April 29th, 2010
Norfolk Black Turkeys
The Turkeys are now in full lay, they started in early March and have just got stronger and stronger. They are now laying well and there is very little broodiness which I attribute to their being free ranged.
We have started to hatch our eggs and fertility is high and the hatch rate is over 90% so we cannot really ask for more than that.
Demand for the Turkey poults is high but we also are now offering Day old Chicks for sale which is a new departure for us. All of our hatchings have been sold so far with customers still coming in and the season has hardly started yet! It just goes to show that people are keen on having a good quality product and we do pride ourselves on the quality of our Turkeys.
Soay Sheep
This is a wonderful time of the year for smallholders as the lambs are being born. Its also a stressful time of the year but very rewarding when the little ones are born. We have a very good Ram Lamb to Ewe Lamb ratio – 6 girls to 2 boys so far with 5 lambs still to come. Nature, however, does have a way of evening things out so we are expecting more Ram Lambs to be born but it is already a very successful Soay year for us at Over the Stile.
Hatching Eggs
We are changing our website to now offer quality hatching eggs from our Rare and Traditional breed flocks. Our hens run with the Cockerels all the time and so fertility should be high. We also offer some very very high quality birds so we look forward to selling our hatching eggs over the coming months.
Peafowl
Our Peafowl are looking superb with the male really in prime condition. The egg laying has not yet started but we do expect them at any stage now and we will be offering the poults for sale later this year. Peafowl are deservedly very popular and demand has been very high with all of our birds being sold out. But we will have the pecking of little beaks soon and new Peafowl will soon be on offer.
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February 11th, 2010
Winter continues, not too surprising really as it is February, but I really cannot remember us having such poor weather for many a year now. Hopefully we will turn the corner soon and March will reward us with good weather.
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Tags: Hatching Eggs, Micro Pigs, Norfolk Black Turkeys, Soay Sheep
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January 10th, 2010
Happy New Year!
Here we are again in a New Year and what a start to the year it is proving. Here in East Sussex we have been pretty hard hit with all the snow. We have had well over one foot of snow and in places it has drifted to almost two feet in depth. It makes walking over the fields quite laborious but the animals have to be fed whatever the weather!
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Tags: Micro Pigs, Norfolk Black Turkeys, Soay Sheep
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December 8th, 2009
Happy Christmas
At this festive time of year we wish all of our customers a very Happy Christmas and a very Turkey filled New Year!
This is a very odd time of year. The evenings draw in and the rain just seems to keep on falling – it a rain thing!
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November 2nd, 2009
Turkeys
The Turkeys continue to grow and grow! They are really piling through the food at the moment with a sack of growers disappearing in just a day. We intend to cull 10 Stags for the table in December and already have ‘homes’ for the birds. Hopefully the reduction in the Stags will cut down on the feed needed as well as cutting down on the mating fights that will take place in March!
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Tags: Buff Sussex Bantams, Turkeys
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October 19th, 2009
Norfolk Black Turkeys
The Turkey enclosure has been built and the Turkeys just love it. They are completely free ranging now and have really grown quickly which we attribute to being outside with plenty of fresh air and natural food upon which to forage.
We really hope that this will feed through into an excellent egg laying programme for 2010. Our rearing arks have arrived and so we really are all set for raising upward of 1,000 Turkey poults which will be for sale in 2010.
Its very exciting at the moment. We also have a few too many Stags in the pen which we intend to slaughter for the Christmas table for 2009 but these will only be marketed locally. We aim to raise maybe 100 for the table in 2010 which we may sell through the web site.
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Tags: Buff Sussex Bantams, Norfolk Black Turkeys, Soay Sheep
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September 2nd, 2009
Free Range Turkeys
The Norfolk Black Turkey enclosure is starting to take shape. A huge enclosure of 2,500 sq metres is being built with 7 foot high wire and anti fox wire below. It is just going to be a matter of days before the Turkeys will be out and free ranging. They are going to love it! Either that or just simply fly away!
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Tags: Free Range Turkeys, Organic, Pheasants
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July 22nd, 2009
Its been another busy month here at the Over the Stile small holding. With plenty to keep us occupied.
Norfolk Black Turkey Poults
The response to our Norfolk Black Turkey Poults was excellent and exceeded all expectations. We sold all of our hatched stock for 2009 and could have sold more but then there would have been no layers left for 2010 year!
We feel that people are really starting to understand more about Turkeys. If you go for large commercial breeds that develop quickly then the result will be a dry uninteresting Christmas dinner.
The Norfolk Black is slower growing has fine textured meat and has a small layer of fat under the skin which ensures a moist and tasty meal!
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Tags: Cockerels, Norfolk Black Turkeys
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