It Takes a Tough Man to Raise a Tender Chicken

These are some very happy broilers. They're laying down,
and roosting a little, which is a telltale sign that they're
super comfortable in their barn! 

I grew up on a chicken farm. We have raised broilers since my existence came to be. I have spent countless hours in the barn as a little girl "helping" my dad. Then, as I got older, I actually did turn into being quite a good farmhand. It's what I grew up knowing, so the aspects of raising up healthy, good chickens seems simple to me. For everyone on the outside looking in, it doesn't seem that simple! Each cycle of birds involves a lot of care, and between each cycle involves a lot of meticulous clean up. Then you set up and do it all over again!

All broilers (the meat producing chickens) are given free access
to feed and water. They get to roam around their spacious barns all
day, doing as they please, eating when they want and enjoying cool,
fresh water whenever they desire. 

Sometimes, it was tough or scary. During the harsh winters, its hard to keep the barn warm and keep the little chickens up to temperature. During the heat of the summer, it's hard to keep the large birds towards the end of the cycle cool and drinking. There have been close calls where we have almost lost flocks of birds. That would be devastating to our livelihood. I remember summer days spent walking through the barns every 20 minutes to a half an hour to keep the birds up, drinking and alive. I also remember cold, cold, cold winter days of pushing snow away from the barn to keep it from puddling too close to it as it thawed out. (By the way, snow days create a lot of work for farmers! A simple 15 minute job during good weather can turn into an hour or two long job in the snow!)

A water line. Chickens love to peck at things, especially shiny things.
So when they see the shine of the droplets of water on the end of a water
nipple, they can't resist it one bit! That's how they get their water. 

Here are some facts about chicken farming in Canada:

• For starters, Canada benefits greatly from the economic activity generated by its chicken farms
• Ontario is the largest producer and processor of chicken in the country. One third of all Canadian chickens are grown there. 
• Chicken farmers have an awesome, well thought out biosecurity program in place that makes our chicken products safe, nutritious and competitively priced.
• In 2009, the average chicken farm produced 364,819 million kilograms of chicken meat. That's a lot to feed this nation! 
• In 2009, retail purchases accounted for around 659 million kilograms of chicken. This represents over half (63%) of Canada's total chicken consumption. 22.6% was consumed via fast food restaurants, 9.4% in full service restaurants, and 5.1% was consumed while in hotels or institutions
• In 2009, Canada exported over 5.7 million chicks worth over $13 million to 26 countries, with the United States being the primary market! Everybody loves a Canadian Chicken! 

Those are some pretty awesome facts for us Canadians! (And we should be proud of it!) Another thing that most Canadians unfortunately aren't aware of (but should be about the chicken they consume) is that: 


If the chicken is grown in Canada, and the label on the packaging states that it is Canadian chicken, it's 100% hormone and antibiotic free! 

That's right, all Canadian chicken is 100% all natural, so you don't have to pay an arm and a leg for  "organic" chicken at your favourite grocery place! Thank you to Canada's awesome chicken farmers for keeping our chickens healthy and natural for us!


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