Chickens: Raising Broilers from Start to Finish

In this episode of Mother Earth News and Friends, Phil Holman-Hebert of Sweetlove Farm talks with us all about raising broiler chickens, including what defines a broiler, things to think about when buying your first broilers, how to care for your flock to ensure healthy birds and high-quality meat, and so much more. Raise broiler chickens from start to finish with these best practices for all broiler chicken breeds.

Phil Holman-Hebert was born in Chicago and raised in Salina, Kansas, from age 3. He’s a fourth-generation Kansan on both sides of his paternal ancestry. Phil went away to Kenyon College in Ohio for undergraduate study, where he had an epiphany that being a farmer seemed like the best way to try to live out the values of stewardship, family, food, community, and peacefulness that formed the cornerstone of his experience growing up. After graduating in 1992, he married his high school sweetheart, Sally Holman, in 1993, and they spent the next 20 years together working toward buying a farm back in Kansas, which we they just west of Oskaloosa in 2002. Inspired by the work of Joel Salatin, Greg Judy, Jim Gerrish, Allan Nation, and the Stockman Grass Farmer magazine to dive into management intensive, grass-based farming, they started with 25 chickens in 2005. Since then, they’ve raised broilers, layers, turkeys, Katahdin sheep, and Dexter cattle at various times — along with four children — and are currently focused on raising a laying flock and about 4,000 broilers per year on pasture, while raising capital to grow and expand their operation to reintroduce those other species back into the work of restoring the fertility of their 63-acre Sweetlove Farm.

Thank you to Metzer Farms for sponsoring this episode!

Learn more about Sweetlove Farm on their website.