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.

Sunday, 5 July 2009

Mustard attracts insects

We have planted mustard in two fields to try and improve the soil structure. We won't have a crop to harvest this year but hopefully it will help to improve the soil for next year. The ladybirds, bees and butterflies seem to be very happy though.

Field margins

The edges of our fields we have left for nature - they are abundant in grasses and wild flowers - so beautiful

Saturday, 27 June 2009

Bees in abundance

Two of the cover crops that we have planted fodder radish and phacelia have been alive with bees this weekend. I am a very amateur photographer and the pictures don't really do the scene justice - there were literally hundreds of bees working away across the flowers. Imagine if all farmers just planted a small field corner or gardeners planted a part of their flower bed - it would make a real difference to the bee population.

Friday, 26 June 2009

Natural England Farm Walk

Yesterday we hosted our first Natural England farm walk looking at the cover crops. There were over thirty people discussing the issues that they had had and their successes with developing wildlife areas for bees, birds, insects and the weather was with us on the day.

Wednesday, 24 June 2009

Vines are growing

The vines are continuing to grow and we hope to be drinking our first wine in five years time!

Housemartins are busy

The house martins are really busy at the moment feeding their young! The nests are a hive of activity.

More cover crops in June

These photos may not be as dramatic as the others, but they show coverage of the soil to prevent soil erosion and we will have to wait and see how the crops progress over the coming months.

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.