Walk into any grocery store and you'll see labels like "free-range," "cage-free," and "naturally raised" on chicken packaging. These labels sound good. Most of them mean almost nothing. Here's what pastured poultry actually looks like — and why the distinction matters for the chicken your family eats.
What "Free-Range" Actually Requires
The USDA defines "free-range" as poultry that has been "allowed access to the outside." That's the entire requirement. There's no minimum amount of time outside. There's no minimum space per bird. There's no requirement that the birds actually go outside — just that a door exists.
In practice, a free-range operation can look like this: 20,000 birds packed into a long confinement house with a small door at one end that opens to a concrete pad. The birds closest to the door might wander out occasionally. The thousands of birds packed toward the back of the building never will. That operation can legally label its chicken "free-range."
"Cage-free" is even less meaningful. It just means the birds aren't in individual cages — they can still be packed shoulder to shoulder in a building with no outdoor access at all. These labels exist to make consumers feel better, not to describe how the birds actually live.
How Our Pastured System Works
Our chickens live in mobile shelters — bottomless pens that sit directly on the grass. The birds have full contact with the ground underneath them. They scratch in the dirt, eat bugs and grass and clover, and do what chickens naturally do when they have access to actual pasture.
Every day, we move those shelters to fresh ground. Every single day. Yesterday's spot gets a rest — the manure left behind fertilizes the pasture, and the grass grows back thicker. Today's spot gives the birds a completely fresh salad bar of forage, insects, and clean ground to explore.
This is the poultry version of the rotational grazing we practice with our cattle. Move the animals. Rest the land. Let biology do its work.
Why Daily Moves Matter
Moving shelters every day isn't just about fresh grass — it's about sanitation. Chickens that sit on the same ground for days or weeks are living in their own waste. Ammonia builds up. Parasite loads increase. Disease pressure rises. That's when conventional operations turn to medications and chemical interventions to keep birds alive.
When you move to fresh ground daily, those problems don't develop in the first place. Our birds are healthy because their living conditions are clean, not because they've been medicated. The daily move is more labor for us, but it means healthier birds without chemical inputs.
Sunshine and Open Air
Our shelters are designed to provide shade and protection from predators while keeping the birds in open air with natural sunlight. This isn't a marketing detail — it's a health issue. Sunlight is a natural sanitizer. It kills pathogens that thrive in the dark, enclosed environments of confinement houses. Fresh air prevents the respiratory issues that plague birds in commercial operations where ammonia from accumulated waste fills sealed buildings.
A chicken that lives in sunshine and fresh air, on clean grass, eating a natural diet of forage supplemented with certified organic, soy-free feed, is a fundamentally different animal than one raised under fluorescent lights in a confinement house. You can see the difference when you look at the bird. You can taste the difference when you cook it.
What Confinement Chicken Looks Like
The chicken at your grocery store was almost certainly raised in a confinement house. Tens of thousands of birds in a single building, growing from hatchling to slaughter weight in roughly 6 to 8 weeks. Commercial broiler breeds have been selected for such extreme growth speed that many develop leg problems because their bodies grow faster than their skeletal structure can support.
These birds never go outside. They never see sunlight. They never eat a bug or scratch in dirt. Their entire existence is an enclosed building, processed feed, and artificial lighting designed to maximize eating and growth. The result is a cheap, abundant product — but calling it "chicken" in the same breath as a pastured bird raised on grass is misleading.
What You Get
Our pastured chicken is processed fresh and vacuum sealed for your freezer. We offer whole birds, spatchcock cut, and cut-up options. Every bird was raised on '-cide free pastures — no insecticides, herbicides, or fungicides on the ground they lived on.
If the labels at the grocery store have left you unsure about what you're actually buying, we'd love to show you the difference. Visit the ranch during chicken season and watch the daily move yourself. That's transparency no label can match.