We have a few chickens left for sale via pre-order!

We have a few chickens left for sale via pre-order!

We still have meat chickens left. The chickens will be processed, bagged, and ready to go in your freezer on November 9th. These chickens are fed a high quality organic feed. They are raised on pasture with plenty of grass, bugs, and sunshine. The cost $5.25 per pound if you pick up on November 9th.  The birds are usually between 4 and 6 pounds. There is an additional charge of $0.25 per pound if you pick up after November 9th to cover the cost of storing them in our freezers. 

We have a few chickens left for sale via pre-order!

We still have about 30 meat chickens left. The chickens will be processed, bagged, and ready to go in your freezer on November 9th. These chickens are fed a high quality organic feed. They are raised on pasture with plenty of grass, bugs, and sunshine. The cost will be between $5.00 and $6.00 per pound if you pick up on November 9th. This final cost is dependent on feed prices which should be determined soon. We will strive to keep as close to the $5.00 as possible. The birds are usually between 4 and 6 pounds. There is an additional charge of $0.25 per pound if you pick up after November 9th to cover the cost of storing them in our freezers. 

We are currently taking orders with a deposit of $5 per bird. This is the only way to ensure that you get your birds. We always run out well before processing day so please get your order in soon. If you have any questions please let us know.

Pre Order for Organically Fed Pastured Meat Chickens

It's that time of year again when the weather is thinking about cooling down and we are thinking about our TASTY meat chickens!!

We now are taking pre-orders for our wonderful chickens.  There is  a $5.00 deposit on all pre-order chickens.  Remember, this is tho only way to ensure you get yours.  Last year we sold out completely!

Our chickens are raised on an Organic non-GMO Broiler feed.  They are raised indoors/covered patio for the first 3 weeks in spacious and humane accommodations. They are then moved to our pasture where they have protection from the elements, plenty of space to range on our irrigated pasture, and eat all the grass and bugs they can find.

So here are all the details.

There is a $5.00 deposit per pre-ordered chicken.

The final price per pound will be between $5.25 and $6.20 per pound.  Our goal is to always make the final cost as reasonable as possible. However, we cannot control the price of organic feed.  We fully intend to keep them at $5.25/ pound. Based on current feed prices the price is $5.25/pound.

Our chickens range between 4 and 6 pounds after processing.

A discount of $0.25 per pound will be given if you pick up your birds the day of processing. There are no other discounts available.


The price per pound includes 1 chicken with no giblets.   Chicken will be bagged ready for your freezer, with weight label and an instruction sheet.


Pick up times will be between 4pm and 6pm on the day of processing.  Please do not show up before this time.  Your chickens will not be ready before 4pm. We are going to be very busy that day and we will be unable to stop production to get you your birds.


Our planned processing date is November 9th, 2013.  Please mark your calendars now!!!!!

Please send and email with how many birds you would like to pre purchase.  We will send you a PayPal Money request.  If you would rather pay cash or check, just let us know that in your email.  You do not need to have a PayPal account in order to use PayPal.

Email us at: IndependenceUrbanFarm@gmail.com

We look forward to hearing from you!!

Its Been a While

Momma and chicks

Its been quite a while since I have written anything so here's an update of what has been happening around our little farm.


     STILL waiting on our Americaunas and Orpingtons to start laying!  They are almost 8 months old and so far still no eggs.  With any luck any day now!!
 
      We had more roosters than we knew what to do with.  All I will say is that there are 5 new chickens in our freezer and there is some fresh chicken broth in the refridgerator.

      We've been planning our big chicken coop and should hopefully break ground in just a few weeks.      Getting rid of the 3 small coops will be so nice.

     Planning out our fall meat chickens.  Deciding how many to order and where to put them is quite the   challenge.

     Putting together our pre-order form for our broilers.

     Planning our chicken processing days, figuring out how may people we will need to do all the work is harder than you think.

     Our pear tree is loaded with pears, I just need to figure out when to harvest them and what to do with them.
   
     Contemplating teaching a class or two here in the fall.  We might be offering a class in chicken processing as well as an introduction to raising chickens class

     Planting our fall garden and tearing out our summer garden. I can't believe it's already time to plant our fall garden.  I just seems too hot!

     Planning and building a second chicken tractor that will hopefully hold MORE broilers!

     Deciding what to do with our back pasture.  Do we get a few cows for pasture raised beef or maybe we should get a few pigs?


