The Brecks Food Trail - thedms
The Brecks Food Trail - thedms
The Brecks Food Trail - thedms
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Brecks</strong><br />
<strong>Food</strong> <strong>Trail</strong><br />
see food eat food meet the producer<br />
MENU<br />
Introduction<br />
Area map<br />
Chefs<br />
<strong>Food</strong> <strong>Trail</strong>s<br />
Specialist Producers<br />
Diverse Drinks<br />
Farmers Markets<br />
Farm Shops<br />
Poultry and Eggs<br />
Woodend Green Farm:<br />
Katie Rothwell and Tom Stocking<br />
“My name is Katie and along with my partner Tom<br />
we rear and breed poultry and other livestock for<br />
the back garden keeper, breeder and smallholder.<br />
We stock a variety of birds including pure breeds,<br />
bantams and hybrids to name a few! I have lived<br />
and grown up on a farm all my life and have kept<br />
chickens from the age of five. My first two hens<br />
were two Rhode Island Reds called Clara and<br />
Henrietta and every since then my interest and<br />
love for keeping chickens has grown and grown!<br />
Tom has also kept chickens from an early age so<br />
between us we hope we can offer you plenty of<br />
experience and advice”.<br />
Contact: telephone 07879 214453<br />
Email: rectoryfarm@hotmail.co.uk<br />
Location: Woodend Green Farm,<br />
Thurston, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk<br />
www.purebreedpoultry.com<br />
Fabien R Eagle, Poultry Auctioneer<br />
Fabien Eagle’s family have been involved in<br />
poultry farming since 1892, but now the auction<br />
side of the business has taken over. Fabian stages<br />
monthly poultry auctions at Elveden Farms on<br />
Sundays throughout the summer months as well as<br />
at Holywell Row, Mildenhall every Wednesday and<br />
Swaffham Poultry Market every Saturday throughout<br />
the year. You can buy everything from a tiny<br />
bantam to a 30 inch high Brahama chicken.<br />
Brahamas have feathered legs and a gentle<br />
disposition and surprisingly, for the size of the<br />
bird, lay quite small eggs.<br />
A chicken can sell from as little as £1 to say £20<br />
for a Aracana, that lays green and blue eggs. Fabien<br />
says each breed of chicken has a different character<br />
and you get the most noise from small cockerels!<br />
It’s not just chickens that are on sale, there are<br />
ducks and geese too.<br />
Start small<br />
I suggest starting with three or four hens:<br />
it’s a manageable number, and you may<br />
change your mind about the breed you’d like.<br />
Also, if all your hens are the same age, they’ll<br />
all start and stop laying at the same time, so<br />
it’s good to stagger their age to keep a<br />
productive laying cycle.<br />
Buy hens from reputable suppliers<br />
I advise against buying on the internet.<br />
Instead, get a specialist poultry magazine and<br />
search the small ads. Go and see the supplier<br />
and check that the environment the hens are<br />
bred in is clean: you want healthy birds that<br />
have been reared in a good environment.<br />
Don’t start with a cockerel<br />
I recommend buying only females when<br />
you’re starting out, then add a cockerel when<br />
you’re ready to breed your own birds. <strong>The</strong><br />
minute you have a cockerel, the eggs become<br />
fertile, the hens will sit on them and then they<br />
could hatch and become chicks.<br />
Beginners should avoid ‘rescue’hens<br />
I don’t recommend beginners taking on former<br />
battery hens, because they have a shorter<br />
life expectancy and they can often be quite<br />
traumatised, meaning they’ll take time and<br />
effort to settle.<br />
Find a good home<br />
Most problems in hens are caused by stress,<br />
so space is important.<br />
<strong>The</strong> poultry press is great for finding different<br />
hen-house styles, but you can adapt a shed:<br />
hens simply need shelter from the elements<br />
and from predators, space to move around<br />
and food. If you’re looking for an easy-tomaintain<br />
home, Omlet does a little Eglu, or a<br />
bigger Eglu Cube. Try to make sure your hen<br />
house is off the ground and can be shut at<br />
night, to deter rats and foxes.