Frost's Farm

by Carolyn

Some four years ago, I decided it would be really good to have a few chickens roaming around, free range chickens of course. I understood that would be the best quality I could have for my kitchen, family diet and also maybe get my littlest fellow to learn about food and where it comes from. I liked the whole 'Local food, MILES better' ethic and decided we would do our bit.

My name is Carolyn, my husband is Martin and our children are Amy, Jason, Conor and Max, my husband's family have farmed for 80 years in Cambridge. After a little disapproval from Martin and threats that these chickens were my and my children's responsibility (as he had the farm to manage) I set off on my quest.

We had some old stables and decided this would make an ideal home for my birds and a paddock for them to free range in.

We both arrived at a family friends house who had reared chickens for years and purchased our first five girls, all Rhode Rocks. When homed they seemed such a small group, but we waited with anticipation for our first free range eggs.

One morning Martin had just been passing the barn when he checked on the egg laying situation and appeared at the kitchen door with two beautifully formed fresh eggs. After much excitement in the kitchen we attempted to fry our first eggs, and shared the bounty sparingly amongst us all.

These little chickens of ours proved to have many visitors, and as a result became extremely tame, and you know what happened next....we bought more chickens and I loved them all!

Eventually we became overrun with eggs, and I converted an old rabbit hutch and started to offer my fresh eggs outside the front of the farm, with great results and more and more demands put onto us to supply customers. This resulted in people often knocking at our door first thing in the morning or last thing at night to enquire if we had any more, as our stocks had run out outside.

Martin finally relented and we put aside 1 acre and purchased three large chicken houses to comfortably accommodate 100 chickens in each. We now sell our fresh eggs at local farmers' markets, and directly from the front of the farm.

One day a customer asked me if we sold chickens, after some thought I decided to let him have a handful of our girls, and that was how the start of how our hens for sale came about.

In the past 4 years we have learnt so much about this easy, rewarding hobby of keeping chickens. We now ensure that all our hens come fully vaccinated, blood tested and ready to roll with the potential of first eggs appearing in 2 to 3 weeks after purchase.

You are welcome to visit us however we are a working farm and would appreciate a quick phonecall to organise a convenient time.

Frost Free Range Hens
The White House,
New Shardelowes Farm,
Balsham Road, Fulbourn
CB21 5 DA

Telephone : 01223 882291 or 07775 853888