Our chickens

Our 1600 chickens have a lot of space in the nearby Serwest, a village just a few kilometres from Brodowin. When we started keeping laying hens in 2011, the animals were still scratching and pecking on the orchards in and around Brodowin. But due to the special way of keeping these areas soon became insufficient.

The special feature of our chicken husbandry, in which the University for Sustainable Development in Eberswalde (HNEE) is our partner, are our mobile chicken wagons. These mobile stables can be moved on at regular intervals to ensure that there is always enough fresh greenery outside. Since each chicken occupies 6m2 of land and different areas are always lying idle for regeneration, this type of husbandry requires a lot of space.

Giving every animal the chance to live is the goal of our Bruderhahn (Brother rooster) project.
Since the aim of breeding laying hens is above all to achieve high laying performance, neither rooster nor hen produce significant amounts of muscle mass. This makes the male chicks worthless from an economic point of view; many are “sorted out”immediately after hatching.
To avoid this and to let at least some of the animals grow up, we have been raising a rooster for each hen in Brodowin since summer 2014. The brother roosters are between 14 and 16 weeks old and, like their sisters, can spend every day outdoors. A good solution, which hopefully will find many more imitators.