On Marin Sun Farms we raise all of our chickens on pasture. We believe that animals raised in fresh air and sunshine with room to roam produce the highest quality, best tasting eggs and meat.

The Environment
Our chickens spend their days outdoors in grassy pastures. At dusk, they move into portable chicken houses located right in the fields. These movable coops contain egg boxes lined with bedding, an elevated floor and a roost. We move their coops every day, so they always have access to fresh pasture. This farming method provides our chickens with the necessary shelter while allowing them the freedom to move about and forage for food.

The Diet
Our chickens harvest a wide variety of plants and insects, from the pasture. We supplement their diet with a mixture of organic grains, minerals, and meat scraps from our butcher shop. We never add any chemicals, hormones or antibiotics to their feed.

The Chickens

Pasture Raised Range Hens & Roosters
Our coups are a 12 ft X 24 ft portable hoop house and the laying hens and roosters free range from it, eating bugs and scratching through cattle droppings to sanitize the pasture just like birds in nature that always follow herbivores as biological cleansers. While spreading out the dung piles in search of insect larva, our chickens assist in more quickly re-assimilating the nutrients back into the soil, while at the same time ingesting high quality proteinaceous larva that would otherwise mature into pesky livestock flies. Our birds also convert their food into rich nitrogen fertilizer that is deposited directly onto, and metabolized by our pastures. We keep layers and roosters for up to two production years. At that point, the hens don't lay enough eggs to be economical and we dress these old birds along with their roosters. Although they are tougher than the young broilers, the taste is incomparably superior and the broth is exquisite. These must be slow cooked in order to be tender.

Pasture Raised Broilers
We use 12 ft X 12 ft X 2.5 ft high floorless, portable field shelters housing about 75 birds each to grow these 7-week meat birds. Moved daily to a fresh pasture paddock, these birds receive fresh air, exercise, sunshine, and all the certified organic grain they want. Integrating the cows to mow ahead of the shelters shortens the grass and encourages ingestion of tender, fresh shoots of grass. We want every animal to eat as much green material as its full genetic potential will allow.

Our chickens are never de-beaked and are anti-biotic free. The following breeds have frequented our pastures:

The Eggs
We believe that our eggs are simply the finest available on the market. You will notice the rich and deep orange color in the yolks and the firmness of the whites. Recent scientific studies comparing pasture based eggs to confinement eggs (including certified organic), have shown more naturally balanced levels of vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, and cholesterols.

Organic...?
We support and utilize organic farming methods but choose to not certify with the federal government. We use no herbicides or pesticides on our pastures. All of our chicken feed is organic and non-GMO. We are deeply committed to raising our chickens in a way that is environmentally beneficial and produces healthy food.

Supply Chain

MSF Chickens are currently raised on the Historic H Ranch within the Point Reyes National Seashore. Chickens are raised on pasture and are free to roam. Aside from what they eat off the pasture (bugs, insects, larva, seeds, grass, etc.), they are provided a certified organic grain, certified organic mineral mix, oyster shell, meat scraps from our butcher shop, and fresh spring water. The eggs and chickens are processed on farm and packaged for immediate sale. It takes 4 days or less to get the eggs to the market. The chickens are processed on farm under the State of California's 20,000 bird exemption, packaged, and delivered to the market within 3 days.

Le Butchery (how to butcher a chicken)