Our organic chicken

Dear Valued Customer,

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for supporting Sheepdrove and a way of farming that we know is better for the environment, farm animals and ultimately, we believe, better for us all.

Over the past 10 years we have worked hard at Sheepdrove to rear chickens in a way that sets an outstanding example of an environment tailored to the birds - who range free on lush pasture with trees, herbs and wild food - as near as possible to their natural habitat. We have worked very closely with the Food Animal Initiative (FAI) near Oxford and also the Organic Research Centre over the best way to do this. Sheepdrove has always campaigned for and supported Compassion in World Farming for better animal welfare. And we exceeded the Soil Association’s already high standards for chicken rearing.

However, we believe that we should push even further to achieve our ideals for producing happy organic chickens! We want to look at even slower-growing breeds, with an even stronger instinct to forage. We also wish to feed them exclusively on what we grow at the farm. Around the world there is still too heavy a reliance on soya and maize; we cannot grow these crops ourselves and they have to come from overseas. We feel passionately that our farm has to do more to become increasingly sustainable and self-sufficient.

As we investigate a new way of rearing chickens, we have decided to take a break, so to speak. We will use our ‘time out’ to pursue this important research with small numbers of birds.

In the meantime, we are able to continue our dedication to customers. We have sourced a very good organic chicken from a producer with similar ethics and welfare to our own. The breed of chicken is Cotswold White; they are reared for a period of 70 - 82 days depending on time of year. Like our own chickens they have mobile houses, ensuring that each flock of birds has a fresh and clean area to forage.

Once again, our heartfelt thanks for supporting Sheepdrove and our way of farming.

Yours sincerely,

 

  Peter & Juliet Kindersley.