The Brecks Food Trail - thedms

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The Brecks Food Trail see food eat food meet the producer MENU Introduction Area map Chefs Food Trails Specialist Producers Diverse Drinks Farmers Markets Farm Shops Poultry and Eggs Woodend Green Farm: Katie Rothwell and Tom Stocking “My name is Katie and along with my partner Tom we rear and breed poultry and other livestock for the back garden keeper, breeder and smallholder. We stock a variety of birds including pure breeds, bantams and hybrids to name a few! I have lived and grown up on a farm all my life and have kept chickens from the age of five. My first two hens were two Rhode Island Reds called Clara and Henrietta and every since then my interest and love for keeping chickens has grown and grown! Tom has also kept chickens from an early age so between us we hope we can offer you plenty of experience and advice”. Contact: telephone 07879 214453 Email: rectoryfarm@hotmail.co.uk Location: Woodend Green Farm, Thurston, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk www.purebreedpoultry.com Fabien R Eagle, Poultry Auctioneer Fabien Eagle’s family have been involved in poultry farming since 1892, but now the auction side of the business has taken over. Fabian stages monthly poultry auctions at Elveden Farms on Sundays throughout the summer months as well as at Holywell Row, Mildenhall every Wednesday and Swaffham Poultry Market every Saturday throughout the year. You can buy everything from a tiny bantam to a 30 inch high Brahama chicken. Brahamas have feathered legs and a gentle disposition and surprisingly, for the size of the bird, lay quite small eggs. A chicken can sell from as little as £1 to say £20 for a Aracana, that lays green and blue eggs. Fabien says each breed of chicken has a different character and you get the most noise from small cockerels! It’s not just chickens that are on sale, there are ducks and geese too. Start small I suggest starting with three or four hens: it’s a manageable number, and you may change your mind about the breed you’d like. Also, if all your hens are the same age, they’ll all start and stop laying at the same time, so it’s good to stagger their age to keep a productive laying cycle. Buy hens from reputable suppliers I advise against buying on the internet. Instead, get a specialist poultry magazine and search the small ads. Go and see the supplier and check that the environment the hens are bred in is clean: you want healthy birds that have been reared in a good environment. Don’t start with a cockerel I recommend buying only females when you’re starting out, then add a cockerel when you’re ready to breed your own birds. The minute you have a cockerel, the eggs become fertile, the hens will sit on them and then they could hatch and become chicks. Beginners should avoid ‘rescue’hens I don’t recommend beginners taking on former battery hens, because they have a shorter life expectancy and they can often be quite traumatised, meaning they’ll take time and effort to settle. Find a good home Most problems in hens are caused by stress, so space is important. The poultry press is great for finding different hen-house styles, but you can adapt a shed: hens simply need shelter from the elements and from predators, space to move around and food. If you’re looking for an easy-tomaintain home, Omlet does a little Eglu, or a bigger Eglu Cube. Try to make sure your hen house is off the ground and can be shut at night, to deter rats and foxes.
The Brecks Food Trail see food eat food meet the producer MENU Introduction Area map Chefs Food Trails Specialist Producers Diverse Drinks Farmers Markets Farm Shops Poultry and Eggs And don’t assume all ducks quack the same, because some breeds “coo” a bit like a pigeon. Pure breeds and cross breed poultry are sold, Large Fowl and Bantams. Breeds can include Sussex, Marans, Brahmas, Cochins, Pekins, Polish, Rhode Island Reds, Old English Game, D’uccles, Japanese, Legbars, Araucanas to name a few. They also sell a wide variety of Point of Lay, hybrid pullets for egg production, for example, Amberlinks and Bluebells. Most weeks domestic ducks and geese are entered, farmyard white ducks and geese and callducks as well as Indian Runners and Muscovies. Occasionally there may be ornamental waterfowl to sell such as Mandarins, Carolinas and Teal. A variety of small livestock, including all types of poultry and waterfowl as well as rabbits, hatching eggs and poultry feed are also featured in the auction. Location: ‘Swaffham Poultry Market’, Lynn Road, Swaffham, Norfolk, PE37 7BB The poultry auction at Swaffham is on every Saturday. Gates open for entries at 8.30am until 11am. All lots must be booked in with the auctioneer by 11am. The auction commences at 11.30am. Location: Eldon Farm, Holywell Row, Near Mildenhall, Norfolk, IP28 8NA The poultry auction held at Holywell Row is on every Wednesday. Gates open for entries at 7.30am until 10am. The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of The Brecks nor any other organisation associated with this publication. No liability can be accepted for inaccurancies of any description, although The Brecks would be pleased to receive amendments for possible inclusion in future editions. Daily care Hens need feeding morning and night. A protein feed, usually in pellet form, is what encourages them to lay eggs and should be eaten for breakfast. Before bedtime, hens should have a mixed cornfeed or scraps (not meat or fish). Make sure you clear away uneaten food to avoid tempting rats in. Clean out the henhouse once a week. The eggs-tra factor Keeping hens isn’t the cheapest way of obtaining eggs, but you can be sure of their provenance and it is the only sure-fire way of getting fresh eggs. With hybrid birds, you can expect an egg a day from about six months of age. With pure-breeds, you’ll probably have about five eggs a week for the first year of laying, then their laying season will get shorter, starting mid-February and ending in November. The older they get, the shorter their laying season. And lastly... Hens are wonderfully rewarding. Keep your own and you have control over the quality of the birds’ lives and the benefit of enjoying their presence. For details on Francine Raymond’s books, blog, shop and her henkeeping courses, visit www.kitchen-gardenhens.co.uk For general advice, visit www. henkeepersassociation.co.uk. For egg houses, including starter kits with a pair of organically reared hens, visit www.omlet.co.uk
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