PointSixFour Farms

I’ve heard for years that the Cornish/Rock cross chickens are fast growers and good producers but have to be treated like fine china. They’re incredibly good at converting feed into weight but as a result suffer in other areas. They have a bit higher mortality rate than the slower growing varieties. The list of issues with this birds is quite long but nothing beats them for feed conversion. With proper “tuning” you can make this breed perform quite well on pasture but it does take some care and a little bit different method.

We’re going to try a small flock of the Cornish/Rock cross broilers to see if they are all that they’re cracked up to be. If the experiment is a success and we don’t have too much mortality, we’ll have an alternative breed to offer possibly on the 2nd or 3rd flock this year. We will still continue to offer the slower growing varieties but want to have some additional choices for our customers. The birds will be a bit larger in the breast and legs and will grow out faster as well. There will be shorter wait times between flocks and we’ll be able to do a few more flocks per year. We will, of course, raise them with the same standard we raise our slow growers. No antibiotics, no hormones and no animal by-products…That’s our standard for all of our animals. I believe that this additional choice will be able to open up the market to a larger segment of the Chattanooga area.

Our first order of 2010 is off to a great start. We’re almost sold out of chickens for the first flock of the year. If you were thinking about ordering, better act fast. As of now, only 6 shares remain.

I have put the chickens on order from the hatchery. They should be arriving on March 11th and will be ready to pickup 9 to 12 weeks from that time. For those that have already ordered, we will contact you ahead of time to arrange a pickup date for your birds.

Yep, That’s right. We started on only .64 acres. I initially started with just a few laying hens. I wanted to raise my own food and thought that would be a fine place to start. So, I got a few Delaware/New Hampshire cross hens. I discovered a book called “You Can Farm” by Joel Salatin. I read it cover to cover in record time (For me at least). Loved the book and the advice there in. One of the things I took away from the book was that I needed to quit saying “When I get some land”. I needed to start with what I had. At the time, I had .64 acres.

I decided to start marketing my eggs to people I knew and worked with. I felt that I raised the finest eggs on earth and I told everyone I knew. People bought my eggs and now I have lifelong fans. I had someone tell me “These are the best eggs I’ve ever eaten”. I was really encouraged with what I was hearing and decided to expand to see what else I could do on .64 acres. I picked up Joel Salatin’s next book called “Pastured Poultry Profit$”. This book was the inspiration for my pastured poultry. Pastured Poultry, for those who aren’t aware, is an “Alternative” method for raising meat chickens. I say “Alternative” because the current wisdom is to raise an unnaturally fast growing chicken in huge densities inside a dark chicken house on antibiotic filled feed. Pastured poultry is the exact opposite of that school of thought. Pastured Poultry is raised in a mobile open air pen that is moved twice daily to a new spot of grass. The chickens get fresh grass to eat and sleep on, bugs, sunshine, fresh air and plenty of room to move around. It’s an amazingly effective method and it results in a much more healthy and flavorful chicken.

In the book Pastured Poultry Profits, Joel mentions that most people have enough room in their back yard to raise their first batch of chickens. If moved once or twice daily you only need about 5000 square feet to accomplish that. I started out with 105 chickens and lost only a few chickens along the way. I butchered 100 chickens over 2 weekends with some help from my wife, family and friends. We rented a chicken plucker from a local equipment rental shop. I was amazed to find one of those but very happy to have found it. It made the job so much more smoothly.

In 2009 some close friends of mine offered me the ability to raise my chickens on their property. They farm along the same vein that I do. They believe in natural and medication free livestock. It was a good arrangement; they wanted fertilizer and I needed a bigger place to raise my chickens. They live just a short way from my home so it’s convenient as well. I raised my 2nd batch of chickens on their land and it went better than the 1st I raised here on my property. There was more room, I could raise the chickens at lower densities and their pasture was more healthy and diverse. The chickens benefited and so did their pasture. I will continue to raise chickens on their property for as long as the arrangement is good for both of us. Who knows, I may outgrow their land or maybe they’ll need that pasture of more cows.

Even though I don’t entirely farm on .64 acres, I wanted to keep the name. It reminds me and others to always make do with what you have and that a dream should never wait. Do what you love with what you have. We can come up with a thousand excuses to put off our dreams. I decided to put aside my reservations and just go for it. I am glad I did.