Higher Oak Farm; Where We Are Now

So over the past year our farm has changed tremendously.

January 2020 we started the year off with a barn, a temporary house 4 X ‘50’ houses, 7 breeding runs, a poly-tunnel and an incubator that could fit 60 eggs in. My how we’ve grown! Our smallholding in Lymm now consists of a barn, a temporary house, 2 laying houses, each housing 150 birds in, we’ve got 6 of our ‘50’ houses, 2 of our ‘100’ houses, 7 breeding runs, 2 brooding sheds, a holding shed, a poly-tunnel, 2 new incubators pushing our capacity up to 1300 eggs at a time, a wildflower meadow, 10 beehives, a shepherds hut and a dog!

This past year has been the weirdest one for all of us. Never in my life did I think i’d see a pandemic, let alone run a business during one. Luckily for us, our business was one of few that actually thrived during the pandemic. People stockpiling all sorts of stuff meant that shops were looking sparse, pushing people to change the way they shopped, sourcing more stuff locally, learning about food miles and what this means to our planet and all in all becoming a little bit more self sufficient.

At one point last summer we had waiting lists of weeks for both our eating eggs and our hens. People were spending more time at home, in their garden; revamping chicken houses or just building a run from scratch. It was honestly, madness - in THE best possible way! The selling of our eggs and our birds continued right through the summer into the beginning of Autumn. At this point, we opened ‘The Shepherd’s Hut’.

We opened the hut for the first time on the 26th November 2020. In the weeks running up to our opening, we had so many people speculating what it was, and what it was going to be used for. Once we opened our doors, it gave so many more local people the opportunity to learn about us and what we do on our farm. We took this opportunity to educate people on the poultry industry and the advantages of buying local, naturally farmed eggs and produce. We started putting some of our own baked treats and and they were flying off the shelves. It was almost impossible to keep it full!

We genuinely couldn’t believe the reaction that we got from local residents and people from further afield. Hearing such positive feedback only spurred us on more. We sourced local produce like our Apple juice and even started to make jams using local produce too.

After a few months, we deiced the only logical next step was to put a coffee machine in the hut, who doesn’t love a coffee or a cuppa with a slice of brownie? You’d be mad if you didn’t!

I honestly can’t believe how much our business has changed in the past 12 months, the support that we’re getting of local Lymm residents and the time it takes to feed chickens! We’re super excited to see where we’ll be this time next year.

What Does 'Free Range' Actually Mean?

After the year we’ve had, as a nation, we’re much more aware of where our food is actually coming from. We all remember at the start of lockdown when the supermarkets were running out of the essentials, one of which was eggs; We had never been so busy, absolutely amazing for us!

There’s always a common misconception as to what ‘Free Range’ actually means when it comes to the care and environment the hens live in. until I delved into the egg industry, I actually had no idea what any of the terms meant. I’ve just written a quick blog to explain what they means and what it means for the hens too, just so you can make the right decision for you when buying food products..

Breakdown of egg codes:

When you buy an egg from a supermarket, they all have a code that’s been stamped onto the shell. It’ll look something like this:

Working from left to right, the number at the front is reference to the status of the farm, 0 means that it’s come from an organic farm. 1 means that it’s come from a free range farm. 2 means that it’s come from hens living in a barn and then 3 means that the hens are in caged conditions. Next along is the country of origin; UK. This is then followed by the individual Farm code. This allows each egg to be traced back to the farm where it was produced and then underneath is the ‘best before’ date.

The meaning behind the terms.

Organic - This is the best standard that you can get. All our hens are kept to organic standards, this means that the hens eat all organic feed, have access all day to the outdoors they are kept in much smaller flocks compared to other status’. The maximum hens in one coop is 2,000 birds on a large commercial scale, we have at most 180 birds in 1 house. The hens have 10m2 per bird available outside of the coop and we have maximum 6 hens per m2 inside the coop. They have 10cm of space per feeder per bird, they have at least 18cm of perch per bird too, which means that the hens don’t do something called ‘Vent pecking’ this basically means that there’s enough space between the perches so that the hens cant peck the bum of the hen sitting above them - gross, I know, but it does happen. In short, it’s great to get anything that’s kept to organic standards.

Free Range - In the UK free range means that the hens have access to the outdoors for a period of the day. There’s currently no specific timings that the hens have to be outside for, so this may change from farm to farm. They do have to have 4m2 per bird when they do have access to the outdoors. The hens can eat a much cheaper food, which means that all sorts can be added to it and this is not monitored through any system. Most free range hens become 'free range’ at about 18 weeks old, just when they start to lay. Before this they can have been reared in barn conditions.

