We are delighted to announce that Bloomfield Hatch Farm will be supplying Silchester Village Market from Saturday 6th February.

Local farmer, Steve Davies and his wife Joni took on Bloomfield Hatch Farm, Mortimer, in September 1984. Since then they’ve had two children Glynn and Gina (not children any more) and a mixture of cattle, sheep, turkeys and free range laying hens. They have won several accolades for best farmed farm and best flock of sheep.

With the changing face of farming it became more important for farms their size to specialise and make more efficient use of the space available, so they have concentrated on their free range egg flock. Over the years they have built up a trade for their eggs in local shops and farmers markets.

All their hens are RSPCA Freedom Foods approved and Red Lion. They have trees planted out on their range to encourage them to venture out further. To further improve their welfare status they started rearing their own point of lay pullets (young hens) from day old as opposed to buying them in at 16 weeks old which is roughly 4 weeks off laying. This improves the chickens health by growing up with resident bugs so gaining a good immunity which also reduces stress. You could compare 16 week old hens coming onto a farm as children starting new schools, they get all the bugs they haven’t come across yet at once (and bring them home!!)