Xander Farm - Farm Blog

Growing Meat Chickens

10/15/2017

We buy our meat chicks from a local farm. After a short drive from the farm on which they've hatched, we put them into our ground cage. This cage is approximately 3.5' by 8' and has an open bottom and removable cloth sides that allow ventilation but not too much wind. Rather than housing them on litter, we put them straight onto grass. If we are expecting lots of rain, we will add hay on top of the grass to keep them dry and warm.

We hang heat lamps and a gravity-feed waterer within the two-foot brooder cage and we hang feeders along the edges of the cage for their fermented feed.

As long as the ground isn't flooded, we move the young chicks daily to new grass. Within a very few days, they rush forward in a frenzy with each move of the cage, ripping up stems of grasses and legumes and hunting for bugs that might be hiding in the grasses.

We currently use Texas Naturals Chick Starter to feed our meat chicks, which is free from all genetically modified ingredients and contains absolutely NO corn and NO soy. We ferment it to increase the probiotics, vitamins, digestive enzymes and protein. As an additional protein boost, we supplement with bugs that we raise for the exact purpose of feeding to our poultry.

As the chicks grow older, we move them twice a day. Eventually, during the last week or so on our farm, we move their ground cages three times a day to provide them with fresh grass throughout the day.

As the chicks grow larger and need more space in their ground cage, we split them into additional caging to provide them access to more grass. The last couple of weeks, we limit the ground cages to no more than 33 birds per cage. If the birds are too crowded, they don't grow well. Additionally, if they have too much room, they also don't grow well.

Why We Ferment Our Feed

10/8/2017

We began raising chickens when we lived on a quarter acre lot in the middle of a large city. Going against tradition and advice, we removed soy and corn from their diet as we began mixing our own recipe of grains for our tiny flock of six hens. As I continued researching feeding chickens, I discovered that many people were sprouting their grains to feed their chickens. Since this seemed like more work than we could handle, I decided to try a simpler method. Each evening, we would mix their ration for the next day and cover it with water by an inch or two, allowing it to soak overnight. By the next morning, the feed would have absorbed all of the water and swelled to almost twice its size. We would then place it outside and the chickens would gobble it up. We continued experimenting with our recipes and noted how the changes affected the quantity of eggs laid as well as the health of our animals and were very pleased with the results.

In October, 2014, we moved to northeast Texas. We now live on a 43 acre farm and have continued to develop a feeding plan that we feel is not only nutritious, but also manageable. Currently, we have moved from soaking our feed to fermenting our feed. Though the Internet is full of articles about fermenting feed, one would tout a method that the next article would warn against that very same method. As my head began spinning with all of the contradictions, I decided to jump in and try a fermentation method and make changes until I was satisfied with the results. A couple of years later, and many, many hours of research and great effort, we are again pleased with our results. There are also many published scientific studies that list great benefits when feeding animals fermented feed.

During the fermentation process, the wet food captures naturally occurring bacteria and yeasts from the air, which causes the enzyme content to improve and the vitamin levels to increase. Amazingly, some vitamins will even be CREATED that weren’t there before fermenting, such as some of the B vitamins! The protein in fermented feed has been shown to increase by as much as twelve percent! Since protein is of vast importance in good growth of farm animals, this is the most significant finding for our farm in regards to the feeding regimen.

Interestingly, feeding your chicks wet feed from the first day of hatching will greatly improve their digestion ability. You will have a similar result in your older hens that switch to a fermented diet because the probiotic organisms will still be able to colonize their digestive tract and improve their digestive abilities. Fermented feed actually cause the villi in the intestines to grow longer, thus increasing the ability for them to digest their feed and more fully utilize the nutrients. Since simply soaking the grains reduces the anti-nutrients in grains and seeds, when compounded by the improvement in the body from eating fermented feed, we weren't really surprised at the improvement that we have seen when we switched to feeding fermented feed to our animals.

Another exciting study demonstrated that poultry on a diet of fermented feed are much less likely to contract diseases. One study actually injected groups of hens with Salmonella and concluded that fermented liquid feed could hamper the infection rate of Salmonella, thus lowering the possibility of passing this infection on to people. Though this study only tested the liquid fermented feed, I suspect that the same results would come from feeding them fermented grains and seeds. Other studies have also shown an increased resistance to various chicken diseases and contagions. It is believed that fermenting the feed actually helps our animals to maintain a healthy digestive tract as well as a properly functioning immune system.

