Our Sustainable & Regenerative Practices
Hello! Welcome! We would love to tell you about our mobile pastured eggs and management practices, and hopefully, we can provide you with clear answers to your questions so you can feed your family safe, nutritious food.
Our eggs here at Homestead Produce in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, are a continuation of our commitment to getting back to nutrient-dense food. We use a locally milled feed that contains no GMOs, no corn, and no soy, using grains grown on local farms. Our feed is not currently Organic, but the pastures our hens live on are organically managed.
We do not medicate our birds except in the case of illness, and never allow any mRNA vaccines. Our focus is rather on providing a complete ration and healthy pastures to build healthy birds with strong natural immunity. This level of health is accomplished by housing our hens in mobile coops and keeping them moving on fresh pastures.
Using mobile chicken houses, and moving them regularly, is the most sustainable way to farm eggs for the following reasons:
The grass is only grazed for a couple of days before the flock moves to the next location.
Chicken manure is easily composted because it does not build up in one location.
The land and grass do not have time to be matted down or destroyed.
The critter population (worms, bugs, insects, etc.) is not wiped out and has time to reproduce and repopulate.
Why do we choose "mobile pastured" as a preferred method for raising chickens and eggs?
Mobile Pastured gives the chickens access to fresh organic matter to forage from the ground. The more organic matter the chickens have, the healthier they are!
Mobile Pastured keeps the ground and grass from becoming too packed down or trampled. Moving the chickens to another spot allows the soil to continue producing grass and organic matter without becoming barren.
Mobile Pastured allows a healthy number of bugs, worms, and insects to remain in the soil. Instead of the chickens killing off most of the insect and worm population, these critters have a chance to reproduce and maintain a healthy population.
Mobile Pastured is regenerative and produces healthier soil and grass. Not only does regular movement sustain the grass, but it also spreads out the chicken manure and allows the soil to compost it quickly. That way an excess of chicken manure doesn't harm the grass.
How Is "Mobile-Pastured" Different from "Pasture-Raised"?
Looking at the definitions in the previous section, we see the definitions for mobile-pastured and pasture-raised are similar, but they are not quite the same. So what are the differences?
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Pasture-raised eggs can come from a stationary chicken house set in a field. Mobile-pastured eggs, on the other hand, require us to move the chicken house to new locations regularly.
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This includes grass and natural food such as worms, bugs, and other critters. Hens follow the mobile chicken house, and this naturally provides them with fresh grass and natural feed.
Mobile-pastured hens still eat standard chicken feed, especially during the winter months when organic matter is low. However, the fresh organic matter around them allows the hens to eat plenty of natural food resulting in healthier chickens and eggs. Foraging for food is a natural, healthy behavior for hens to perform. Pasture-raised hens, often stay relatively close to their stationary chicken house. As a result, the ground around the house can quickly become flattened, packed, and stripped of organic matter. This means pasture-raised hens will often have a diet completely made of standard chicken feed.
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Instead of the hens creating large bare patches around a stationary house, the regular movement allows the grass and organic matter to grow naturally, insects to reproduce quickly, and the chicken manure to compost easily.
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Even if the same feed is used in the chicken house, mobile-pastured hens are healthier because of the organic matter and critters they eat. Mobile-pastured hens also exercise more, which helps their health.
Are there Disadvantages of Mobile-Pastured Eggs?
Even though mobile pastured-raised egg operations have multiple advantages and better methods than other egg operations, they do have a set of negative factors as well, like most things.
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Because the mobile chicken houses are regularly moved to protect the land, it naturally means we use more land.
There is no way to get around it - unlike most commercial egg operations, we cannot simply build a bigger stationary chicken house to expand your mobile-pastured operation. We need access to more land!
A counterbalance advantage to this disadvantage is Mobile chicken houses are mobile and this makes it easier to source options of renting land from neighbors. When the chickens go into the coop to roost at night we can pull the coop a couple miles down the road with very little disturbance to the hens.
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Regular movement of the mobile chicken houses also means we spend more labor on the operation. While we have the standard amount of time to gather the eggs, we also figure extra time to move the mobile chicken houses.
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This disadvantage applies to any operation where the chickens are outside. Chickens are defenseless creatures, and almost any predator would snap one up given the chance. We reduce predator threats by using fences and netting, currently, our biggest threat is owls, hawks, & eagles.
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This may seem a bit strange. After all, if our operation is sustainable and the hens are extra healthy, shouldn’t they be laying more eggs instead of fewer?
The answer lies in the nature of chickens.
Hens’ laying cycles are tied to weather and daylight patterns. In stationary chicken houses, the lighting systems are automated, and the temperature is kept constant. These factors ensure the hens lay the maximum number of eggs.
With our mobile-pastured eggs, however, the hens are exposed to natural temperatures, seasons, and lighting. While our mobile chicken houses do have a "night light", the hens are still highly affected by the outdoors.
Sadly, this factor of mobile-pastured hens producing fewer eggs is a significant reason why many commercial egg operations stay with the standard large, stationary chicken houses, even if the eggs and chickens are not as healthy.
Egg Terms & What They Mean!
These terms are regulated by the USDA, and here is how some egg operations use these technical definitions to their advantage.
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To be considered cage-free, laying hens simply need “a building, room, or enclosed area that allows for unlimited access to food, water, and provides the freedom to roam…”
Cage-free hens are kept inside, not outside! They also only need 1.5 square feet per hen, which is pretty crowded!
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As the name indicates, free-range chickens are allowed continuous access to the outdoors. However, they only need 2 square feet of outdoor space per hen, so it is still very crowded!
Also, just because they have access to the outside does not mean the hens take advantage of it. Since the ground is usually packed and trampled without organic matter, many of the hens remain indoors anyway, even though they do have access to a run.
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To be considered pasture-raised chickens, there must be 108 square feet of outdoor space per bird.
This is fantastic because it means the chickens have access to a lot of outdoor room to run around. However, like free-range chickens, the problem is the hens do not always take advantage of the space. Instead, many of them choose to remain close to the stationary chicken house where the ground is packed, and the organic matter is not as plentiful.
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We provide "Mobile-pastured eggs" and this term is new to the scene and not yet defined by the USDA.
Similar to pasture-raised chickens and eggs, We give our laying hens large amounts of open area and grass in which to feed and roam.
With mobile-pastured, however, We are also intentional in regularly moving the chicken houses to different areas so the hens can take full advantage of the space, fresh grass, and critters.
