Why is fresh pastured chicken only available seasonally?
We are blessed to have four good seasons. In the northern hemisphere the shortest days of the year occur late in December. During January, chickens raised outside react to lengthening daylight by starting up their reproductive cycles in anticipation of the season to come. By February they are laying fertile eggs which begin hatching in March, right in time for the first green grass of spring. From the living earth, grasshoppers, crickets, earthworms and myriad other organisms emerge to brighten the table of the hen and her chicks. The chickens scratch the sod and move on, leaving behind a rich natural fertilizer which is immediately taken up by growing vegetation. As springtime advances the chicks continue to grow with the earliest hatches reaching market weight just as summer arrives. In the warm months we have long days and weather amenable to harvesting and processing this natural abundance. This is the time for us to be stocking up for winter!
We are blessed to have four good seasons. In the northern hemisphere the shortest days of the year occur late in December. During January, chickens raised outside react to lengthening daylight by starting up their reproductive cycles in anticipation of the season to come. By February they are laying fertile eggs which begin hatching in March, right in time for the first green grass of spring. From the living earth, grasshoppers, crickets, earthworms and myriad other organisms emerge to brighten the table of the hen and her chicks. The chickens scratch the sod and move on, leaving behind a rich natural fertilizer which is immediately taken up by growing vegetation. As springtime advances the chicks continue to grow with the earliest hatches reaching market weight just as summer arrives. In the warm months we have long days and weather amenable to harvesting and processing this natural abundance. This is the time for us to be stocking up for winter! If we were to try to buck nature by gr