The improvement in the animals that are eating fermented feed versus non-fermented feed gives us a food product that should be, as studies confirm, higher in nutritional values and lower in feed costs. So, the next time that you crack open a beautiful, dark yellow yolked egg, or bite into a delicious pork chop, consider whether you are eating the higher nutritious meat/eggs from animals that are fed fermented feed.

We don’t believe that we’ve arrived at a great method. Instead, we are on a journey to find the healthiest way to raise our animals. We continually evaluate the success of our animal feed recipes by reading through any new research we can find and, more importantly, by regularly evaluating the condition of our animals. We currently ferment feed for our turkeys, ducks, chickens, pigs, and rabbits. We soak, rather than ferment, the feed for our geese, since the geese prefer to eat grains that are sitting in the water. We start our animals, such as poultry, pigs and rabbits, on fermented feed from the first day that they begin eating. For poultry, that means as day old chicks or poults or ducklings. Suckling piglets and tiny nursing bunnies nibble fermented grains as they slowly wean from momma’s milk to feed.

We encourage you to do your own research just as we have done and to feel free to use our information as an additional resource in your research. We are not scientists, nor are we medically trained in any way. We are simply farmers and people interested in finding a way to raise animals as naturally as possible while making a living off of our land.

Wild Caught Gulf Coast Shrimp

10/1/2017

Xander Farm is now selling wild-caught, Gulf Coast shrimp. This seems like a very strange product for a holistically managed, all natural farm to carry. However, the marriage of our farm products and this wild caught shrimp is a perfect fit.

Humane Treatment for Animals & Respect for the Environment
One of our most important goals on our farm is to be good stewards of the land and animals with which God has gifted us. While we practice that on our farm, it is important to us that our partners do the same. To catch shrimp, many special devices must be employed to protect sea turtles and other marine life. Without going into detail regarding the finer points that I don’t really understand, we are happy to know that these shrimp boats are equipped with many tools that allow them to be very precise when catching shrimp and allow them to by 97% effective at excluding sea turtles of all sizes, as well as many fish and other marine animals. You can buy our shrimp guilt-free, knowing that the best tools are employed to make this enterprise animal friendly and environmentally aware.

Chemical Free and Tastes Delicious!
Our wild-caught shrimp has a unique taste due to the nutrient-rich waters in the Gulf of Mexico. Just one taste will reveal the natural seasoning that is absorbed by the teeming quantities of shrimp that dwell in these 615,000 square miles. Clean and sweet flavored, wild caught shrimp live in an environment that is free from harsh chemicals, eating a wild diet that they naturally choose as they swim through these pristine waters.

Great For Your Health
Just as our pastured meats from our farm, our shrimp is highly nutritious. Low in fat, low in cholesterol and with zero carbohydrates, these high protein shrimp are even low in calories. They are also high in antioxidants, key nutrients such as D, B12, iron & zinc. So, eat shrimp as often as you like. For your health!

-Trisha

Cooking pasture Raised Farm Chickens

2/22/2017

Heritage breed chickens are very different from the typical chicken that most of us Americans are accustomed to eating. Today, typical chickens that are raised for meat production on American farms and available for purchase in most stores, including “health food” stores with their “all natural” or “organic” poultry, are usually butchered at between 8-12 weeks old. However, heritage breeds can be butchered at any age and are usually best when butchered at older ages. The key to learning to cook these traditional birds is understanding the age and sex of the chicken when trying to decide how to serve it as food and then collecting recipes that are suited to these unique birds. The “meat” birds that I would PREFER to sell from our farm would primarily be roosters or spent laying hens, all of which would be a minimum of six months old, with the majority of our roosters being less than one year old and our stewing hens around 2-4 years old. These birds will all have a rich, deep flavor in both their meat and in the broth that they produce. While the typical grocery store chicken can be fried, baked, grilled, broiled or cooked in the crock pot with an outcome of tender yet flavorless meat, these old-fashioned, healthy, older heritage birds should definitely be cooked differently if you want to discover the rich, flavorful meat. Thinking back to about 30 years ago, I remember when I would shop at the store for chicken and have to decide if I wanted broilers, fryers or stewing hens. A few of my older recipes actually specified the type of chicken needed for each recipe. Real, healthy poultry should have a different flavor profile depending upon the age and sex of the bird as well as the cooking methods that you employ. For the purpose of today’s article, I will give some tips on cooking roosters to produce a delicious feast.

