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.

Thursday, 22 September 2011

September Hops

Thursday, 15 September 2011

Church in the woods

This beautiful little church was just around the bend in the road when I travelled through the Yeo Valley - breathtaking

The magnificent Yeo valley - Blagdon Water

Last weekend I visited the Yeo Valley - so beautiful

Sunday, 11 September 2011

Green woodpecker on the lawn

Great to be a farmer and to see the busy green woodpecker searching for ants - sorry the picture is a bit grainy ..

Saturday, 10 September 2011

12 Days of Christmas

Becketts Farm use YouTube too - another great topic for discussion

Cleeve Nursery

Another great discussion on Cleeve Nursery too. Check out the video

Certainly Wood at the Nuffield Study Group

Been to a Nuffield study weekend on communications and social media and found the talk on Certainly Wood fascinating. Check out the video.

An odd find

This fungus attached to the tree was an amazing find on the farm. It is so intricate and quite beautiful.

Sunday, 4 September 2011

Odds and ends

As summer draws to a close - some of my favourite photographs ..

Saturday, 3 September 2011

September podcast

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.