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.

Monday, 17 September 2012

Harvesting finished

All the harvesting is completed. We were really lucky that the weather turned when it did and we had a could of really good weeks of weather. Now to think about planting

Sunday, 9 September 2012

Harvesting

The combines are here but the yield of wheat is very disappointing, but looking forward to when it is all safely gathered in.

Saturday, 1 September 2012

Comma on the farm

Saturday, 25 August 2012

St John's Wort

Saturday, 18 August 2012

Beans growing on the farm

Saturday, 11 August 2012

Buckwheat growing on the farm

We are growing some buckwheat - the bees love it

Saturday, 4 August 2012

Mustard for the birds

We are growing food for the birds this winter - we were also thrilled to be highly commended in the RSPB awards this year

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.