The most striking difference between a typical heritage breed bird and the modern conventional bird is the carcass shape. Accustomed to the unnaturally heavy breasts and smaller legs and thighs, the look of the longer, narrower, naturally shaped breast with longer legs and larger thighs may appear strange. There is usually more dark meat in proportion to white meat in heritage breed chicken, while conventional birds tend to be the opposite. Because of the younger butchering age and the lack of movement associated with conventional birds, the meat is softer and has very little flavor, while heritage meat has rich flavor and a firm texture and yields a rich, dark, flavorful broth when stewed. Frequently, you may notice yellow fat, which is reported to indicate high levels of beta-carotene.

Another important difference between conventionally raised birds and pastured or free range birds is the texture of the meat since confined birds, and/or birds butchered at a very young age, don’t develop as fully as naturally raised birds and therefore their dark meat is nearly as tender as the breast meat. Because the older, naturally raised birds received more exercise, they will also be more flavorful, but, if not cooked correctly, they can be tough. This variation in meat texture and muscle mass has a direct correlation with the difference in cooking time that is needed to correctly cook the perfect chicken. The older the bird, the slower the meat will need to cook. The birds will need more time for the legs and thighs to cook than for the breast meat to cook, which means that it will be easy to overcook the breast meat and dry it out before the dark meat is completely cooked. Though good recipes will deal with solutions to this problem, a plan is definitely needed to prevent the white meat from becoming dry and tasteless or to prevent the dark meat from being undercooked.

A typical roasting age for heritage breed birds should probably be considered from 5 months to around one year old and should usually weigh around 3-6 pounds for most breeds. Having a much richer flavor, these roasters can be baked uncovered in recipes that use temperatures in the 300-325 degree range, though frequent basting will probably be required to keep the white meat from dying out. Using a baking pan with a tight-fitting lid may eliminate the need for regular basting. It doesn’t hurt and sometimes helps to throw in a little bit of broth or water (just a cup or two) into the bottom of the baking pan. If the breast meat isn’t still moist by the time the dark meat is fully cooked, tender, and flavorful, try cooking at a lower heat for a longer cooking time. Sometimes I’ll flip the bird upside down for the last 30 minutes or so to allow it to fully cook on the other side. I’ve used this cooking method with mixed results on these heritage roosters. I’d definitely opt for the cooking liquid, though. A 3-4 pound chicken should take approximately 3 hours to cook using this method, but periodically use your meat thermometer during the last hour or so of baking and pull out immediately when the meatiest parts of the chicken reach 165 to 180 degrees. Make sure that the thermometer doesn’t touch the bone or you will get an incorrect reading. Though it is important not to cook the chicken past 180 degrees for the best flavor, you definitely want to cook it until it reaches at least 165 in order to kill all of the bacteria (particularly salmonella and campylocbacter) that the raw meat may be harboring.

Hens at over a year of age and roosters of any age can be stewed for a delicious treat. If you think that you don’t like stewed chicken meat due to its stringy, flavorless texture, you just weren’t using a good, flavorful, heritage breed, older bird. Try it again and I suspect that you’ll love it. Even the younger roosters have delicious taste and texture that hold up to stewing, but an older bird is best for the broth flavor. These birds, though regularly found at the grocery stores a few short decades ago, are a rare delight since, due to the ability to sex birds fairly accurately at hatching, very few roosters are allowed to live beyond their first day. When cooked slowly using moisture at low temperatures, dinner will taste superb. This meat can then be added back into the stew or drained and used as cooked chicken in casseroles, salads, pies or sandwiches. The most important factor is to keep the temperature of the meat from rising above 175 to 180 degrees or the the meat will be tough no matter how much it is falling off of the bone. While stewing, the broth should never boil, but be kept at a simmer. If steam-baked with a couple of cups of water in the tightly sealed baking pan, the oven temperature should never rise above 325 degrees.