     When is starts to cool down and its not so hot in the kitchen we are planning on making bone broth from our pasture raised chickens and grass fed beef.

   We are busy busy and with only 2 more months of summer left (give or take all of October) we will only be getting busier.

STILL Counting Chickens

     Last Wednesday I dutifully checked to see if little chicks were going to make their appearance.  By Wednesday evening I was beginning to get discouraged. Thursday morning, still nothing. I was pretty convinced my little experiment was a failure.  So in the middle of the night I went out and candled my eggs.

     Candling is a way to check and see if an egg is fertile and growing.  Its pretty simple, you need a dark room or area and a very bright light.  There are fancy machines you can by to do this or you can use a little LED flashlight. I opted for the LED method.  Basically you take a flash light and place the less pointy end of the egg against the light.  You then look to see if you can see anything.  Depending on where the egg is in incubation process you will see a little dot or it may be mostly opaque. There are many charts available online to help you determine the status of your eggs.

     The first egg I checked was opaque and I could even see a vessel looking thing. Then I checked 3 more eggs.  Each time it was the same.  I finally stopped when Momma hen started to growl at me.  I did not want to upset the Momma.

     Well, the eggs are fertile or at least they were.  I couldn't figure out what went wrong.  Momma has been great the entire time.  The eggs were very fresh and came from a reputable breeder.  So I decided to give it 2 more days.  

     By Saturday there was still nothing.  I figured it was a fail.  I was bummed but I guess that's what happens in the chicken business.  Later that day I sat down on my computer and checked the Facebook page for Independence Urban Farm.  Facebook recently added some new metrics to their business pages so that owners can see how well they are advertising which spurred me to look at some of the old posts. 

     That was when I saw it.  I got the eggs on March 26th which meant they eggs were not finished yet!!! In fact there still 3-4 days away from hatching! I was relieved, my little eggs still have a very good chance.  Momma is still doing great and we know at least 4 eggs are fertile. 

     With any luck this Wednesday, April 17th we will have 10 baby chicks.  Once again we are counting our chickens before they hatch.

Counting Chicken Before They Are Hatched

     Twenty days ago in the middle of the night (ok, 9pm) we snuck out to our chicken coop and hijacked a broody hen and her eggs.  We then stealthily replaced her eggs with 11 fertile eggs of a different breed. We also moved her ENTIRE nesting box to a separate area so she could be left in peace by the other hens.
   
     Then it was time to hold our breath.  Would she reject the new eggs?  Did we put too many eggs under her?  Was she really broody or was I misreading her.
   
     It was a little touch and go that night.  At first she tried to settle in on her nest in the new location but then quickly decided she was not going to set on them.  She just stood there, staring at us.  We decided to giver her an hour  and see what happened.  So after watching the Big Bang Theory and 2 Broke girls on the DVR I went and checked on her.

     She was sitting just like a good momma ON THE GROUND and not her new eggs. Fantastic, now what? I went back in the house and we had a discussion about what to do next.  Do we give her more time, or maybe we should just put her on the eggs?  Maybe she wasn't broody and we just wasted some perfectly good and expensive fertile eggs.  We decided to wait.  I started Googling like mad.  How long are fertile eggs ok for (about 6 hours)?  If you move a broody hen will she always stay broody (no).  How much is an incubator?  How fast can I get one?

     By now it after midnight and I am tired and worried.  I decided to go out there again and check on her.  She was still on the ground.  So I made a move.  I picked her up and set her on the eggs.  She made a "skkkwwaaa"  noise at me and the she settled on in.  WOO HOO!!! But would she stay there?  Back in the house I went and into my warm bed.  I set the alarm for 3 am and tried to sleep.

     3 AM came and out I went again.  I may be in Arizona but the nights can be cold in spring.  I was not digging the 50 degree weather at all.  A mad dash outside in my pj's and Boggs to check on the momma and she was sitting like a good momma, on her eggs.

    Finally, I could relax, go to sleep and check on her in the morning.  In the morning she was there sitting pretty on her eggs.
   
    That was 20 days, or should I say nights ago.  With any luck tomorrow my eggs will "pip" and a few hours later I will have 10 cute little chicks running around.
    
 

       

FRESH Red Ranger Chicken meat for sale....Saturday April 6, 2013

This Saturday we will be processing our Red Ranger meat chickens.  Its an all day affair to say the least. This also means that we will have chicken meat for sale.

