Poultry
Our pond is full of character thanks to its resident ducks and geese, and our flock of chickens stay busy in their coop. Between them, they lay plenty of fresh eggs—which you can pick up in the farm shop.
Chickens
Female chickens are called hens, and males are called cockerels – they are larger and more colourful, but also more aggressive and noisy. You may see the chickens ‘bathing’ in soil or dust – they do this to clean their plumage and rid themselves of insect parasites.
Most of our chickens are cross-breeds. However we do have some pure bred chickens amongst the flock. The chickens with feathered legs are Brahmas, a breed originating from India. Others you may see here include the red-brown Rhode Island Reds and the Light Sussex, which are white with black napes and tails, and brown barn hens.
We keep chickens for their eggs, to sell here at the Farm. The eggs are collected daily and are sold through our Farm shop. Our hens lay an average of 280 eggs a year each. Some are ‘rescue hens’ from chicken farms, no longer productive enough for commercial egg-laying. Chickens also slow down their egg-laying in winter in line with the shorter days and on some occasions we might not get any at all. As such we buy in organic eggs from another Farm so we can give our birds a rest, but still cater for our customers!