Longland Farm

These little darlings arrived today.
There is new life on the farm and they have already brought so much joy. 🥰

Owl Cam is GO!

We were tempted to stay up all night watching and waiting but we reluctantly forced ourselves to bed.

We checked the recording this morning and were over the moon to see that this beauty arrived at 1am and then spent 40 minutes preening and drying its feathers.

We can’t wait to see what happens next. Keeping our fingers crossed it finds a mate. 🦉🥰

Nothing quite like a Herdy smiling on a hill in the lakes 😀

December is normally a super busy time for us and in many ways our favourite time of year.
Fulfilling everyone’s Christmas orders, meeting our customers face to face, and working with our seasonal staff who always bring joy and a different dynamic to the farm.

This year is obviously very different. No birds, no customers and no extra staff.

We decided to use the time to tackle “do it later” jobs on the farm and to do some fun things we wouldn’t normally have time to do.

This week Norway….north of the arctic circle. The photos tell the story.

It doesn’t replace what we would normally be doing (and we miss that) but it was an amazing experience and we loved every minute.

Looking forward to December 2024 and suppling ducks, geese and turkeys to you all.

See the 2 eyes? That is our Barn Owl sheltering from last nights sleet under the overhang of our barn.
We love that our CCTV has picked it up.
It hung out for a while and then when the weather cleared flew off to hunt. 😀

Beautiful 13 mile walk today….missing our birds but keeping active. Oh but that river would look even more amazing with some ducks!

Where it all began for Kate 40 years ago…..her first very much loved ducks! Not sure she would swim in their water now 🤣

We might not have any ducks, chickens geese or turkeys but we do have a home made Barn Owl box on the barn AND a Barn Owl!
Hopefully we will be able to share footage of nesting, hatching and owlets when the time comes 😀

Whilst pottering about on the internet we came across this book….swipe for the brilliant and hilarious reviews.
We are missing our birds and still hurting from the loss but whilst the ones we had are irreplaceable we are looking forward to having life in our fields again next year.

We are absolutely heartbroken to confirm that, following routine testing by the APHA for AI (avian influenza) some of our birds have sadly tested positive. This means that all of our birds have now been culled and we can no longer supply duck, goose or turkey.

It has been a challenging and emotional week so we are going to take some time to take care of our staff and ourselves but then we will be back.
We will disinfect, scrub, clean everything we possibly can and do everything (and more) that we are required to do. We will then restock.
It will take time but we aim to be supplying you with amazing duck, goose and turkey again next year.

Please bear with us, we will need you more than ever when we get the all clear.
We hugely value all of our customers and hate to let you down .

For now we are battening down the hatches and signing off.

Much love from us both
Kate and Giles xx

Hatching season has begun!
Spring is just around the corner 🐣

It might have been super chilly on the farm the last few days but wow…..it has also been beautiful.
With frozen pipes everywhere it has been a challenge to ensure all the birds and animals had water but we did it and will keep on doing it until the pipes run freely again. Everyone is getting a little extra food to ensure their internal heating system is working at max output.
Thank you to friends and family that offered food and showers…today the pipes melted just long enough for us to wash and cook up batches of food.
Even when there are challenges we know we are so lucky and wouldn’t change a thing.

We have made some minced duck! 🥳
Now what?!
Any chefs out there with a suggestion?
🤞

Exciting news! 🥳 We have a NEW DUCK available……it’s the small but perfectly formed Khaki Campbell.
On the Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST) watchlist the Khaki is a lively duck that’s great at foraging and, we have discovered, escaping!
We field rear them in the same way we do the Pekins….the result is a bird with the flavour of a game duck and the quality and consistency of a Longland Farm Duck.

Breakfast in bed today please mum….we don’t like the rain!

You can hear Giles chatting to Christopher Seaden about the blessing of the geese on DCRFM tonight (Friday) at 7pm
It will be repeated tomorrow (sat) at 9am.
Just ask your smart speaker for Dover Community Radio.

