YundWell Pastured Poultry

Meet the Farmers

Mike and Michelle started working on farms in California when they were in their early 20s. In 2008, they moved back home to New York State for a farming apprenticeship at Roxbury Farm in Kinderhook, NY, a successful vegetable operation. They stayed there for eight years until they decided to start raising chickens on their own to sell to Roxbury. They quickly grew their flock from fifty birds to a few hundred to a few thousand. With their business taking off, they moved to Canaan, NY to focus full time on continuing to grow their farm and serve more community members. Now Mike and Michelle, along with their Italian Maremma guardian dogs Nellie, Esther, and Roscoe, work together to manage and operate YundWell Pastured Poultry. 

Regenerative &Sustainable Practices

YundWell prizes the health of their birds and building the life of their soil. Unlike so many other poultry operations, their birds aren’t bred in large warehouses and kept packed together unable to move. Mike and Michelle utilize a number of regenerative practices in their operation:

• Raise their animals entirely on pasture, moving them strategically from field to field, allowing them to supplement their feed with wild clover, grasses, seeds, and bugs. The birds’ manure and scratching helps rebuild the soil structure and fertility of the pastures.
• Bird welfare is centered in their practice. By regularly moving them to fresh pasture, the birds are never overcrowded, and by protecting them with guardian dogs, the birds are never confined.
• Raise slower-growing chickens (compared to industrial Cornish Crosses) from Moyer’s Chick in Quakertown, PA. Their birds live nearly twice as long as industrially raised birds, developing richer flavor and having lower fat content.