In the upcoming January 2010 issue of Consumer Reports Bell & Evans is highlighted as on the cleanest producers of broiler chickens in the industry. Eight of our chickens were tested for salmonella and campylobacter- and all eight were tested free of both bacteria.

We here at Bell & Evans have been doing the same procedure for years- we care about every step of the process from the farm to your table. Like we have discussed in previous blog entries- every aspect of the process is crucial. We do things our way because it’s the right thing to do.

Our all vegetable feed consists of corn, extruded and expeller pressed soybeans, vitamins and minerals. We never use animal or other by-products.

Our chicken houses are cleaned out in between every flock- not like other poultry producers who just lay down a new layer of litter. We also let the house remain empty in order to break any virus cycles. The concrete floors of the houses also make it easier to clean and sanitize.

Our award winning 2005 Plant of the Year (by Food Engineering Magazine) is another aspect of the process of producing clean and great tasting chicken. We have a high standard of efficiency and cleanliness throughout the plant. We inspect all birds during evisceration before entering into our air chill facility. Unlike other air chill facilities- our bird travel on one level in order to prevent cross contamination from other birds on higher racks dripping onto those underneath. The air chill process does not dilute the natural flavor of our chicken and means that our customers do not have to pay for water that would normally leak out of the chicken when it is water chilled.

Our one of a kind packaging is helping our chicken have an even longer shelf life and reduces our impact on the environment. After the chicken is sealed into this package it is not touch again by human hands until it opened by a customer at home. Since the new packaging can go directly into the freezer, it also reduces further risk of cross contamination.

All of these components add to the final product, that is why all of the steps are important to making a great tasting chicken. We wouldn’t change any aspect of our process because then it wouldn’t be Bell & Evan’s way of raising the excellent chicken.

On August 27, 2009, I spent a day in New York demoing at the new Whole Foods Store at 97th and Columbus.

Once again we clogged the aisles with people waiting for a sample of our famous Chicken Nuggets.

For me, store demoing our products is energizing and builds my enthusiasm for the business.

The reception I received from customers was incredible. One customer wanted to buy my Bell & Evans cap. He recommended we sell them on the website and make sure I sign them. He said don’t be surprised, they are going to sell.

Another customer insisted on having her picture taken with me.

A friendly man asked me to bring back the boneless whole chicken roast. He said if you do I will help you promote them.

One lady said you can have your brochure back; I have been buying your chicken all my life and I do not have any intention to change.

I had a customer that was complaining that a store in her neighborhood tells people the chicken they sell is Bell & Evans, but she does not think it is and asked me if I would check it out.

It’s been a challenge over the years to police restaurant and retailers and make sure the products they were selling as Bell & Evans really is Bell & Evans. Deception in marketing on menus and at the retail case has never been worse. Selling commodity chicken for Bell & Evans or alleging it is just as good as is a crime.

There was a lady that bought chicken that was being promoted “from Pennsylvania” and assumed it was Bell & Evans only to learn it was not. She was not a happy customer about that. We do have some new competition using a Pennsylvania address that is producing commodity chicken and is marketing it as an equal to Bell & Evans.

On my ride home on the Bieber Bus back to Pennsylvania I began to think about how big our brand really is in N.Y. and how loyal the customers are to our brand. After almost 100 years of our product being in N.Y., we are still going strong. Consistently producing superior product really did pay off for us.

I hope to see you at our next product demo.

Ways to ensure you are buying Bell & Evans:

1. Look for our logo.
2. If the package has a retained water statement with a number other than 0% or “no retained water”- it probably isn’t Bell & Evans.
3. If you still are unsure, give us a call at 1-800-786-1235 and ask for customer service.

I have been getting a lot of requests lately to explain the difference between water and air chill as it relates to chicken processing.

Water chill when I first started back in the ‘60’s was a stainless tank filled with ice and spring water. That tank may have held 50 chickens. The bird temperature going into the tank was in the 90 degrees Fahrenheit range.

