Poultry

There are two reasons why we have poultry; to clean and fertilise the fields whilst they rotate around 300 acres of the farm and to provide wonderful tasting birds and eggs. Our chickens are ready for the table in 100 days, unlike the fast growing commercial breeds which are forced to ‘mature’ in only 39 days.

The secret to good poultry is for them to spend most of their time outside getting around 30% of their food from grass and insects naturally. We have developed a system which ensures our poultry spend most of their days outside, unlike many so-called “free range” systems where the birds hardly ever go outdoors. Our chickens are kept in very low density houses which are open on to the ground and are moved on to fresh grass every week. None of our poultry are caged in any way and are free to roam happily across our fields.

Geese & Ducks - Our traditional breeds include Aylesbury duck and Norfolk geese. As with our chickens, they spend their days in an outdoor environment with plenty of space to wander.

Chickens - The breeds we use were developed in France for the outdoor Labelle Rouge market. After extensive testing we selected the two breeds that we believe produce the best meat. As with our other poultry, they spend their entire daytime outside on our pastures.

Hens - Our pure bred French hens each lay approximately 150 dark brown eggs per year. A conventional hybrid hen will lay over 300. A hen’s diet has a major influence on the nutritional value of the eggs produced. A good diet of whole grains, fresh pastures and all the worms and insects they can find creates eggs with an Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acid ratio of close to 1:1. Most commercially produced battery eggs have a ratio of approximately 16:1.

Turkeys - The traditional Norfolk Black is considered one of Europe's finest table turkeys and is a slow maturing breed; you need to taste ours to believe how good a turkey can be!