Our Story
Welcome to our slice of five acres of bliss. After traveling in our school bus conversion, our family of six set down roots in northwest Missouri to follow new dreams and now we get to share them with you.
On our homestead, you will find an abundant garden, flocks of free-ranging poultry (chickens, turkeys, and guineas), a family dairy cow, a steer, livestock guardian dogs, and an assortment of barn cats.
About Our Poultry
When it comes to chicks, hatching eggs, and butchered poultry, we specialize in a few breeds. We breed heritage Delaware chickens as a truly dual-purpose bird for meat and eggs, heritage Welsummers for their beautiful dark speckled eggs, and exotic rare breed Ayam Cemani according to the proposed breed standard and true to their Indonesian form.
We also breed Bourbon Red and Rusty Slate turkeys (as well as selling hatching eggs and poults) and Pearl Grey, Pied, and White guinea fowl.
How We Raise Our Birds
Here at Roots and Dreams, we believe in raising poultry in an ethical and humane way. Rather than keep our hens confined in small spaces, our chickens free range on our five-acre homestead, protected by livestock guardian dogs.
Rather than discard our hens at a year old to get the most efficient production, we make sure we have enough room for our hens to live happy and healthy lives while keeping enough chickens to meet our production goals.
Rather than dispose of cockerel chicks, we raise them to maturity with open space, sunshine, fresh air, and quality food for the table to feed our family and other families in need.
Rather than killing our breeding program culls, we place them in pet homes or live out their lives on the homestead for food, flock protection, or egg production.
Here on our homestead, we believe you can support animal rights and not be vegan. You can humanely raise livestock even if they will be food. You can cut back on your consumption to support sustainable practices. And you can support others who do the same.
We don’t clip our poultry’s wings or shorten their beaks or kill them just because they get hurt or sick. We let them free range (for real), feed them real food, and give them safe, clean, well-ventilated, & spacious coops and brooders. We raise cockerels and pullets to maturity alike.
That’s what we choose to do. That is all we can do – what we believe is right.
Knowing that there are people out there who appreciate the extra expenses, care, and work our choices bring and support us in that by buying our eggs, chickens, etc. – that makes me happy. Even if people didn’t, we’d be doing it this way anyways.
If you are in need, please visit Christ Cupboard in Polo, Missouri on Wednesdays from 8:30 to 11 am. We regularly donate our excess table eggs and butchered poultry to families in need through this organization.