About five years ago I got a call from a State Poultry Veterinarian. He wanted to come and see what we are doing. We are inspected by the California Department of Food and Ag, so I wondered what was up? As it turned out, Dr Pitesky said on seeing our chickens in the field that they were the healthiest chickens he had seen in a long time! I was expecting trouble, and here was a poultry specialist liking what we do. From that day on we have kept in touch. In the last couple of years we have worked together with other farmers on a pastured poultry project at UC Davis where he now lectures. The team of students working on this project includes those from poultry science and engineering. The engineers are seen in the photo above with the house that they built. It has been slow to get off of the ground but now they have a house, some land on campus, and chickens.
Dr Pitesky now is ready to address the challenges that farms like ours have with chickens that live out doors. All the research is done on birds that live 25,000+ in a climate controlled warehouse where they do not know if it is winter and 25F or summer and 105F.
It is a credit to UC Davis and Dr Pitesky that they are taking on this important work that will benefit small farms such as ours.