Golden Acres Farm’s new artisanal chicken project provides an alternative meat option for Norfolk residents

A converted tobacco elephant wagon provides shelter, food and water for the Golden Acres laying hens.

By Diane Baltaz

A third-generation Delhi area farm family is going artisanal this spring – with chickens.

On April 21, Kyle and Leigh-Anne Mauthe are bringing in 200-day-old White Rock brooder chicks to Golden Acres Farm, located on Highway 3 west of Delhi. After brooding them inside a temperature-controlled, bio-secure barn for approximately three weeks, the fledglings will spend the rest of their lives outdoors – and then be marketed as “artisanal chickens”.

The Mauthe birds are part of the Chicken Farmers of Ontario (CFO) Artisanal Chicken Program –which allows entrants to grow small batches of chickens for sale locally without having to purchase quota required by larger, commercial poultry farms.

The flock and family are part of a select niche farming group.

CFO communications officer Kory Preston explained, “The first of its kind in Canada, the Artisanal Chicken Program was created in 2016 with small-scale farmers and consumer interests in mind. In 2025, there were 135 active Artisanal Chicken farmers, representing communities across Ontario, including 88 farmers in Western Ontario.”

CFO created the program in response to calls for the CFO to be more responsive to demands for chicken produced locally, using alternative methods to conventional broiler barns.

“Artisanal Chicken farmers meet rigorous standards for animal health and welfare, and food safety, as do all Ontario chicken farmers,” added Preston.

“The program lets people who can’t afford quota or who want to diversify their operation or farm part time,” said Leigh-Anne. “They’re artisanal -- they’re not just barn chickens.”

Participants are licensed to raise 600 to 3,000 meat birds annually which they then market to targeted consumers groups, offering people additional options in their local communities, including off-farm retail locations such as farmers’ markets and restaurants.

The Mauthes are beginning with the minimum, bringing in the chicks in three groups of 200 each. They expect the last batch to be out by Thanksgiving.

Processed birds will be sold as pastured chickens for farm gate pick up, both as whole chickens as well as boxes of breasts and wings.

They posted their intentions on a community Facebook page and already received queries, including two asking about soup birds and backs from the “parted birds”, said Leigh-Anne.

The couple chose to raise artisanal chickens in part because it suited their lifestyle: both have full time, off-farm jobs in the conservation field, with Kyle working as a Ministry of Natural Resources conservation officer while Leigh-Anne does watershed land use planning with the Long Point Conservation Authority.

They also want to have a farm-raised white meat alternative for their freezer: Kyle hunts fowl – ducks and geese which have dark meat. The family also prefers the taste of pastured-raised chickens over more conventionally-raised poultry.

Their 101-acre farm is in its third generation of Mauthe ownership: Kyle’s grandparents, Harold and Doris purchased it as a tobacco farm in 1972; parents Paul and Cindy bought them out in 1980, eventually participating in one of the tobacco buy-out programs. Leigh-Anne and Kyle bought them out in 2025 and moved onto the farm, renting much of the land out to a neighbouring potato farmer.

“I had no interest in growing tobacco. But I’ve always loved chickens but not the barn-raised kind, “said Kyle. “I tried my hand at pastured and broilers in the past.”

Therefore, as soon as they returned to the farm last year, the couple got chickens, nurturing “a small batch just for us,” as they called it.

They also obtained laying hens, starting with six layers for their children, Warren, four and Blaire, seven. The Mauthes then expanded the flock to approximately 90 hens; surplus eggs are sold at a roadside stand.

These “layers” similarly go outside to peck at the earth. They wander about an electrified mesh-fenced in area outside the barn, where a reconverted tobacco “elephant wagon” in the centre of their yard provides shelter, food and water.

“Therefore, we decided to try the CFO artisanal program,” concluded Leigh-Anne.

With assistance from CFO staff, the Mauthes embarked upon the chicken agency’s detailed application process, which they said involved interviews, an onsite inspection, and then awaited the results of CFO’s discernment procedures.

“You must meet specific CFO standards to raise chickens,” said Kyle. The criteria include water tests and participation in four training webinars regarding food and barn care, cleaning and disinfection standards.

Applicants must arrange a slaughter date with a processor for the finished chickens prior to program approval. The first group of Mauthe birds have a butchering date in June, after they reach the standard six to eight-pound range.

Participants must perform farm various audits throughout the year, including one of chicken sales.

“There are penalties if you request too many birds and you cannot market them – although the CFO makes provisions for you to reserve some chickens for your family,” explained Kyle. “We intend to reserve 40 birds for ourselves.”

The chickens must be pasture-raised to meet the artisanal standards, said Kyle.

“There are differences between the terms of barn-raised and free range – they are not moved about as in pasture-raised.”

Kyle and his father built several moveable chicken pens which they dub “chicken tractors” which will be moved daily. Leigh-Anne said that each pen “holds around 25 birds each to allow plenty of room for them to move around in. “

They also purchased a “Cackellac” movable pen from Good Nature Eco-Farms in Thamesford, who also provided advice for their new venture.

“The Cackellac tractor says it will hold 150 meat birds, but we don’t expect to have that many in it to allow for more room for each bird,” said Leigh-Anne.

“Our pasture-raised chickens will be managed with light mesh and we’re strong with manure management. You can see where the chicken tractor was by greenness of the soil once it’s moved.”

They hope to move their birds beyond the barn area to pasture across South Creek, which bisects the farm.

“We have the land available for it and rest of our meat is hunted, so we’ll keep it all on the farm,” said Leigh-Anne.

Golden Acres Farm eventually intends to work with ALUS (Alternative Land Use Services) Norfolk regarding means of pasturing future chickens in the farm’s naturalized areas. The Mauthe family participated in three previous ALUS projects involving wildlife and South Creek on the farm since 2008.

Once they complete the raising and sale of their 600-bird allotment for this year, CFO program rules require the Mauthes and similar producers to re-apply to be in the program in 2027, which CFO staff assured is “standard to get back in annually.”

“It’s a learning process for us in Year One but we are going to make sure you get a good product,” concluded Kyle. 