We wanted to let you know that we will not be producing any chicken in 2025 and have begun the process of closing SLAP Farms. This was not an easy decision for us to make. In four short seasons you have helped to grow this farm from what was supposed to be a small hobby retirement project into a behemoth.
In 2024 we produced 5,000 chickens, 300 turkeys and had a flock of about 250 laying hens (and we still couldn’t keep up with demand). When we spent over 8-hours processing our first test batch of 30 chickens in late 2020 we never could have imagined we would grow to the size we have and become as efficient as we have. Last year we processed batches of 200 chickens at a time in 3 hours!!!
That said, it takes a lot of hard labor to do that. In 2024, we processed chickens (or turkeys) every week except for three from mid-April through the first week of December. There were even a couple of weeks where we processed two batches. All of this happens with the help of just one full-time employee and one part-time employee and a couple of high school kids thrown in occasionally. Finding good, steady labor has definitely been our biggest challenge in running this farm.
We normally order all of our chicks for the entire season by early January. In late November we learned that our hatchery, Freedom Ranger Hatchery, would not have any birds of the breed we raise (Freedom Ranger Color Yields) until August 2025 due to breeding flock issues. This was a serious issue for us. We have always believed that it’s not enough to take Cornish Cross chickens — the fat white blobs that have been bred for confinement production and grow to finish size in 42 days — and simply raise them on pasture. They are unhealthy mutants. Our farm has been based on producing a slower growing bird that forages robustly on pasture and has great flavor.
In addition, the U.S. Postal Service has added new surcharges onto shipments of live birds. These new surcharges would raise our chick prices significantly, meaning that our prices would need to go up to cover these added costs.
Bird availability and shipping surcharges coupled with trying to figure out how to raise more birds to meet demand while not being able to find the labor we need to do that all combined to drive our decision.
We can’t express enough how grateful we are to you for trusting us to supply your family with food. It has been an honor and a pleasure to get to know all of you from seeing you week after week at the farmers markets. Many of you have become close friends and we cherish those friendships.
We will continue to sell product until we are completely sold out. At this time we have the following left in stock:
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eggs
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chicken backs
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dehydrated chicken feet
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turkey legs
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turkey thighs
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turkey burgers
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ground turkey
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turkey mushroom & Swiss bratwurst
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turkey mild Italian sausage (bulk)
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turkey hot Italian sausage (bulk & links)
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1 whole turkey breast
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several whole turkeys (15lbs and larger)
Once we are completely sold out, we would like to encourage you to reach out to our good friend Kevin Jacobi at Land Basket Farm in Russellville for your poultry needs. https://landbasketfarm.com/
With Gratitude,
Tim & Jay