We will be charging $4.00 per pound and we are expect that the chickens will weigh between 3 and 5 pounds.  They are absolutely delicious. We will freeze them on Monday, after they have had a chance to rest so if you want a fresh, never frozen bird you will have to come by this weekend.

We also have frozen chickens for sale as well.  They are also $4.00 a pound. The frozen chickens are a different breed than Red Rangers and a very tasty as well.

This will be our last offering of chicken until the late fall or early winter. It is just too hot in Arizona to do year round chickens.


A little about Red Rangers

Red Rangers or RRs are a slow growing, brown feathered broiler chicken. They were first developed in France as part of the Label Rouge Quality Program.  RRs are strong and robust. They are market size around 12 weeks or later.  This allows extra time to gain quality muscle from exercise leading to a superior flavor.  They are excellent foragers adding to their flavor.

Free Range VS Pasture Raised

We've all seen this at the grocery store.  "Free Range Eggs" prominently displayed on the egg cartons.  You reach for those since "Free Range" must mean happier and healthier chickens and eggs.  You gladly pay extra for happy and healthy chickens.  Did you ever stop and wonder what does "Free Range" mean?

According to the US Department of Agriculture Free Range or Free roaming means:

     Producers must demonstrate to the Agency that the poultry has been allowed access to the outside. 

Chickens are ALLOWED access to the outside. That is certainly better than battery cages.  I won't go into battery raised chicken, quite frankly it disturbs me and I don't want to delve into that.  However the USDA's own definition is very vague.  It says nothing about green grass, grains, pastures or any of the idilic images you associate with "Free Range". Some producers use "Free Range" to mean one door at the end of a long chicken shed that leads to an empty dirt patch. The food and water are at the far other end.  After all the chickens can choose to go outside if they want to. Some producers do stick to the spirit of the definition and let those chickens out onto fields to roam and graze to their hearts content.

Pasture raised or pastured chicken is more specific.  While there is no legal definition of pasture raised, most smaller operations stick very closely to the image invoked by the term pasture raised.  Hens are able to roam and forage eating a various diet of plants and insects. Depending on the farm location the chickens may still be contained into a chicken tractor, which is a moveable pen that protects chickens from predators.  The chickens get moved on a near daily basis and have access to all the goodies the land can provide.

If you want to know where your eggs and chickens come from and how they are raised look for a local producer.  Many allow and encourage you to stop by and check out their facilities.  Go and find those happy chickens that lay fantastic eggs.  

At Independence Urban Farm, our chickens are pasture raised.  They have the whole place to roam and forage. I like to see my happy chickens, I think it makes their eggs taste better.  

Pasture Raised Eggs are Good for You!

Pasture raised eggs have been proven to have more nutrition that your average egg. This is a wonderful article explaining the nutritional differences. According to the USDA, Pasture raised eggs have:

• 1/3 less cholesterol
• 1/4 less saturated fat
• 2/3 more vitamin A
• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
• 3 times more vitamin E
• 7 times more beta carotene

Here's the whole article. 

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/2007-10-01/Tests-Reveal-Healthier-Eggs.aspx#axzz2PGLNRUt4 

Welcome to Independence Urban Farm

In 2012, My husband, our beautiful 3 month old son and I moved into our little farmhouse on 2 acres. It's been load of work ever since and we have loved almost every minute of it.

In the last year we have cut down or trimmed more trees than we can count, pulled weeds, trimmed citrus trees, we've learned how to use our irrigation ditches an irrigate our land. We've built, painted and repaired chicken coops.

We've watched our son learn to roll, crawl, creep, cruise and now walk and talk.
He's even learned how to help water and feed our flock of chickens.

We have raised chickens from day old chicks to now happy healthy laying chickens that provide us with wonderful organic eggs on a daily basis.

We've had family gatherings, parties with friends, dinners with both, and quiet nights on the patio listening to crickets chirping in the background.

And the most important task we have worked on over the last year, we have made a home for our family.

We are starting to make our place more than just our home. We are working very hard to make a farm that can help us to be more of a self sustaining family.  We want our farm to help us on a path to our Independence.

In future blogs I will hopefully share the goings on at the farm and hopefully other interesting tidbits of life.

Thank for reading and I hope you enjoy.