Twin Creeks Farms- Wesley Stephens and Bethany Stephens

In addition to our broiler chickens for meat, we are raising a limited quantity of ducks for meat this spring. This is something new for us and we are doing it as an experiment to see what the demand will be. If it is successful, we will continue to raise them. They are getting here in a few days, so we'll find out before long. I guess if they don't sell it won't be too much of a loss, though. Duck is one of my favorite foods.

We will be planting corn in a few weeks and this year we are switching to an heirloom open-pollinated variety called Boone County White. It dates to the mid 19th century and grows very tall, so it should yield a lot of silage. We would like to use a non-GMO variety, and one we can save seed from. Information we have found has shown that open pollinated corn silage has higher nutritional value than silage from hybrid varieties, so we are looking forward to seeing how it performs. In addition to silage, we will be feeding turnips, peas, and hay.  Our small herd is now up to 10 beeves, and they are looking great.

Here in southeastern NC, flies on cattle can be a problem in the hot, humid summer. We were reluctant to use pesticides on our cattle, so we found an effective alternative. We free-range roosters with our cattle and they do an excellent job of keeping flies under control. In the late fall, we sell the roosters for meat and we have had excellent feedback on the quality and taste of the meat. The only drawback we have seen is loss due to predators, but our mule Fred does a pretty good job of keeping predators chased out of the pasture. We have about 30 roosters now that will be large enough to safely free-range in a few weeks when it starts warming up, and we will probably add more as we go.

We have had a lot of questions about what our customers should feed their laying hens after they purchase pullets from us, and here are our recommendations. We use a good quality starter feed of approximately 20% protein until chickens reach about 16-18 weeks of age and switch them to a layer ration with oyster shells offered free choice. There are many quality brands available, and the brand you choose will probably depend on which feed dealer is most convenient. Since starter/grower and layer feeds are complete rations which are scientifically formulated to meet the dietary requirements of poultry, we advise against the use of scratch feed, as it effectively "dilutes" the nutrients present in a complete feed. Nutritional deficiencies can manifest themselves in many ways, often with very detrimental results.

Questions have also arisen about the feeding of vegetable scraps, and we have found this to be a good practice. When birds are free-ranged, we recommend offering feed, especially to laying hens. In an area with plenty of natural forage, it is quite possible for chickens  to perform very well without supplemental feed, but if there is any doubt about whether or not your chickens can obtain enough nutrition from nature, feed should be offered. Regular feeding in the same place also keeps chickens roosting there and makes management much easier.