The Vital Voice

The spring edition of Edible Austin has a terrific feature on our Austin farm!  Thanks to Marla the editor and David the author for such a great write-up.  We’ve never heard such a unique take on our mobile-chicken-units: http://www.edibleaustin.com/content/editorial/editorial/552?task=view

Home to hens, not droids.

“Each pen consists of…a mobile chicken unit (MCU) that looks like a galvanized, very South Austin version of the Jawa Sandcrawler droid factory where Luke Skywalker purchased C-3PO and, reluctantly, R2-D2. The MCU is the coop where the hens nest.

“”The object is to allow the birds to live as natural an existence as possible,’ [Robert] Kraft continues. ‘There are downsides to that: they have to sleep outside in the cold, but it’s not anything they can’t adapt to. They sleep in big groups and their body heat keeps them warm. The electric fences keep ninety-five percent of the predators away.’”

Robert is our manager at Vital Farm and a real thought leader in the art of pasture-raising hens. From time to time, he’ll be providing farm updates and answering frequent questions we get concerning pasture-raising. With the rough cold season we’ve been having, many people wonder how the birds handle cold weather.  Here’s Robert’s take:

This winter has been incredibly rainy and cold for this part of Texas. While this bodes well for the condition of the pasture in the coming spring, it can be a little trying when you work outdoors. You just come to accept being muddy, cold and wet all the time as a normal state of affairs, and console yourself with memories of the 107 degree temperatures of last summer’s drought.

Hens dressed for winter

A lot of people ask me if the cold weather is bad for the hens, since they live mostly outside. They actually do quite well in the cold, as long as they have a way to stay dry and sheltered. They are, after all, birds, and the forests and meadows all around the farm are full of thousands of birds who seem to survive each winter, even when temperatures dip into the teens, as they did last month. Birds are provided with excellent insulation in the form of feathers, which we actually use to make winter clothing and sleeping bags.

Each of our flocks has a mobile coop in which they spend their nights, and where they can shelter in inclement weather. These trailers provide the essential protection from precipitation and wind that they need to get through the winter.  On colder nights, they huddle together for warmth. When I make my rounds of the flocks at night, if I stand in the doorway of their trailer, I can feel the heat radiating from the sleeping hens.

Mobile chicken units give shelter and trap heat

Chickens get into trouble when they are exposed to a bad combination of elements, such as wind and cold, or cold and wet, or wind, cold and wet. In these conditions they are unable to retain their body heat, and can die from simple hypothermia. It is very important to make sure that the flocks have plenty of places to go to get out of the wind and rain. As with everything else in pasture-raising, if you give the birds the resources that they need, they will figure out how to use them.

Generally speaking if the temperatures do not dip into the twenties and teens regularly, and the winters aren’t too harsh where you are, you shouldn’t have too much trouble keeping your flocks on pasture in the colder months. As long as they are properly provided for, a cold, sunny day on pasture will always beat a warm day in a cage.

Our thanks to the Austin Food Journal for mentioning us in their post about their trip to the downtown Austin Farmers’ Market: http://www.austinfoodjournal.com/?p=3796

“My wife and I were just talking about how great it would be to have eggs and milk delivered to our house. But, decided that someone probably passed some law that makes it illegal. They must have. Everything cool is illegal. Sure enough I was wrong. Carrie Kelley, of Vital Farms, said their eggs ($5 dozen) are home delivered by Greenlings Organic Delivery. Or, you can purchase Vital eggs at the Saturday market, Whole Foods, Wheatsville, Farm to Market, Peoples Pharmacy, Boggy Creek Farm, Cissi, Whip In, Ashai Imports, Space Station Mir and the interior Congo. OK, I made those last two up, but it seems you can get Vital eggs just about anywhere. Right on.”