The best broth is made from older, heritage breed chickens. The rich flavor of this strong broth is not only delicious, but very healthy. The other day I made a chicken stew from a roasting aged rooster and, when I refrigerated the leftover soup the entire broth was completely congealed from the rich concentration of gelatin. Typical grocery store chickens, even those that say “naturally raised,” lack the flavor of these delicious pastured, heritage breed chickens. There are, however, a few things to keep in mind when making broth from pastured, heritage breed chickens. First, to protect the flavor of the meat, try not to boil the water but simmer it instead. For the best extraction of gelatin, don’t cook it for much longer than an hour or so, though sometimes I can still retain the gelatin when cooking in a crock pot all night long. Second, the older the bird, the richer will be the flavor. Third, the leftover bones and skin that were cooked using a dry heat method will make an excellent broth for a second purpose. Simply cover the bones with water and simmer for a couple of hours or boil for one hour. Adding a splash of vinegar will help to draw the minerals out of the bones without affecting the flavor. You can also add washed whole vegetables or parts like celery tops or onion skins. The broth will last for over a week in the fridge or for 3-4 months in the freezer. I often save my bones in the freezer until I get enough to make a large batch of broth at a time. Older roosters will probably have a stronger flavor than older hens.

As a general rule, the older a bird is, the slower it should be cooked and the more flavorful it will be. However, I have found that roosters as young as four months old turn out beautifully when using a slow-cooking method. Chefs prefer older, more flavorful birds for making some of the traditionally made recipes such as Coq au vin, but you could try it with younger, pastured, heritage breed birds with surprisingly good results. Happy eating!

Some slow cooked recipes to hunt down to get you started are:
Coq Au Vin (roosters are the traditional bird for this recipe)
Chicken and Dumplings
Stewed Chicken
Chicken Bone Broth - email me for my recipe
Chicken Noodle Soup
Chicken and Rice Soup
Stewed Chicken in Coconut Milk - email me for my recipe

-Trisha

What is a Vegetarian, Free Range Chicken?

8/15/2016

Sometimes I see eggs for sale that are supposedly from free range, vegetarian chickens. Having raised chickens for years, there is absolutely NO WAY that this is possible. How do I know this? Simply because you can't change a chicken into anything other than a chicken. A chicken, by its very nature, is an omnivore. They will happily eat grasses, seeds, bugs, insects, and even reptiles. If your chicken is free-ranging, it will definitely be eating meat. It is impossible for you to stop them, therefore making it impossible for you to raise vegetarian chickens.

A second thing to consider is the fact that, if your chickens are confined and fed vegetarian diets, they will probably require soybeans in their ration. This would be because they need lots of protein, and, if you attempt to restrict their natural inclination to eat bugs and reptiles, you may likely have to resort to feed them soybeans to meet their high protein requirement. Unfortunately, most soybeans are genetically modified, which allows them to be heavily sprayed with Round-Up without killing the plant. This pesticide leaves a residue on the soybeans which are then transferred to the animals that consume them. Also, soybeans contain estrogen compounds, which may be passed on to not only the chicken but to the consumer that eats her eggs. Personally, I avoid soybeans for numerous reasons.

In summation, my family has decided to entirely avoid soybeans for several reasons. We also would never choose to purchase vegetarian-fed chickens/eggs, since this is totally against the nature of the chicken. We believe that all animals should be raised in a humane manner that most closely aligns with their natural created design. Let's all be good stewards of our planet and honor the Lord by purchasing our food from farmers that are trying to do the same.

RAising Pork

8/8/2016

We started our farm in the fall of 2015 by purchasing a few pigs as breeder stock. Having done lots of research on various breeds of pigs, we eventually settled on a smaller breed of pigs - American Guinea Hogs (AGH). The reason for us choosing this breed could be narrowed down to three major points.

1- Because they are a small breed, they are less dangerous for our children and grandchildren, as well as visitors to the farm. Any pig can potentially harm - and even kill - people, but this small breed has a friendly disposition with a size that makes them easier to handle.

2- They tend to graze and eat grass more than they dig and root up pastures. Because we were looking for animals that would primarily eat grass for much or most of their nutritional requirements, we chose the AGH. They are reported to grow well on as little as one cup of grains per day as long as they are managed on fertile, lush, grassy pastures.

