Chickens: Ready...Set...

We are now getting ready to dive into the hobby of chicken farming!  That's right...the Wheelers are going to be farmers (of some sort)!

When we got married ten years ago, we never would have guessed we'd be raising our family in this small rural town with a passion growing inside us for pasture raised poultry.  We were both city kids, tried and true.  All the conveniences of the big city had us saying "We could never live in the country"!

As our family has grown and changed, so have our desires.  Once the Lord called us to this little city, we quickly began to long for a home in the country, so we moved out from the city limits to a 5 acre "fix-me-up" farm outside of town.    

Here we are...and we are absolutely loving it!  Let me tell you, the simple life is quite addicting!  Watching my boys work along side their dad and seeing our whole family involved in projects is such a sweet blessing!

As we have worked, studied and prepared to be chicken farmers, the kids have been included in it all and they are just as excited as we are!

Our passion for pasture raised poultry began with a simple goal: to feed our family better food.  For over a year and a half we read and studied about how to produce our own healthy, organic food.  Chickens seemed like the easiest "meat" to start with so we began reading what the expert in raising quality chicken had to say!  Joel Salatins methods have been a HUGE inspiration and guide on our journey!

So with his plans in hand, we got started this weekend!

We are using special pens that we have constructed ourselves.  These pens allow for mobility, as we will move our chickens to fresh grass every day, which will also mean new insects and seeds in their crisp "salad bar".  The pens also provide the perfect balanced temperature for the heat of our mid-west days and the cool of the night.

We will even be butchering the chickens ourselves, on site, following Salatins technique. Butchering on site guarantees that our methods remain humane and clean as we strive from beginning to end to gain the healthiest chicken possible.

So the construction has begun!!  Stay tuned for (what I'm sure will be) our crazy adventure with all it's failures and successes!