Barn Hens - The hens are reared and live their whole lives inside a barn, these normally consist of shed that can house from 10,000 to 30,000 hens at a time. Although they are kept inside, the hens are free to move around the barn. It’s quite normal in this situation for hens to be ‘de-beaked’ this means that the top portion of the beak is lazer removed when they are a chick to stop them from pecking one another and causing harm.

Caged Hens - So the term ‘Battery hens’ used to refer to hens kept in tiny cages by themselves with just food and water. Since 2012, an order came in where this was no longer accpectable- great news! However, they changed it to be called ‘Enriched Caging or Colony Caging’ This basically means that they are still kept inside cages for their whole lives, but they do have a few extra bits; they aren’t on their own. Hens are flock animals so naturally do better living with others, they have the potential to nest, they have the potential to roost, potential to scratch and stretch, all of which are natural behaviours to hens.

So there you go, if you didn’t know, now you do! You can now use this information to make your own decisions on which eggs you choose to buy.

5 Reasons To Keep Chickens

With spring and summer approaching, people are spending more and more time in their gardens. Why not add to your garden by bringing in some chickens? Here’s 5 reasons why you should definitely add them to your family.

1. Living a healthy lifestyle

   The reason most people like to keep chickens is for the lifestyle that they stand for and provide. They provide you with a more self-sufficient lifestyle. Albeit a small portion of your lifestyle, it’s super satisfying, as you know the whole process and what the animal has been fed and how they’ve been treated.

2. Super tasty, fresh eggs

   There’s something unexplainably rewarding when you walk down to your chicken coop and scope up freshly laid eggs- maybe it’s the fact that we are a small part of this process or maybe it’s caring for these incredible animals… we’re unsure but what we do know is it’s an amazing feeling. What some of you may not know is that when you buy a supermarket egg, these can be up to a month old! They definitely taste better because they are fresher, along with other things.

3. Secret Gardeners

   Chickens are amazing gardeners, to a certain point, when they start to eat the plants and flowers you have, maybe it’s time to pop them back in their run! They eat all sorts of bugs and insects that could be causing damage to your garden. Chickens naturally scratch around in the soil to turn it over and release the bugs in the dirt, this is great for the soil in your garden as it moves all the nutrients around. Chicken poo is also an amazing fertiliser. It’s full of nitrogen which is perfect for the soil to help other plants thrive. If you also have your own compost heap or know someone that does, you can chuck all their bedding/straw into their as well, giving it' great nutrients.

4. Low Maintenance

   People presume that chickens take a lot of hard work to look after, on our sort of scale, you’d be right, but as a homeowner with a few chickens in your back garden you couldn’t be more wrong. The most extensive part of keeping chickens is prepping for their arrival, ensuring the coop is built and the run is constructed. Once you’ve got that bit done, it should take about 20 minutes a day for you to feed and water your chickens! The hens need letting out in the morning, with feed and fresh water. If you’ve got a big water tank and food container, they should last all day, if not, you may need to check on them in the afternoon and re-fill their food and water. Finally, in the evening you will need to lock their coop up. All of this can easily be done in less than 20 minutes.

5. Responsibilities

   Keeping chickens is a great way to teach your chickens the fundamental life principals. Although this won’t apply to everyone, if you do have children, teaching them with chickens will give them experiences they will remember their entire life!

   To keep chickens you need to be responsible, consistent and dedicated. You can get your kids involved, by helping to let the chickens out each morning and helping to clean them out each week. This will help teach your children the importance of caring for others and the importance of being responsible. A huge part of having chickens is teaching your children about where eggs come from and the idea of the food chain.

Extra bits of information.

1. Early Mornings

   Believe us when we say, hens wake up at dawn and they are not impressed when they are locked inside their coop waiting to get outside! You don’t need to be up at dawn but most mornings our girls are out before 6:30am. If you do still really want chickens and can’t stomach the early morning, you could always purchase an automatic coop door so you can still enjoy your sleep!

   2. They Need Attention Every Day

   Like most other pets, chickens are tying and you need to make sure someone is there every day to feed and water them. This isn’t a problem if you have people close by you trust who can care for them whilst you are on holiday. However you need to bare this in mind before committing to chickens.

   3. Chickens Need Space

   If you don’t have a reasonable sized garden you are going to struggle to keep more than a few chickens. They don’t like being kept in small spaces and when they are cramped it can lead to them getting agitated and fighting each other, which is not what you want!