3- The size of this hog at butchering age is perfect for small families or people that would like to buy a whole of half hog without filling their entire freezer. When processed at around 6-9 months, these hogs not only win taste tests, but they yield about 75# (hanging weight) of meat and about 50# of meat.

For more information on how you can order your own whole or half hog (or to order individual cuts of pork), contact us through email at [email protected] or call/text at 817-832-6046.

- Trisha

New Pasture for Sheep and Hens

7/20/2016

We've moved both our grass fed sheep and our Brahma chicken flock to graze in a new pasture.

On the right in the back, you can see the chicken ground cages surrounded by electric fence and little white dots that are our birds. They're about four months old and we hope to start getting some eggs by sometime in September or October. It takes a lot of feed and time and to raise a pastured poultry flock until the point of laying.

To the left and in the foreground, you can see our night pen for our sheep. In the very back and middle, the little white dots are our flock of 19 sheep grazing under the trees. You might also notice the blue wading pool in the sheep pen, which is for our LGD pup-in-training to cool off. We use the deep bedding system in the sheep night pen to keep it clean. We also run chickens through it a few times a week. The night pen is fairly simple to take apart and move, so we do that about once every month or two, which helps keep the parasite count low and also gives us some well fertilized areas full of hay that we can later use as gardens or in which we can simply let our hogs root around and clean up.
- Trisha

How Much Do Eggs Cost?

6/29/2016

Dani and Audrey

When my niece (Dani) came to stay with us this spring, she asked us about our eggs that we sell. She was shocked that my $5 per dozen eggs would cost her more than the eggs that she sees in the grocery stores. I briefly described the living conditions of these pathetic laying hens and the poor nutritional quality of their eggs. So, what makes our eggs better than those cheap grocery store or large chain health food store eggs?

First, we mix our own grains as a supplement, rather than a primary source for their feed. We don't feed our chickens soy or corn because both grains are frequently genetically modified and they aren't necessary in a pasture model that supplies a major source of protein from the bugs that they get from the pastures. Further, we add probiotics and increase the mineral content of these grains by fermenting them. Studies show that the nutritional content increases significantly (including the protein) when fermented.

Second, our hens are enclosed in portable ground cages to protect the birds from predators at night, but allowed to graze in large electric fence enclosures throughout the day. The ground cages are moved six days a week and the paddocks are moved several times a month as needed, depending upon the number of birds and the availability of grasses and bugs. In these enclosures, the birds are free to run and chase bugs, frogs, lizards, small snakes, as well as to gobble up tender grasses and legumes.

As an aside, the other day, while out moving 400' of electric fence for a new enclosure, I heard an odd sound. I traced the sound until I spied a hen carrying a large frog. She ran to a private spot in the pasture so that the other hens wouldn't be able to take away her treasure before she could gobble it up. I've also seen them eat mice, small field rats, small snakes and lizards, and grasshoppers, spiders and caterpillars. Note that the enclosure is large enough that the birds can find privacy as well as forage together as a flock.

Third, our hens live totally different lives than factory-farmed hens. Our birds are never de-beaked because we give them plenty of space so that they don't deform each other through pecking. Our hens live under the protection of roosters, which helps them stay safe from predators and provides them a more natural flock. Unlike "cage-free" factory-farmed birds, our birds aren't crammed together in hen houses with little or no room to move around. Unlike "free-range" factory-farmed birds, our birds aren't housed in a large hen house with one tiny door to outside that the hens rarely use.

Fourth, our hens are not fed antibiotics nor hormones since we don't keep them in cramped, unhealthy quarters and we don't want to push them to grow faster or to lay more eggs than they would in a natural setting. Instead, we feed them fermented feed and give them access to a natural setting that allows them to forage for their needed nutrition beyond the supplements that we give them.

For more information to help you make the best choice when buying your eggs, check out some of these links:

Caged vs Free Range vs Pastured Eggs

Maximizing Value with Fermented Feed

Raising Typical Grocery Store Chickens

Are Cage-Free Eggs a Scam?

Paying $7.50 a Dozen For Eggs

How to Store Fresh Eggs

If you'd like to visit our farm and see how we do things here, contact us. We'd love to schedule some time for you.

