We raise broiler chickens and our replacement pullets each year on pasture, after brooding in deep litter with NO antibiotics. We have been amazed, after quitting all antibiotic use, how healthy they remain if they are allowed to scratch and peck and have all the sunshine and fresh pasture they can get. My husband built portable pens which we move twice daily; this keeps the broilers on clean gras
s and has definitely reduced our tick population in both pastures. Our hens and replacement pullets have large fenced pens and coops for protection from the elements and predators, and freely roam the woods and yard. Our pigs roam the woods finding good things to eat and playing in their puddle. Our hens and broilers are supplemented exclusively with non-GMO feed. We garden with rotational, successive, intensive planting methods, using organic, non-chemical methods of pest and disease control unless we are faced with the loss of a whole crop. My husband tills in compost in the spring and the rest of the season he wields only his hoe, with great success. We start our own plants using mostly heirloom seeds, offering herbs and vegetables for sale each spring as well as started pullet chicks. Our youngest son and wife are expert help on poultry processing days. We sell a variety of farm-fresh items at the Conway Arkansas Farmer's Market on Amity Road in Conway, Arkansas, and through the Conway Locally Grown market. Our farm life is a family affair and we often have help from our grown children and grandchildren, which ends in a supper of freshly harvested vegetables. It’s a good life and we’re blessed each day we can live it.
