chicken - Rearing

Organic chickens returning to their arks at dusk

Modern intensive systems of poultry production have produced cheap meat for the consumer - but at a price. Inside the intensive chicken houses, which are appearing in increasing numbers in the countryside, up to 40,000 birds are crammed, normally at 2 birds to the square foot, into a single windowless building, with almost continuous low levels of artificial light.

It is no wonder that stress levels in the birds are high and that continuous use of anti-biotic is needed to keep the birds alive. Growth promoters are also sometimes fed to force the rate of growth. Very often the birds grow so fast that their legs cannot support their bodies. Large extractor fans ensure that ammonia levels are kept to bearable levels. Because much of the birds' time is spent sitting in cramped conditions, and as no fresh litter is given, the legs and breasts of many birds are burnt by the manure.

Graig Farm offers two tasty alternatives to the modern intensive broiler chicken.

"Belated travellers in the countryside may see in the small hours the electric glow of the up-to-date, day-and-night arenas, especially designed for egg laying. Birds, as all the best ornithologists believe, are pretty automatic affairs, rather nearer to a plant than a human being in their reactions. Give them a balanced diet and so forth and they will lay like mad, or at any rate, like cogs in a factory process. Judging by results this is, perhaps true, but - as far as anyone who has been on friendly terms with hens must ask - do they like it ?

Left to themselves, in the comparative freedom of a small man's run, they quickly develop distinct personalities. One will be found with exasperating regularity wandering audibly at large amongst the flower beds and she will continue to find ways and means of truancy whatever barriers are raised against her. Another will, however sternly she is watched, never fail to emerge clucking triumphantly after having hidden her eggs beyond the nettles in the most inaccessible corner of the "estate". Although the murmuring muted chorus, as the inmates are shut up for the night, is a combined effort, cannot individual voices be heard ?

It was a Frenchman who claimed that his countrymen had 685 ways of cooking eggs. For a hen there are as many ways of laying them - but how many can be practised when it has all been narrowed down to an industrial exercise? "

Leader, The Times - 1952

Rearing.

All Graig Farm's chickens are reared with the primary aim of minimising stress in the birds. By doing this, the birds' own immune system can fight off disease, doing away with the constant need for drugs.

When Graig Farm started in the 1980s, the birds were reared here at Graig Farm. They are now reared for us on a small family farm in Herefordshire.

chickens roaming in the Herefordshire fields

Feed.

Graig Farm poultry is reared from day old on an organically registered feed based on cereals and vegetable protein. The birds are given no routine drugs, growth promoters, anti-oxidants or any other additives, including coccidiostats (antibiotics to control the disease coccidiosis, which is given continuously to most other chickens). All Graig Farm chickens are guaranteed to be fed on feed which does not contain genetically modified feedstuffs (GMOs).

Chickens at Springfield farm

Rearing Conditions

The birds are kept in small groups, to allow them to establish a social or "pecking" order. By doing this we avoid feather pecking - each bird "knows its place" in the hierarchy. In the buildings, they have plenty of space to move around (several times the space of an intensive broiler). The older birds have constant daytime access to pasture.

Slaughtering

Our birds are finally slaughtered on the farm at 9 (additive-free) to 12 (organic) weeks, compared with 6 weeks in the intensive industry. By slaughtering on the farm, a quick end is ensured without any undue suffering, within moments of the birds running around the farm.

Organic or Additive-FREE?

Organic chickens for Graig Farm running free-rangeTo be fully organic, chickens must be fed a diet containing grain which has been grown organically, without artificial fertilisers or sprays. Such feed is expensive, and we therefore offer our customers a choice - either fully organic chickens, or "additive-free". Additive-free birds are reared in the same way as the organic, under the same welfare conditions, but the grain in their feed is not organically grown, and is therefore cheaper. This means that the additive-free chickens can be sold at a lower price than the organic.