How to decide how many birds to reserve.
Be conservative until you have given this a try.
First: To decide how many to get, start by allocating one chicken per adult or adult unit in your family per month.
An adult unit is where you decide what portion of an adult your children are. For example, you may have an active 10 year old and an active 13 year old. Generally, if you combined them, they will equal one adult. However, you may have an active 16 year old that eats the equivalent of two adults. If in doubt, start conservatively.
Second: What will the extra birds be stored in? If you only have your home refrigerator/freezer then that will be a limiting factor.
Kitchen refrigerator/freezers are awful, long term storage devices. In addition, that extra refrigerator you a have in the garage is also a poor option for long term storage. You must have a chest-type freezer for long-term storage and to take advantage of our seasonal offerings. Click here for an excellent freezer buying guide.
Keep in mind that we only do birds seven months each season (April thru October). You must start thinking ahead now to have these delicious birds over the winter. We find new folks wait until the last minute and try to up their order in October (the last month of the season) to stock up. We can only raise a certain number of birds each month. Once that number has been reached, then that month will be closed out. September and October are first months to close out.
Remember start conservatively. You will better be able to determine your needs by running out, than by having extras when the next buying time arrives.
Finally, the fact that we do not operate a store and that your order is a commitment either gets by people or they ignore it. If you do not pickup birds that you reserved, then we lose all the investment we have in that bird. This is just like stealing from us. Stealing is immoral no matter what label you put on it.
Frequently asked questions and comments:
Why are these birds so expensive? Compared to what? The real questions is why are the birds at the store so cheap? One of the concepts that seem to get by most folks is that food sells for exactly what it is worth. We spare no expense to make sure that your chickens are the best money can buy. What chickens sell for anywhere else is simply not relevant. If only the best is good enough for you and your family then these birds are cheap. Let’s use an example: If you bought a rust old junker for $200, would you expect to pay $220 for a new luxury car? Not hardly.. Our chickens are far superior to the most expensive luxury car out there.
What makes them better than organic birds I can get at the store?
- First: the organic standards are “production” standards and not food quality standards. We refuse to spend our time filling out forms to meet “production” standards that have nothing to do with food quality.
- Second: Nutritional density is not a given just because they are drug free or free range or whatever other cute word that sucks you into thinking it’s better. Your meat can only be as nutritionally dense as the food it eats and the pasture it roams on. We focus on providing your chickens with the most nutritionally dense, non-GMO, soy-free, wheat-free supplemental feed and the healthiest pasture to roam about.
- Third: again, we spare no expense to give you the best.
What if an emergency arises and I cannot come get my order? We realize that on rare occasions, this can happen. And, during a real emergency, we want to be like a friend and help anyway we can. Give us a call once the emergency has passed and we'll try to work out a time for you get your order.
Why can't you just sell them to someone else? We realize that it is hard to grasp that we operate a farm and not a retail outlet. We set aside this time once each month to prepare the birds for you to pick up. Everyone who is coming here will, just like you, have already decided on how many birds they want.There is no one to sell them to.
Goose Pond Farm
298 Goose Pond Rd
Hartselle, AL 35640
256-751-0987
Goose Pond Farm LLC