Yesterday we had the annual blessing of the geese. Our favourite and most anticipated event of the year.
Thank you for making it such a special afternoon and for all your support, also for making amazing sausage rolls for for us all and to everyone who joined us…it wouldn’t have been the same without you.
Looking forward to next year already 🥰

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Stunning sky at the farm tonight.
Rainbow to the East and at the same time beautiful sunset to the west.

Moving day for ducks!
We regularly move the ducks around the farm so land doesn’t get over grazed….they eat a surprising amount of grass.

Sometimes they are super easy to herd because they like to stick together…safety in numbers.
Sometimes they give us the run around.
Today was a good day! Ducks are now happily settled in fresh grass. 🥳

We are super excited to welcome “Fizzy Pop and Salty Hair” to our flock today.
She was part of and designed by .
We are over the moon to be the winning bidder all in aid of St Michael’s Hospice Hastings.
She is currently chilling in the yard until we decide on the perfect spot for her.

Tomorrow Giles will be talking chicken with on Jeremy Pangs Asian Kitchen on ITV at 1135am

Our Field Reared Goose has just been awarded 1 ⭐️ in the great taste awards by

We are over the moon 🍾🤩

The judges said……

“A very handsome whole roast goose with a wonderfully golden skin, beautifully plucked and prepared. Great ratio of lean, mature-flavoured meat to fat. Nice rich colour to the meat as well as the skin.”

“A compact goose with delightful conformation. It's clearly well prepared - we loved nibbling on the skin. The flesh was dense and iron-rich, the leg meat strikingly moist, yet firm. As noted the skin and subcutaneous fat tasted rich, clean, full-flavoured. A very pleasing bird, and a great size for a family Easter feast. We loved reading about the husbandry, which has clearly had the desired result.”

Well…the ducks were amazing on tv today! Thank you
Watch this space because soon Giles and our stunning chickens will be on your screens 🥳

Tomorrow morning is all about duck. Don’t forget to watch on ITV to see our amazing ducks thanks to

At the end of last year we had an amazing day filming with and and now the time has come to announce……our wonderful ducks will feature on Jeremy Pang’s Asian Kitchen this Saturday on ITV at 11:35am
Go duckies……!!

June is Turkey hatching month and this year we have had our best Turkey hatch ever.
We only incubated 150 eggs of which 130 were fertile this year and of those 120 hatched so we are feeling pretty chuffed!
They are beautiful, chatty and inquisitive.
We are realistic and know they won’t all make it, despite all of our love care and attention, and that’s nature but it is a very positive start.

June is when we hatch these beautiful little bumble bees. Well…they are actually English partridge! Beautiful birds that are critically endangered so we are trying to help them survive as part of a conservation project. We hatch, rear and release them each year in the hope their numbers will increase.

This year a pair, from the 100 we released on our land last year has returned to breed….not seen offspring yet but it’s wonderful to see them here and we have our fingers crossed.

Candling the eggs tonight….that is one monster chicken foot. Hopefully not a dinosaur 🤣

It’s that time of year again!

Time to get award winning duck back on the menu.
We only produce them for a few months a year so make the most of them while they’re available.

Our dear friend Paddy McGhee and his friend Dave are riding from Paddy's home town (Greenock, Scotland) to Dave's home (Margate, kent) to raise money for bowel cancer uk, this is an important cause for them as Paddy's brother Tommy sadly passed from cancer early 2021 and Dave's wife Louise had a tumour removed from her bowel July 2021. Any help to the cause is greatly appreciated.

It’s a huge challenge but they have the determination to complete it and we are 100% behind them.

We know budgets are tight at the moment but please donate what you can. Every pound will spur them on and help a great charity.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/pad-and-dave?utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR3VH2nbYpx_txAlxRjoFjh8TxwOsXMK4yXVEnikn_26kCF_2cuZP7rpeRo