freedom rangers. photo by Harvey Ussery.

Homestead Pastured Poultry

The most common reason for raising pasture raised chicken, turkey, and eggs  is to provide nutrient dense food and food freedom for your family in ways that can help to regenerate the land. A majority of the homesteaders never aspire to more than feeding their family and their land; however, many of today's largest APPPA producers started at a family scale of production that could sometimes be measured by dozens or maybe hundreds of birds a year, and they grew that production into a profitable farm business. 

APPPA is not synonymous with "large scale" pastured poultry. We've been giving the pastured poultry community a space to share innovations, grow in knowledge, and succeed since 1997. The idea of what makes a pastured poultry flock large has changed dramatically since that time. Today's homesteader producing 300 meat chickens a year was a common scale for profit seeking farmers as little as 15 or 20  years ago. 

Whether your goal is family or family and profit, the APPPA community has been at the forefront of what it means to raise birds on pasture. 

Learn with APPPA

APPPA provides several learning activities throughout the year - printed newsletters, online discussion, Live Q&A, and annual conferences. 




Resources for Homestead Pastured Poultry

Click the image to see the scientific research on the nutrition of pasture raised eggs and chicken.

Feeding and Nutrition for Pastured Poultry

This playlist of videos for feeding meat birds (broilers), layers, and turkeys was recorded in 2020 for a short course with Mother Earth News. Alyssa Walsh (formerly with Fertrell) provided the teaching for these video. Alyssa also discusses the management and prevention of runts. 

Basic Brooder Design for Pastured Poultry Farmers

Dave Shields and David Hale share their experiences on setting up and managing a brooder. Topics include ventilation, sizing, construction, human comfort, and much more. This training was presented at the 2021 Pastured Poultry Conference hosted by APPPA.


Breeding Poultry

Check out this playlist of chicken breeding videos presented by APPPA members. Topics include breeding for profit, breeder selection, strategies, breeding for egg color, nutrition, incubation, and more. APPPA members receive additional access to two introductory heritage poultry breeding courses - that's 11 more videos.

American Pastured Poultry Producers Association
PO Box 85
Hughesville, PA 17737 USA


888-662-7772
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