Poultry Discussion

Why poultry discussion? Well we are chicken farmers and all too often when we talk with family and friends we start with talking about chickens then end up talking about anything from food and food safety, climate change, wildlife, birds, our farm. We started this blog to communicate what we are finding out about the world around us and how we try to farm in a sustainable way so that our farm is here not only for ourselves and our neighbours but for the future too.

Tuesday, 25 May 2010

Flowers in abundance

Each week the flowers change on the farm - beautiful

Saturday, 15 May 2010

Flowers on the walk

Friday, 7 May 2010

More yellow archangel

Wet woodland

This is the regenerating wet woodland starting to look beautiful!

Lapwing plots

We have made some plots in the wheat crop for lapwings to nest. We will keep you posted on whether we get any lapwings nesting!

Yellow archangel

Yellow archangel is a yellow-flowered plant with nettle-like leaves is a member of the dead-nettle and mint family (Natural England). It is a native plant of moist woodlands, often growing with bluebells.

Thursday, 6 May 2010

Flowers in succession

Bluebells in abundance

Oak trees in leaf

The oak trees are coming into leaf and to their annual glory.

New vines have been planted

We have all lended a hand to plant the new vines in rain and hail! Will keep you posted on how they grow. You can iss in the photo the wax that has been put over the top of the vine.

Hill Farm, Castle Frome, Herefordshire

Hill Farm is about 300 acres in size - an acre is about the area of a football pitch. This year we are growing feed wheat; winter beans, spring beans and oats. We also have 50 acres of woodland.

The wheat was planted in the autumn and will be harvested in August. We will feed the wheat to our chickens and sell some of the straw to other farmers who will probably use it for bedding for their livestock. We will bale some up for ourselves and chop the rest and incorporate (put it back) into the soil to improve soil structure. Beans were planted in the spring along with spring oats.

The woodland areas are traditional mixed woodland with conifers and areas of deciduous trees. There is a myriad of wildlife on the farm - mammals, birds, insects ... we will tell their story in this blog. They live in the woodland, fields, lakes, and streams. We hope that you will enjoy the story of our farm.