The birds chilled for hours before we pulled them out to cut and pack. We never used chlorine and I am not sure we knew what chlorine was back in those days.

Today the industry standard is still water chill but with a least cost high volume and high yield twist to it.

The procedure is a long refrigerated u shaped tube which could be over 100 feet long, and hold 30,000 to 50,000 gallons of heavily chlorinated water. The chickens are mechanically forced through the length of the chiller, absorbing lots of dirty chlorinated water. The force of moving the chickens inside the chiller is very damaging- breaking bones and tearing skin. At the end of the chiller, the chickens are elevated out of the tank and hand hung on the processing line. Many years ago we operated such a water chiller, so I know what I am talking about and I was happy to see it go.

The Bell & Evans Air Chill story probably started over 20 years ago while visiting a small plant in Germany. The owner of that plant engineered that system for all the right reasons and not just marketing hype.

Over the years I have visited poultry plants all over the world, many that converted from chlorinated water chill to air chill. Many installed cheap, poorly designed, and inefficient systems but were able to get marketing hype labeling the chicken as being air chilled.

By the time we could afford to build a first class Air Chill system, we knew what we wanted to achieve and what we didn’t want.

Below is an excerpt from our website explaining how we air chill our birds.

Our system consists of three different cooling chambers; each is closely monitored to maintain a specific temperature and humidity during the process. To assure proper chilling, the birds traverse almost two miles of track, taking them 2 hours and 45 minutes to move through the system. Unlike other Air Chill chambers, ours has a unique, single level chilling line that prevents cross contamination from birds on higher tracks dripping onto those underneath.

This slow chill process is also more effective in tenderizing the meat. Since our chickens do not depend on ice water for chilling, the chicken’s natural juices are not diluted in, or replaced by the water in a conventional water chiller. While in these conventional chillers, chickens may absorb 7 to 8% of their body weight in added water – and that water may contain chlorine. (Chlorine is added to conventional chillers to inhibit bacterial growth.) This water “weeps” out of the meat and is trapped in the “diaper” you find in fresh chicken packaging .

Since our Air Chill System uses cold air not water to chill our chickens, we are able to save tens of thousands of gallons of water each day. And since water is not weeping from the chicken, we will now be able to use recyclable and reusable shipping containers.

Benefits of the Bell & Evans Air Chill System

• Bell & Evans Air Chilled Chickens retain their own natural juices.
  Each bite is incredibly more tender and full of flavor.
• Bell & Evans Air Chilled Chickens are individually slow chilled.
  No water or chlorine permeates the meat or dilutes the flavor.
• Bell & Evans Air Chill System is environmentally friendly.
• Lower water usage, tens of thousands of gallons saved each day.
• Longer shelf life.
• Reduced human handling.
• Cleaner, better appearance.
• Closely monitored temperature controlled environment.

Below are two pictures, the first showing the effects of water chill and the second is of our air chill system. You decide which chicken you would rather eat:

Water Chill?

Or Air Chilled?

Recently there has been a lot of discussion about the 2009 Wheat Harvest and the incidence of Vomitoxin.

Vomitoxin is a mycotoxin that may be produced in wheat heads when wet weather conditions occur during the flowering and grain filling stages of development.

There may be severe negative consequences for both human and animal consumption.

Unfortunately, there is quite a lot of this wheat moving around our industry today at distressed prices. Low priced wheat relative to corn has many poultry producers considering substituting wheat for corn in their diets.

Bell & Evans does not use wheat in our chicken’s diet even when wheat quality is good.

When you honestly raise chickens without using antibiotics, wheat in the diet has been proven to be detrimental in raising healthy birds.

When I say without using antibiotics, I don’t just mean from birth.

At Bell & Evans no antibiotics means no adding antibiotics to the vaccine injected in the eggs before they are hatched; also not in the feed, water, air, old manure, or some other creative way.

There is a lot to be concerned about when your goal is to raise a good healthy flock.

