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, 10 March 2009

Spring is coming!

Wednesday, 4 March 2009

Spring is coming

In my walks on the farm over the last week there are so many signs of Spring being just around the corner - the trees are starting to bud with leaves, we have two brave dafodils out on the drive and I found one equally brave primrose brightening up the wood. It is such a time of renewal and it is great to be so close to nature at this time of year.

Tuesday, 10 February 2009

Snowy pictures

Tuesday, 27 January 2009

All quiet on the farm

Well all is quiet on the farm, we are waiting for everything to start to grow. We have been planning our farm walks for 2009 - more details later in the year and the days are really starting to extend now. Spring is coming!!

Friday, 2 January 2009

New Year dawns

A New Year dawns for us and we hope for better things with the weather this year. The farm looks beautiful in the frost. I have taken some photos and will post soon.

Monday, 22 December 2008

Winter solstice

The shortest day has been and gone and the colours in the sky were quite amazing over the Frome Valley.

Saturday, 13 December 2008

December photos

The farm still looks beautiful although a little stark. Here are some pics.

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.