The Devonshire Red Chicken
Chicken as it should be
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Martin Kingdon, Furzebray Farm
Furzebray Farm, near South Molton, North Devon
Martin Kingdon.
A bit of history - Furzebray is a family farm purchased in 1947 by my father and grandfather as a mixed farm of sheep, beef, dairy, pigs and arable. Over the years markets and farming changed and in 1969 the dairy herd became the main part of the business along with growing potatoes.
As with any business if you don't go forward you go back, so about 20 years ago we decided to push the potatoes forward into the wholesale market supplying fish and chip shops plus a local supermarket.
In 1998 we took a bit of a risk and put up our first free range poultry unit. We were one of the first in the country, working with Lloyd Maunder which was pioneering rearing free range chicken for the retail market. The risk paid off, and so our first unit was quickly followed by two more. We then made the decision to sell the dairy herd – a massive change after 32 years of dairy farming!
Where do we go now? – Well, our eldest son Tony is a crazy fisherman and wanted to build a fishing lake. Plans were drawn up for a three acre lake, including a barn conversion which we could let to fishermen and other visitors. We also decided to create a camping and caravan park around Judy's ornamental lake, extensive gardens and recently planted woodland, all within a twelve acre fenced site.
2008– The Furzebray Fishing Lake project is now complete and ready to open on May 3rd – for a sneak preview visit to www.furzebraylakes.co.uk . Tony has now come home to work on the farm for two days a week and hopes to make this full time in a few years. He now has ideas to add some holiday lodges to the project, but we need to replenish our funds first!
Of course all this lake building, woodland and garden development has seen a massive increase in wildlife on and around the lakes with ducks, geese, swans, moorhens, kingfishers and small birds - too many to mention.
Two visitors, however, had to be stopped from gaining access to the site because of the damage they do. One was the otter and the other was the roe deer. We can't afford the otter's diet of fish at £12 a pound and the roe deer were destroying Judy's garden trees, so a very secure fence has been erected to keep them out. This also keeps Charlie fox out so the ducks and geese have a safe haven to live in.
The rest of our farm has been put into stewardship. Since 2003 we have been rearing Lloyd Maunder's slow growing Devonshire Red breed of chicken in our free range units, and all the environmental enhancements, tree planting and conservation margins required around the ranges and sheds to keep the chicken happy seem to also be keeping the wildlife happy. We have plenty of buzzards, kestrels and, best of all, resident barn owls that hunt over the recently established wild flower hay meadow.
We hope you have enjoyed this brief history of our farm's development over the years and we will update you on life here at Furzebray as the year goes by.
Enjoy your free range Devonshire Red Chicken.
Martin & Judy.