Hugh set up a barn with 2 sides, one is for barn chickens and the other for free range and is running both sides to industry standards. The barn chickens never ever see daylight, a typical shed holds 40,000 birds with the space of an A4 piece of paper per bird, lights can be on for as long as 23 hours per day - read more on the Chicken Out website. Free range live in a similar barn but are able to venture outside to sun and fresh air, they are able to live happy chicken lives scratching in soil. Barn chickens grow very quickly due to being able to feed constantly - all they can do is eat, sleep and poop - the barn smells terrible because of that, if they aren't eating they just sit in their own filth. Free range chickens have a natural growth, taking twice as long to reach size and subsequently cost more to raise which is why they cost more in the stores.
The show has made both my husband and I think about our chicken eating, no longer will we be buying cheap chickens that have no explaination on the package as to how they were raised. Usually we don't buy fresh chicken, it seemed easier to buy ready cooked but no longer wil we be doing that either.
David bought our first fresh chicken in ages last week, he told me it was the only chicken that had anything about it's raising on the package, problem was that it came from the wrong side of the shed. I will admit it was a delicious plump bird and I was able to make it stretch for 3 meals. First was a roast dinner for 4 people, a similar meal again for 4 was made by heating the meat up in gravy and then I made stock from the carcass. Used the stock and remaining meat to make a Chicken and Vegetable Soup that made 4 servings. The chicken cost just over $10, which is what we pay for a much smaller cooked one, we usually get 2 because they don't have much meat on them.
A couple of days later I found an organic free range chicken at another supermarket for around the same price, it's a smaller bird which only will do one meal plus soup. I was so happy to find it that we have had chicken meals 4 times this week, from now on all our chicken will be free range and home cooked.
I just noticed that Hugh is a whole 8 days older than I am.
1 comment:
Hi Cheryl, I also have been watching Hugh with his chicken experiment, he is always informative and straight to the point. It was interesting that nobody from any of the big supermarkets or agencies selling these poor barn raised chickens would talk or meet with him. I love watching Hugh on his River Cottage shows, he has opened my eyes to many things. Thanks for sharing it was a great post :)
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