Moonridge Farm

23/04/2025

🐓RESTOCKED🐔

We have the full range of hybrids ready to go, back in the orchard! 🌳

Friendly, brilliant layers in all colours

As well as bantams and pure breeds

Reserve with click and collect from the website www.moonridgefarm.co.uk

Or come and have a look
Open Thursday and Saturday 10-4.30
Moonridge farm, EX55AA

19/04/2025

🐔 We are open!
Just some of what’s on the farm at the moment!🐣

Aylesbury x ducklings
French black copper marans
Silver campines
Silkies
Polish
Pekins
Wyandotte bantams

Remaining POL hybrids!

Mandarin
Fulvous whistling

Open Thursday and Saturday 10-4.30
Moonridge farm
EX5 5AA

10/04/2025

If you are visiting the farm for any reason we recommend you make time for a refreshment at The Beer Engine, Newton St Cyres .. just 5 mins from us …

09/04/2025

Beautiful hens in all colours! 🐓

Bantams:
Sablepoots
Silkies
Pekin
Polish
Bantam Wyandotte

Pure breeds:
Wyandotte
Copper Maran
Aruacana
Brahma
Silver campine

Available whilst stock lasts!
Some available to book via our website
www.moonridgefarm.co.uk

Come and let your chickens choose you
Thursday and Saturday 10-4.30

Pick up treats, equipment and health products for your hens in our shop

And get friendly advice on looking after your chickens

09/04/2025

If you enjoy the countryside , this place looks great ..

🌱🐇 🐥 Unexpected availablity for the Easter Weekend! 🌱🐇🐥

https://orchardorganicfarm.co.uk/the-hens-dens/

We have had a cancellation and now have one of our lovely Hen's Dens free from Friday 18th to Monday 21st April.

Each Den is well insulated and has a lovely outlook over the orchard. It comes with its own private bathroom and basic kitchen facilities (in a separate building).

🌙 £180 for three nights sleeping up to 5 people.

Book on line or ring Jerry on 07805 894522 for further information 🙂

04/04/2025

Come in and choose your hens! 🐔

Open Thursday and Saturday 10-4.30

Pick out your hens, get advice, pick up all your poultry equipment in the shop

POL Hybrids, bantams, pure breeds

Moonridge farm, EX5 5AA

03/04/2025

OPEN Thursday & Saturday 10-4.30

🐓 Hybrids, Bantams, Pure breeds
+ poultry shop with all essentials!

Click and collect hybrids from our website www.moonridgefarm.co.uk

We have our usual range of 7 hybrids
+
French copper maran
Lavender Aruacana
Buff Brahma
Laced Wyandotte
Silver campine
+
Polish
Pekin
Sablepoot
Silkie

Mandarins and fulvous whistling ducks available on farm as well

Ducks , bantams and pure breeds are for purchase directly from the farm . Hybrids can be ordered for click and collect from the website .

Moonridge farm, EX5 5AA

30/03/2025

Bantams available!!🐔
•On farm only
- Silkie, Polish, Pekin, Wyandotte

•Range of colours and individuals to choose from, these bantams make the perfect pets

Open Thursdays and Saturdays 10-4.30

• Choose your hens and get all the advice, equipment and treats you need in our shop to keep your chickens happy 😃

17/03/2025

🐔 CHICKENS ARE BACK! 😃

Check out the website to order your POL hens now to collect in April.
www.moonridgefarm.co.uk

We will be open Thursday and Saturdays
10 - 4 from April with more pure breeds and bantams available then

15/03/2025

The website is now open for pre orders of our hybrid POL chickens .. Collection in April
We will have a range of pure breeds and bantams here as well for sale in April . These can be purchased in April from the farm .
More details to follow .

15/03/2025

Dartington Trust should not be allowed to do this. This forest garden is unique.
If you can do anything to help raise the plight of this internationally reknown garden please do ..
Will Grows

Dartington Hall Trust (DHT) have given a years notice to end the lease for a groundbreaking 2 acre food forest project which has been under way on the Dartington Estate for 31 years, despite it costing them nothing; whereas it has brought in over 50,000 visitors to the estate, hosted important scientific research on carbon storage, and become what is often described as the best example of a food forest (or forest garden) in the temperate world.

Groundbreaking work by agroforestry pioneer
Martin Crawford, founder and director of the Agroforestry Research Trust, which has leased the land for 31 years, says:

“We’ve put in decades of work to achieve this exemplar of a food forest system. This seems like a complete betrayal of trust by the DHT, who are only looking at money – they have given us no reasons but think they can get more money by flattening and building there or using it for something else instead of the rent we pay.”

A food forest or forest garden is a complex agroforestry system using trees, shrubs and perennial plants to mimic an ecosystem but with lots of crop plants. Think fruit and nut trees underplanted by fruiting shrubs and vegetables. They are very sustainable systems to grow food and store carbon at the same time. The food forest at Dartington has inspired the creation of thousands of such systems throughout the world, and more recently has inspired the Royal Horticultural Society to diversify their plantings at Wisley, and the National Trust to start its first forest garden at Shugborough.

Martin continues:

“Our charity and the DHT have had a long association with the understanding that ours is a long term land-based project which after 31 years still has a long way to go. For example, long term measurements of carbon storage in such systems are vitally important in climate change research.

DHT have had many other benefits too. We’ve brought some 50,000 people to the Estate, many of whom have gone on to use the accommodation or catering facilities. Over the years the DHT have used our name to get kudos for doing ecologically sound projects on the Estate.

“Ecological vandalism”
“Throwing us off is not the same as giving a tenant in a building notice – they can easily move. This food forest is irreplaceable. It is literally priceless. What the DHT are doing is ecological vandalism.

