Family, healthy birds are the focus on Cumberland poultry farm

By Kathy Dixon

Two swing sets stand sentinel near the poultry houses.

Often, children are happily playing on them. In the background, whirring fans cool the chickens, and grunting pet pigs roam in the field beside the play sets.

"We spend so much time here that it didn't make sense to put the swing sets anywhere else,"
 said Will Sanderson, who operates five poultry houses with his wife, Laura, and their four children.

All of the kids pitch in with the thousands of chickens raised on W&L Farms in Cumberland County. In fact, the youngest Sanderson, 4-year-old Rebekah, tells people she "goes to chicken school" when her siblings go to school, her mom said with a chuckle.

Poultry production is a family affair for the Sandersons, who are contract breeder and broiler producers for Tyson Foods. They are a prime example of a family farm.

In Virginia, there are more than 880 chicken farms ...