How to Raise Organic Chickens
If you have a yard with grass, raising a few organic chickens for eggs or meat is not really a very complicated matter. And as long as you sell less than $5,000 a year worth of organic chickens, there is little in the way of regulations that you need to be concerned with. If you sell more than $5,000 worth of organic chickens each year, your efforts will be regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). One of the problems with raising "organic" chickens is that there has been no hard-and-fast definition of what constitutes organic. However, there are some regulations which you can follow in order to raise healthy (and happy) birds.
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Instructions
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Purchase any variety of chicken you wish. To be considered truly organic, each chick must be raised organically from the first day after they are hatched, regardless of breed.
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Raise your chickens on a green yard, allowing them to find insects and seeds on their own. Organic chickens must have access to "greens," whether those greens are an actual lawn or are provided by you as sprouts (newly sprouted seeds with part of the seed ball still attached to the root). While small grass or straw-filled boxes may be set out for egg laying, be aware that if you allow your organic chickens to roam free you will need to hunt for eggs every morning. Clean water must be provided for your birds, although there are no watering requirements specific for organic chickens other than that the water contain no antibiotics.
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Provide each bird with a minimum of 2 square feet in which to move and eat. In other words, if you have 10 organic chickens they must be kept in an area that is a minimum of 20 square feet
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Feed your organic chickens only grains that are certified to be free of pesticides. You may not feed your organic chickens any feed with antibiotics or any feed with meat by-products.
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Tips & Warnings
Organic chickens take longer to grow and mature than chickens raised on antibiotics and meat by-products--but the texture and flavor of organic chicken is considered far superior by the majority of people.