- Trisha

The View From Our Kitchen Window

2/10/2016

As I look out the window at the end of my kitchen this chilly February in 2016, I see a lovely solid black Thai rooster disappear into our Horse Barn that is currently full of a friend’s rabbits. We are happily caring for them while they deal with a medical crisis in their family. I listen to Finn, our overgrown, woolly dog barking at the small flock of guineas as they cluck their way across the entrance of the Horse Barn. I hear their loud, two-syllable screech as they tell each other which way to go and what amazing object they’ve just discovered either in the sky or on the ground. Some people don’t like the sound of the guineas, but I absolutely love their occasional loud outbursts that can be signaling anything from, “Look out! It’s a hawk that might want to eat us!” to “Oh no, one of us is on the wrong side of the fence and isn’t smart enough to remember that he can fly over it or just simply duck under it to join us! Let’s yell until he figures it out!” to “Look at this amazing snake! Let’s catch him and see what he tastes like!”

Just outside the horse barn I see a cage full of Ivy’s rabbits housed in a ground cage next door to the outside sunning pen for our American Guinea Hogs. About half of our hogs are enjoying the intermittent sun while the other half are lounging in deep bedding hay inside the Horse Barn. About half of the ground in Horse Pasture is bare, and the other half is covered in pasture grasses such as Bermuda and rye. We are slowly planting some of our pastures with native grasses and good grazing grasses, but have left this one much to its own and it shows as the horses’ hooves have worn away much of the grass during the flooding season.

Captain and Lucy, our mixed breed lab “puppies”, are barking at the 8 young heifers that are strolling from the pasture and occasionally stopping to rub on a tree or nibble some bright green rye grass. They are making their way slowly to their hay bale near the Horse Barn where they spend several hours each day. I wish that I could say that these cows were ours, but we are leasing 15 acres to an elder from our church to run his cattle while we save our pennies to hopefully buy our own heifers someday soon.

One of our cats, Commander, a very friendly white male cat with a few large orange spots, meanders across the field heading from the Horse Barn to the Tractor Barn. Our four cats are doing an excellent job on rodent patrol, but we are hoping for kittens sometime in the near future so that they can have help with the mouse and rat buffet.

Far in the distance, I can see our two horses, Misty and Reba, with their heads buried in the grass grazing in a back field near a patch of woods that they’ve done a lovely job clearing out of underbrush and making some lovely walking paths for us.

Catching my attention just off of the back deck is a ground cage full of little Thai chicks and their Mother Hen, enjoying their small patch of new grass that changes daily as we move the pen across our yard. Much of the grass in the back yard is dormant, but there is still a plentiful amount of green grasses, despite the fact that this is February. The raggedy-looking, half-feathered chicks are fun to watch as they learn to hop onto perches and to jump down and scratch the ground for food. The uneaten seeds that the chicks leave in a trail behind their moveable ground cage is in various stages of sprouting, leaving the promise of quite a few sunflower seeds and clover grasses growing this spring and summer unless we decide to mow them down. They never leave any of the earthworms or mealworms behind, happily and loudly chirping as they gobble the daily buffet of worms up within minutes. These chicks will soon be added to our small flock of free range Thai game birds. We gather some of their eggs to eat, but very willingly let them hatch a clutch when they’d like. Raising them mostly for meat and for their ability to forage well and evade predators, once they are fully feathered we let them free range until butchering time, keeping the hens so that we can build their flock.

Behind our garage and just out of my sight, I know that our 22 laying hens and 6 roosters are happily searching for grasses and bugs in their electric fence that we just moved to a new patch of ground out in one of the large pastures.

There is a lot of activity going on at our farm and I am so happy with the fact that our freezer is full of chicken and pork that we raised on our farm and that we have a nice stack of full cartons of eggs from our hens. I am so thankful to God that our little farm is starting to grow and produce and that our efforts are being multiplied. Lord willing, we will continue to grow this next year and the view out my kitchen window will be even busier next winter.

- Trisha

The Authors

We are a family farm. Four of us live here, but some of our grown kids and grandkids help out a lot, also. You never know who wrote the posts, so look for the signature. We are all definitely unique personalities, so you may eventually be able to guess on some of our posts.

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