I've visited a "free-range"
> facility, and it was nothing more than a big building filled with birds
> crowded wing-to-wing -- filthy, with air choking with dust and
> ammonia, with no source of water except a trough filled with a grey
> sludge of fecal-contaminated water. That was what turned me from
> vegetarian to vegan.
>
> Rat

We raise chickens on our farm. They are truely "free range" They are penned
at night in a portable coop for their own protection. Early in the morning
the door to the coop is opened and the chicken spend the day wandering about
the pasture eating bugs, seeds and digging through the cow manure for any
grain that passed through the cows. Each night after the birds are locked up
the portable pen is moved to a new pasture. The chickens follow the cows two
or three days behind in the pasture rotation. This is similar to the natural
cycle of wild birds following large herds. As an added benifit the chickens
almost eliminate any fly problems for the cows by scratching through the cow
pies and eliminating a place for the fly larva to grow.
We keep a couple roosters with the hens. Every spring we have several
batches of chicks. Whatever roosters are left in the fall that we don't need
we eat.

Kala Thompson
Farmer
Richland Center, Wi




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