Soy-Free Pastured Poultry

Our soy-free chicken is no longer available at this time. After trying to find the right balance for a soy-free diet that meets all of the chickens dietary needs, we have decided what we were trying to do no longer made sense for us. Our chickens are fed a certified organic feed from a local farm, that does use whole toasted soybeans for the protein. We have tried soy-free options with our birds but decided the cost for alternatives that were not "better" didn't make sense to us. The chickens didn't get as healthy, and the protein options that were substituted were the same, or higher in PUFA's (polyunsaturated fatty acids), which is the thing that people are trying to avoid (maybe unrealistically). We're also trying to keep things as close to home as possible, and all of the soy-free protein options needed to be trucked across the country to get here. Like fish meal, for instance. However, our feed does not use any seed oils since the whole soybean is kept in tact, the way nature intended it to be. Our egg laying hens and pigs are fed a soy-free version of this feed because their protein needs are very different and we are able to leverage our extra raw milk to fill in the gaps. Corn and soy free doesn't necesarrily mean the feed is healthier for the birds, or us. Much of this is a marketing scheme, and even we fell for it for a time. We aren't willing to put the health of our flock at risk for a trend that actually doesn't have concrete evidence that it's more beneficial. Or our prices sky high. However, if we find another way that makes sense for the animals and our customers, we are willing to try again at that time.