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, 14 January 2010

Bird mixes in the snow

We were amazed how many birds were feeding on the bird mixes during the snowy weather. Some days there were literally hundreds of birds feeding - an incredible sight as they all flew up into the air and back down again to feed.

More snow pictures

We had to clear the drive and the lane so that the feed lorries and gas tanker could get to us. We also had to bring in tankers of water for a couple of days when the pipework froze.

Thursday, 7 January 2010

Snow on the farm

Just like the rest of the UK we have seen more snow in the last couple of week than in several decades!

Monday, 14 December 2009

Pruning the vines

We have started the task of pruning the vines. a rather cold job with the bitter winds.

Tuesday, 1 December 2009

Winter skies

Sunday, 11 October 2009

More photos from Mozambique

The sunsets were amazing in Mozambique. I don't think that the photo does it justice. The church in Nampula was also very striking.

Farming in Mozambique

I spent a week in Mozambique at the end of September. The contrast of the landscape to the UK was so striking. The farming principles were very similar and it was an incredible experience - one I will never forget.

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.