There is more to come.

I recently participated in the opening of a new Whole Foods Market Store in Centennial Colorado, an area just south of Denver. My participation consisted of 3 days of cooking and sampling our Bell & Evans chicken nuggets to thousands of customers. This is a great format that allows me to answer questions that customers have and ask questions that I have for the customers. Sometimes I am able to convert Vegetarians back to eating chicken. Often they just need a little education and some good honest answers.

Participating in hundreds of these events over the years has helped me in the direction of how we operate at Bell & Evans. A popular concern I had from many in Colorado was the GMO issue and Organic Certification.

In recent years, large seed companies unloaded their GMO seed on famers in a big way. Those farmers were told GMO seed was the answer to feed the growing world’s population. Now they are told that we need GMO seed to produce enough corn ethanol to decrease our dependence on foreign oil.

All of the certified Organic corn and soybean we purchase is of U.S. origin and the farms that produce these crops plant non-GMO seed. The best certified Organic grain farmer cannot build a wall high enough to prevent pollen from drifting from a nearby conventional field from spreading across his Organic field. So to say our organic grain is 100 % GMO free would be wrong.

Now we have the lower cost certified Organic grain grown in China coming in through Canada and possibly other avenues. I don’t have any reason to believe their Organic certification has any value. Many in the poultry and livestock production have resorted to this grain to buy market share because of its lower cost. I am disappointed that retail buyers haven’t helped stop this wrong.

We can grow all the certified Organic grain we need right in the U.S.A. I like to know what I am paying for especially when I am paying a premium. There is more feed stuff to come.

90% of our diet consists of corn, extruded and expeller pressed soybeans. The remaining 10 % consists of vitamins and minerals.

Many years ago, we were struggling with a bird health problem. I thought maybe its cause was from mold in the rail car transporting soybean meal. I went to the feed mill and asked the mill operator to open the rail car unloading door to watch it unload and inspect for mold. As the door opened, this odor poured out. It smelled like model airplane glue. I asked the mill operator what the awful smell was. He said that’s Hexane, a cheap efficient solvent to extract the oil and vitamins from soybeans. I immediately made my mind up that anything that smelled like that was not going to be part of our future chicken feed. My next step was a lesson in soybean processing.

Soybean extraction/processing – The procedure involved in the separation of the oil and the protein meal from the whole soybean.

• Solvent extraction (Hexane) – The process where by the oil is leached from flaked soybeans.
• Pressing process – At elevated temperatures, using expellers or screw presses which utilize a worm shaft continuously rotating with a pressing cylinder or cage to express the oil from the beans after they have been ground and properly conditioned.

What is Hexane?

Hexane is a Petroleum by product of gasoline refining. It is a highly explosive toxic chemical. Hexane is a major air pollutant. In fact it is classified as a HAP- Hazardous Air Pollutant by the EPA. Hexane also steals our vitamin E.

At the end of this separation process the livestock producer buys the protein, and fiber. The oil may be further processed into consumer grade.

My question to you is – how can producers and retailers market chicken as naturally raised when one of the two main components of the diet are processed with a toxic chemical like Hexane?

There is a lot more chicken feed to come.

For further information, please feel free to read the Cornucopia report.

I am constantly asked what we feed our chickens that make them so different. Well let’s start with our philosophy.

Goal #1
Feed needs to be of the highest quality ingredients and properly formulated to grow a healthy bird without adding stress.

Goal #2
When we eat the bird, we should be proud of the quality of its life. The taste and tenderness should be excellent. A quality protein we enjoy that also nourishes our bodies.

I don’t like the idea of eating chicken that was fed a lot of junk and might even end up smelling or tasting like what it ate. Many of our competitors and especially some store brand chicken have a different philosophy in mind. It’s all about cost and margins. They sometimes forget that someone is going to eat this stuff. Usually, we are talking about least cost formulating feed and it usually isn’t pretty. They need to grow big and fast and cross the finish line alive.

