Poultry

The Gilbury Farm flock

We keep various chickens in a natural and free range environment.  We have a flock of traditional and rare breeds for laying, including Welsummers, French Copper Black Marans and Light Sussex and we have some young Araucanas to add to the flock  The variety of breeds means that we get a variety of eggs, from smallish dark chocolate coloured ones from the French Copper Blacks to very large pale or white ones from the Light Sussex and the Araucanas will lay vibrant blue eggs.

Eggs - for eating and hatching

The eggs from these chickens are sold locally, direct to customers from the house or delivered. Later this year we hope to obtain a Producers Number and be certified as an Egg Packing Centre in order to sell our eggs through local shops and to restaurants. Any broodies from this flock are also used to hatch eggs under.  We believe that hatching eggs under a broody hen is a beautiful and natural process that the hens get deep pleasure and fulfillment from and the chicks get the best start in life. It is also easier and less time consuming than using an incubator! (but sometimes less reliable!). For further information about our eggs please see the pages for eating or hatching eggs

Indian Game X Light Sussex - the perfect table bird

We have a small breeding flock of Light Sussex hens running with an Indian Game cockerel which makes an excellent cross for producing table birds. The chicks will fatten up in about 4-6 months in an entirely free range environment and produce an impressive amount of breast and leg meat.  We produce a very small number of birds for the table throughout the year, and sell mainly through our 'Egg to Oven' scheme. If you are interested in buying chicken meat from us please see the chicken page for further details. We also sell their hatching eggs, please see the hatching eggs page for further details.

Read our e-book!

We do sell the eggs for hatching though and if you would like to try hatching eggs under a broody hen we have written a short e-book which you can download detailing how to go about this. The book covers everything from regonising and encouraging broodiness, fertile eggs and care of the broody hen to hatching and caring for the new chicks; for further information about the contents and to read a short extract from the introduction please see our e-book page. We also offer after care advice for all our products.

A vulnerable breed

Because the Indian Game breed is considered 'vulnerable' by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, and it is vital to the cross we use for table birds we decided that we should get involved in preservation of the breed.  We therefore have a breeding trio of Indian Game birds and we sell both hatching eggs and young hens and cockerels for breeding.

Our poultry welfare policy

All of our chickens are fed with the Smallholders range of food, which is free from additives and GMO's, as well as a variety of fresh greens. They are all free range and we move their houses and enclosures regularly to reduce any build up of parasites and to give them fresh grass. They are not vaccinated but we do worm them regularly with Flubenvet.  We do not use any chemicals, fertilizers or pesticides in their housing or on their grazing land. The Welfare of our livestock is at the very heart of our husbandry methods and we pride ourselves on keeping our flock happy and healthy through a natural and active lifestyle.