Hawkins Sisters Ranch

Jenny, Mary and Nora Hawkins are the fourth generation to cultivate crops and livestock on land along Bear Creek, near Wallowa. Mary runs the only state-certified poultry production facility in eastern Oregon.

Cornish Cross chickens are the gold standard for tender meat and quick cooking techniques. The relatively slow-growing Cornish Cross start their lives at an Oregon hatchery and arrive at Hawkins Sisters Ranch at two days old. They are raised in open-air hoop houses and fed a custom-blend of local wheat, barley, and legumes mixed with organic camelina meal, fishmeal, minerals, and enzymes. They move from the brooder to the hayfield at about 3 weeks old, depending on the weather. After that they are fed each morning outside on the grass. In the evening they are fed again inside their hoop house and then they bed down on sustainably harvested, soft wood chips. The deep litter, mixed with rich manure, is collected for composting, and eventually it returns to our pastures.