I had thought there was still a thread of ethical behaviour at DHT but was clearly mistaken. DHT are not breaking any laws giving us notice but it is still unethical, amoral behaviour breaking 31 years of trust between our organisations. Their communications have at times been casual, disrespectful and with a feudal tone too, rubbing salt into the wounds – clearly they don’t care what their actions result in. Their calculations may well turn out wrong if an economic boycott takes place.

It’s even more galling, because we obviously need a secure long term tenancy, and we spent 4 years negotiating this with DHT and had a verbal agreement to go ahead with the last CEO Alan Bolden. Then with regime change the DHT reneged on that agreement and refused to give us a long term deal.

A lot of people have visited this food forest and know how valuable it is. Please protest this decision by writing to the DHT (see below) and tell them what this space means to you and what it’s loss to the wider world means; and why they should give us long-term security.

To the Dartington Trust I say: please reconsider your actions. As well as retracting this decision, we need a long term secure lease or to buy our site. This protest will continue until we get that. This kind of behaviour will lose you a lot local support. Do you really think you can survive without it?”

Dartington Trust Contacts to write to:

Robert Fedder (CEO): [email protected]

The Dartington Trustees: [email protected] (these are listed on the Charity Commission website)

Nick Harris (COO): [email protected]

STOP PRESS!
We've been given notice on our 31-year old forest garden by landlords Dartington Hall Trust.

This shocking decision made in the name on money is a clear case of ecological vandalism.

More info and how to support at https://www.agroforestry.co.uk/save-dartington-forest-garden/

10/03/2025

Something to think about .

FOOD WASTE vs COW FARTS 💨

In the brillant words of .farm 👌🏻
Did you know food waste causes 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions—nearly 5x more than aviation? ✈️
Yet, we’re told we need more fake foods to ‘feed the world’ when simply stopping food waste could feed 1.5 billion people—the size of Africa—without growing a single gram of extra food.

Meanwhile, animal ag gets all the blame, yet the entire industry contributes less than half the emissions caused by food waste. Something isn’t adding up here...
We think, reducing food waste plus organics can be part of the climate solution:

🌱 Carbon Capture & Soil Health

Grazing cows store carbon in soil by trampling organic matter.
Their manure enriches soil fertility, supporting microbial life.
Regenerative grazing increases soil carbon levels more than continuous cropping.

🦋 Biodiversity Boost

Grazing prevents monoculture takeover, allowing diverse plant species to thrive.
Cows spread seeds and create habitats for wildlife.
Better Nutrition

Organic animals products provide high-quality protein, essential fats, and bioavailable nutrients that many plant-based alternatives lack.
Most plant foods rely on additives, stabilizers & synthetic fortification to mimic animal based foods.

♻️ Lower Food Waste

Organic, regenerative farms use circular farming methods, turning inedible pasture into high-quality food. Through direct selling, this allows us to connect with consumers who really value their food. Leading to more gratitude, and less food waste because our products aren’t cheap, they have value & they are real. Something worth not being careless about 💚

📸 Ian Humphries Photography

09/03/2025

Never been truer or more relevant.

21/02/2025

We throughly recommend Axe Valley …

Looking for something to do this weekend?

Come and support your local wildlife park. Fun for the whole family. Wide variety of animals. Meet and greet the animals sessions....

We look forward to seeing soon. 👀

21/02/2025

Farmers will rally in central London again on 4 March, dubbed the Pancake Day Rally! 🚜 🥞 🇬🇧

21/02/2025

Please help these guys if you can. Knowing what they are going through , they will need kindness and support at all levels , personally and as a business. The way DEFRA and APHA act is nothing short of criminal . Hopefully one day they will be held to account.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/fundraising-for-orchard-organic-farm?attribution_id=sl:f1e29371-2048-4124-8e29-c011ab3472c2&lang=en_GB&utm_campaign=fp_sharesheet&utm_content=amp13_c-amp14_c&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link

Jerry waiting for a phone call from John Acres of Radio Devon this morning.

The worst day has come. We had security guards positioned on both entrances to the farm overnight.

Yesterday, at least a dozen people in hazmat suits and huge helmets were setting up the cull equipment and Jerry spent hours with the government vet counting every chicken with no signs of disease (those are the ones we get compensation for). I find this slightly ludicrous as we keep meticulous records which clearly show the number of birds in each house with any losses recorded. The chickens also get counted again as they are culled.

Over 4,000 hens show absolutely no signs of disease whatsoever and are positioned well away from the infected house. All birds will still be culled. There is no quarantine option.

We cannot restock for 12 months by which time we will have lost all our customers. There is an option to go through a secondary cleaning and disinfection process but this is extraordinarily expensive and out of our reach.

Despite trying very hard, it is nigh on impossible to get affordable insurance for avian flu. The cost of insurance would have made our business completely unviable. No-one wants to insure organic laying hens due to the freedom they are afforded and therefore the greater risk of being in contact with wild birds.

We have to shoulder the cost of incinerating £7,000 of eggs which can't be sold and disposing of £5,000 of chicken feed which has to remain in the farm.

Tomorrow we will wake up with empty fields and all our 'girls' will be gone.

The government has no interest whatsoever in what happens to us now, other than making sure we follow their post cull rules for the year ahead.

We have no idea what the future holds for us now. After the most gruelling and haunting week of our lives at Orchard Organic Farm we will be taking some time to decide on the best way forward and Jerry will be looking for a job.

Thank-you to everyone for the wonderful messages of support. We have felt very loved and we are more grateful than you can ever imagine.

Emma

17/02/2025

Anybody with any Moscovies they would like to rehome. We like to run some through our forest garden for slug control! We are after a drake and some females ..
Just PM me please . Thanks in advance .