OUR STORY

Tony has lived at Coldharbour Farm for around 7 years. Tony's son, John, has a very keen interest in animals, and as we grew up in a farming environment, it made sense to get some chickens as a starter for him. John's passion for the birds grew, most particularly with the Light Sussex and Orpington breeds, which he wanted to breed on to keep the breeds pure and to show and, despite John living away from the farm, quite a flock was developed. Tony also has about 40 breeding quail and 14 budgies. Our Mum has 10 ducks, 5 geese, 5 ponies, 2 sheep, 3 cats and a dog!

Gwen moved to the farm for a temporary stay in April 2020, with her three Light Sussex hens, which had been a struggle to find at the start of the Pandemic. Gwen is now living in her own house about 3 miles from the farm, together with her dog, however her 3 hens and 50,000 bees are still all at the farm!

During 2020, we discovered that laying hens were becoming more and more difficult to source, and our breeding programme was being stretched to the limit with people looking for hens.

Given that there are other animals on the farm, for our family, holidays take a lot of planning and support, and it occurred to us that, with many more people having hens, there would be a significant requirement for a 'Hen Hotel' once we were all allowed out and able to go on holiday again. Even a weekend away has been impossible in the last year, and of course, caring for animals when you are always at home is relatively easy. Chicken BnB allows for going away for anything from one night to a month, as we are all on the farm anyway, caring for our own animals, and are very happy to look after yours too!