Pastured poultry

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Radio interview source: Merrill Marxman, manager, Kankakee County (Illinois) Farmers' Market

We let chickens run around the yard during the day and put them in a coop at night. The chickens are quite content, pecking away at bugs and grasses whenever they please.

Merrill Marxman has pastured poultry, and says most producers who raise them this way keep their birds outside in a movable shelter. They move it every day, keeping the birds on fresh-growing vegetation. Another option is surrounding them with electrified poultry netting.

"The fencing isn't necessarily required to keep the chickens in; it's necessary and required to keep the two-legged and four-legged predators out."

Chickens will not range more than a few hundred feet away from their security or their feed and water. So you can get by with a 150-foot roll of poultry netting and satisfy the need for fencing.