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.

Wednesday, 30 June 2010

Onions in bloom

My vegetable garden has taken a bit of a back seat so the plants that have germinated have done their own thing a little!

Thursday, 17 June 2010

Foundations laid for the wind turbine

Base being concreted into the ground. The concrete now needs to set

Wednesday, 16 June 2010

Busy bird

Busy catching worms - so many mouths to feed

Sunday, 6 June 2010

Photos from a walk

The wheat is growing - harvest is only ten weeks away!

The beans are in flower - they had a slow start

Wildflowers too

Buttercups in abundance

After the abundance of dandylions we now have an abundance of buttercups.

Elderberries in the hedge

The hedge is full of elderberries - cordial to come!

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.