Video: Day in the Life at Beaverdam Farms

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CLAY COUNTY, Miss.- (WCBI) It is the centerpiece of many Thanksgiving tables. We’re talking about turkey. Ali Fratesi and Dustin Pinion out at Beaverdam Farms in Cedar Bluff raise their birds, using organic standards. All of the solid white gobblers and hens are already spoken for this year, proving the demand for turkey is high this holiday season.

“The reason we do all white birds because it is the typical industry bird. The heritage breeds are smaller birds, and they fly over the electric fence, so they end up on top of houses, on top of cars. And your landowner doesn’t really approve all of that,” says Pinion.

While there are no turkeys available, you can still pick up fresh eggs.

“We do two different breeds of birds at all times.So the red birds are the red sex links and they are two year old. These black and white ones are barred rocks and they are one year old. When your chickens reach about three years of age, they don’t lay as much as your feed them. So you end up losing money, so what we do is sell them as ready to lay hens after that two years and then we get another breed that are a different color so we can tell,” says Fratese.

“They all don’t lay at the same time. We won’t get that many eggs. They lay four to five eggs a week. They have been moving chickens in chicken tractors since the Roman times. This is an old way with new technology,” adds Fratese.

Chicken is also needed for broth, among other items on the Thanksgiving menu.

“We are under the thousand bird exemption. We are only allowed to see one thousand birds a year. Now we are working on a new exemption. This whole last year, we’ve been raising money and we are about to build a new facility this winter to make us get under the 20,000 bird exemption. We did not realize we could do more than a thousand, or sell that many,. We had no clue there was such a demand in Mississippi.”

So, when it comes to organic poultry, remember Beaverdam Farm. For Ali Fratese and Dustin Pinion, taking the nutritious approach to everything from your holiday feasts to your every day meals, is just one more day in the life.

Categories: Local News

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