At work with Scott Wilson, turkey farmer in Suffolk

We moved here in '03 from Chesapeake. This was definitely kind of a mid life career change. I was in computers, an Adobe-certified instructor. I stopped that in '08, and we started full time with the farm.

We got chickens, and, probably in '04, we started getting some turkeys. We probably sold our first turkeys in '05 or so, and back then it was maybe 50. So we've grown quite a bit. This year, all in all, we'll probably raise about 400 turkeys, because we have some throughout the year. Not too many. Our main emphasis is Thanksgiving.

The big thing that makes us different as far as the turkeys go is these guys are being raised outside. They're out on pasture and able to eat grass and able to be in the sunshine. And we think that makes a better-tasting bird, a better quality bird. Most turkeys are raised indoors in a big barn. When they're outside, we are rotating them around to different paddocks so they can get fresh grass. They're not just staying the same place all the time.

We market everything directly to our customers, so we're not going through stores, which is a challenge a lot of traditional farmers don't face. We are the retail outlet. When we moved out here, I was able to establish a website with some of my computer background, so that became a great tool for us to promote ourselves.

We get the turkeys as baby chicks from a hatchery. They are teeny little day-old hatchlings. These actually come from the Midwest. We get them and we'll put them in our brooders, which are buildings that we can regulate the heat in. We have heat lamps in there. One thing that is a challenge when they're young is you've got to be very careful with heat, so they don't get too cold or get a chill or wind on them. It's actually helpful that we get these guys in July. They're babies in July and ready by November. It's pretty warm, but still they need that heat.

The other thing that we do for them - where industry birds would be getting an antibiotic that keeps them from getting coccidiosis - we don't use any antibiotics. When a baby chick starts pecking at food, all the enzymes in its gut are trying to get going. If they get overloaded with the wrong type of bacteria, they can get sick. What we do, since we have cows, is as soon as we get 'em, we get 'em to drink that raw milk. What that does is gets a probiotic going in their system. That probiotic just jump-starts them big time.

They're going to be in that brooder for probably about four weeks. After that, they will come outside as young poults. We have those shelters over there, almost like little tents, they go into those. Those have basically chicken wire on the end, so they're protected from predators. At eight weeks, they're big enough to get out into an open-range area.

The maintenance at this point is making sure they have plenty of water, making sure they have plenty of feed. We're feeding them about twice a day.

We go to Old Beach Farmers Market every week in Virginia Beach. We do that all throughout the season. We have customers coming out (to the farm), but what we've found is that it's best for us to take reservations for the turkeys. We start in July and we take names and numbers, and we take a deposit. We basically sign people up until we run out of turkeys. So those turkeys are sold. We'll process them the Thursday or Friday before Thanksgiving. It's been a real blessing, because we've sold out just about every year. We get a lot of repeat customers. This year is, I think, not quite double what we did last year. This is the most we've ever raised.

It is more expensive to raise them this way. Quite frankly, they consume more feed, because they're getting more exercise. They're $3.95 a pound.

Our children will help us process these birds. We process those right here on the farm. When we process the broilers, everyone all the way down to the 4-year-old helps. He was actually helping load them after they were killed into the scalding unit. Hey, this animal has been raised in a very humane way. It's had a great life. It has served its purpose here on earth and you are supporting a farm by eating this animal that uses those type of practices.

Yes, an animal did give its life for you to eat this food. It's kind of a sacred thing.

- As told to Carolyn Shapiro