Clean out

Last Thursday the chickens of the 2006 flock were all taken away for slaughter. For me this is always the worst day of the cycle. The chickens stay on the farm for approximately 13 months and all the animals for which we took care during all this time are suddenly reduced to chicken nuggets and cat food. But this is the unevitable outcome of keeping commercial chickens for eggs.

After catching all chickens, a period of 5 weeks of rigorous cleaning follows. Known to us as “The Clean Out”! This involves many people, equipment and contracting companies and always causes a lot of stress and hard work. All equipment normally breaks down and it usually rains.

At the end of every flock cycle we advertise in the local news paper and try to sell as many chickens as possible to the public as back garden chickens. What was interesting this year is that there was a great interest among the public and we probably sold about three times as many chickens as other years. We think this is down to the “Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall effect”. If you would like to get some end of lay hens (or spent hens as they are known in the industry) you will have to wait until May 2009.

One thing we do learn at the end of a flock’s life, is how many chickens end up in the abattoir. And we can account for how many birds were taken by the fox during the last thirteen months. What is really interesting is that we had to take the llamas away from the chicken houses to another field last year, to keep them away from the newly planted woodland and blueberry orchard. And the number of chickens that has fallen victim to the fox compared to the previous two flocks (when the llamas were patrolling the chicken houses) has doubled!

Instead of a picture of stressed out dirty people, I choose a picture of gorse flowers, who always flower year round on the farm, and smell like coconut sunbathing oil.

March 2008

Well this is the first blog from Bedport farm. The idea is to give regular updates to our customers and people who have a general interest in organic farming. The most important message this month is that we had to take the dicision that we are going to remove all flowers from the blueberry bushes this spring to give the plants the chance to put all their resources into growing more stems and leaves in the coming season. Last summer with all the wind and rain did not give the plants the chance to grow sufficiently. So the result of this is that our first harvest will be delayed from summer 2008 to summer 2009. In February we pruned all plants, and towards the end of the month we saw the first green leaves starting to appear from the buds. Spring is about to begin! The picture: Ewes and lambs in a neighbouring field, rolling Devon hills on a frosty February morning. Postcard picture guaranteed!