Are they "Free Range"?
The term "free range" is one of the most misunderstood labels in our industry.  The notion that chickens would be free to roam around a farmyard has somehow become associated with good quality chicken and keeping the birds happy in their natural and preferred environment.  As outlined some time ago in the Brumbell Commision Report, the authorative document for animal welfare activists around the world, there are 5 freedoms to be respected:

• Freedom from thirst, hunger and malnutrition
• Freedom from discomfort
• Freedom from pain, injury and disease
• Freedom to express most normal behavior
• Freedom from fear and distress

Allowing a helpless chicken to roam around outdoors, with the amount of inclement weather in our area and their vulnerability to many natural predators (cats, dogs, coyotes, raccoons, etc) and to diseases which are mostly spread through rodents, bugs or infected feces from wild animals, would be much worse for the birds.

Chickens are omnivorous, which means that they will eat just about anything. Left free to roam, this would entail plant material, insects, small amphibians and crustaceans, small rodents and other small mammals. They are also cannibals and, given the chance, often eat other dead animals. The best solution is to have large, spacious barns that provide a clean and safe environment for the birds.  This allows for their comfort and ensures "bio security" to protect them from getting ill.

Are they "Organic"?
Just as with Natural or Specialty chickens, Organic chickens are fed a vegetarian diet.  The only difference is that the grain that is fed to the chickens is supposedly not sprayed with any herbicides, pesticides or fungicides in its production.   The difficulty with this designation, with the multitude of grain growers from many far and remote areas, it is nearly impossible to verify with certainty that no sprays were ever used.  It is also well documented that these sprays are not found in the resulting feed or chickens that eat normal grains.

Why do they cost more than regular chicken?
The main factor that attributes to the higher cost of specialty chickens is the ingredients used, the amount necessary to grow a healthy sized bird and their availablity and supply.   In Western Canada, our most redily available source of protein is meat meal.  Most regular broiler feed formulas today incorporate some animal by-products, such as meat meal, and also animal fats to provide energy. They are used because they are very economical sources of nutrients, they are available in abundance and without them the cost of the feed increases substantially.

With our specialty chicken which is fed an all-vegetable diet this is not an option so we need to use other sources of protein, such as soybeans, which are not produced locally.   Over 65% of the cost of raising a chicken is due to the feed and if the feed ingredients cost more, so does the chicken.

What does the chicken consider "Natural"?
The availability of "Natural", "Specialty", and "All-Vegetable" grown chicken is the result of a growing demand by people that are uncomfortable with any form of animal by-products being used in chicken feeds.   As for the chicken, it has been proven that they are less concerned about feed ingredients than they are about obtaining the correct supply of nutrients each day.

Given an almost unlimited choice of different feed ingredients to choose from such as corn, fish, mineral supplements, grains and meat, the chickens, left to their own desires, selectively ate from various feeders so that at the end of the day their intake of nutrients (energy, amino acids, etc.) were very similar to what is found in today's ration of chick starter feed.  What enables them to balance their own diet is not yet known but it relates to their inherent ability to monitor these nutrient levels in the bloodstream.  This incredible self-monitoring system would give them a great advantage in the wild allowing them to balance their diets according to whatever feed ingredients are available.