New Brand, New Website, New Ventures ……. New Challenges!

NewGraphic representation of the Hen's Dens logo Brand – instigated by new ventures, designed by a friend and very clever graphic designer, we hope you agree how good it is!
New Website – again instigated by new ventures our website has been totally remade and again we hope you agree how good it has turned out! Your thoughts and comments would be gratefully received.
New Ventures – Life was probably busy enough with our organic laying hens, egg packing, apple trees, suckler cows, etc….. however we had a mad five minutes and decided to make a couple or three of radical changes,  light bulb moments (according to Emma) …..
– Rearing our own hens (pullets) rather than buying them in, allowing us more control, better more robust hens and saving us some money, but requiring a big investment and another discipline to manage and resource.A close up shot of a row of courgette plants growing in a field

– Growing organic vegetables for Riverford as part of their cooperative of ten local growers, in theory working really well on our farm in rotation with the hens and making use of our plentiful supply of manure but a rapid learning curve.

– Converting our original three hen houses into glamping pods to encourage Orchard Organic Farm - A shot of the front of a hens den with a glass of champagne and an open book and plant in a pot on a garden table in the foreground with a black dog laying on the porch of the hens den in the backgroundvisitors to stay, enjoy a holiday on an organic farm. Now finished and open for business.

More on the above three in blogs to follow!

New Challenges – All three of the above have eaten up far more time and funds than anticipated but should make us a more diverse and rounded business and pay us back over time.

But what we really didn’t need is the summer of 2018 which is going to be recorded in the record books for the weather. The ‘proper’ winter extended on well into May and then gave way straight into Summer, and what a summer so far. We always knew we had a ‘dry’ farm, getting a lot less rain than farms around us and with a relatively sandy soil, but we have never had a really dry summer until this year, the year we decided to start growing vegetables. No grass, veg written off, transplanted trees dying, tempers fraying ….. still a dry hot summer should keep the visitors happy!