Protein, fiber, energy, vitamins and minerals are the main components of a chicken’s diet. Our Bell & Evan’s chickens get all the protein, fiber, and energy from our corn, extruded and expeller pressed soybeans. I will stop here for today because I next want to get into the details of our feed ingredients and that will be a big story by itself.

We will start with preparing for a new flock that has just been hatched and is being immediately transported to the farm.

The house preparation actually started two weeks ago, when the last flock went to market. The manure was immediately removed. The house was de-dusted and the concrete floors swept. Disinfecting the house and letting it set empty for two weeks really helps kill bacteria, break virus cycles, and put a fix to rodents that would contaminate the birds with salmonella. Two or three days before the new flock arrives, we spread new clean wood shavings over the entire floor for a nice comfortable bedding. Baby chicks have very sensitive feet and need to start on a warm comfortable floor. We start the heat in the house a day or two before the flock arrives to bring up the floor temperature and provide a comfort zone of about 90-92 degrees. We do not need to start day one with any extra stress if we are going to raise clean, natural chickens honestly without antibiotics or other crutches.

It is very sad that the cost and profit pressures have forced most of the brolier chicken industry into alternative production methods and I do not know how they get natural labels approved. Most of these lower cost alternative production methods use ground dirt floors. If you have ever tried to clean a ground dirt floor, you know it is difficult. In the case of our organic production, we let the birds go outside and scratch in the grass and dirt but they sure like to come back into their clean protected house where their feed and water is kept. Once I tried a dirt floor in my chicken house until the rodents drilled a hole in the ground from the outside and came up in the inside of the house and attacked my chickens. Well that was enough of that!

Just to give you some idea what these alternative methods are, I will start with the flock that just went to market. The house is immediately prepared for the next flock that may be started as soon as the next day. Most of the old manure stays in the house to compost, and maybe some new litter is added. They usually take a machine through the house to break up the manure. There may be five to ten flocks of chickens in the house before the manure is taken out. By leaving the manure in the house flock after flock, there is a big challenge to manage the ammonia coming out of that composting manure that can and will cause blindness and serious respiratory problems to the chickens. I feel sorry for the chickens being raised that way.

The result of these alternative methods of production can be horrible and these chickens should not be labeled natural. I think I wrote enough for today, but there is a lot more to come.

Me at Age 10

Me in one of my chicken houses

My name is Scott Sechler, and this is my chicken blog. I’ve worked with chickens pretty much all my life, but until a couple of months ago, I’d never even heard of blogging.

When I was 7 or 8 years old, my dear ole Dad bought my first flock of chicks. I actually spent days cleaning and sanitizing the chicken coop where they would live. I made sure that the chicks were comfortable in their house.

I even came up with my own techniques for growing my birds healthier and tastier than others. I learned that feeding my birds good clean grain and keeping their stress level to a minimum was the way to go.

Don’t get me wrong – there were skeptics who didn’t believe in my techniques. Even my own Dad wondered how I would get enough customers to keep growing my chicks in this off-the-wall fashion. Everyone else in the chicken industry at the time were using very different methods. They were focused on making money, not on the quality of their products. But eventually all my hard work would pay off.

I bought my first truck to haul chickens when I was 16, and I started selling my chickens in Canada. The processors there wanted specific sizes of birds, and the other suppliers seemed to bring them everything except what they actually ordered. Not me. I delivered what my processors ordered, and I delivered the quality they expected. Eventually, I was taking my trucks into Canada every day of the week.

To this day, at Bell & Evans we take pride in the fact that we deliver on our promise. And that is to deliver the Excellent Chicken, free of antibiotics and growth hormones. We deliver what the customers want and what they come to expect of our products. After all these years, quality is still the most important thing to us.

Bell & Evans is a family business, and our customers are an important part of that family. I started this blog because I can’t think of a better way to keep in touch with you – or for you to keep in touch with me.

Welcome to my Chicken Blog.