Wild Trout Trust Award

10/26/2016 09:22:00 am , 0 Comments

"Incredibly smart work" is how the judges of the Wild Trout Trust Conservation Awards described the Natural Flood Management at Honeydale Farm. Ian Wilkinson, farmer at Honeydale and MD of Cotswold Seeds, attended the awards ceremony at The Savile Club in London this week, along with other nominees. The Wild Trout Trust is a conservation charity that supports and encourages projects to improve and protect habitats in and around rivers and lakes, and nominees were chosen for their practical work to improve wetland habitats for trout and all wildlife across the UK and Ireland. 


The Natural Flood Management Scheme at Honeydale involved rerouting a natural spring to create a series of leaky dams and scrapes as well as the planting of trees to create wildlife habitats and help prevent flooding in the catchment area of the Evenlode River.

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We'll Bee Back

10/25/2016 11:07:00 am 0 Comments

Paul visited the Honeydale hives this week to check that the bees were busy preparing for the cold winter months. Due to the sunny weather they were still flying and making use of the remaining flowers on the farm Both of our WBC (traditional white) hives have strong colonies, they are are a little sluggish now due to the colder weather, which is to be expected, because of the temperature change. The good news is that both hives also have plenty of stores. Brood box stores are good in both the hives, and hive 2 also has almost a full super of honey to last the winter. Hive 1 has slightly less honey but we can always feed them fondant over the winter if necessary.

During the visit Paul also took the opportunity to fit slider mouse-guards to both hives to help prevent the risk of small mammals helping themselves to the bee's hard-earned honey as the weather gets cooler and they become more desperate for food.


Chris Wells’s 5 hives also seem to be doing well considering they were installed only a few months ago - it'll be next year before we expect to see a honey harvest from them.

Things don’t always go to plan though, and unfortunately we have a bit of bad news. The swarm box containing the small colony of bees we rescued from the apiary earlier in the season has collapsed and Paul was faced with a box of dead bees which was very sad to see and such a shame, especially considering we had previously discovered a laying queen in the box. This just goes to show how vulnerable small colonies can be and the importance of a good run-up to the winter to achieve a healthy population and good stores.

We’ll be checking in on all the surviving colonies in couple of weeks before the winter really sets in, to make sure they have everything they need.


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Woodland Trust Workshop Visits Honeydale

10/18/2016 12:52:00 pm , 0 Comments


A delegation from The Woodland Trust visited Honeydale Farm as part of its Oxfordshire Focus Area Workshop, looking at the region’s particular challenges and opportunities. They were joined by Alistair Yeomans of the Sylva Foundation and Sharon Williams, Wychwood Project Director and member of the Evenlode Catchment Partnership. The group were interested in the natural flood management project at Honeydale, and how it has involved the planting of trees and creation of areas of wetland to deliver NFM. Farmer and MD of Cotswold Seeds Ian Wilkinson along with manager Paul Totterdell discussed crop rotation, tree-planting and natural flood management in the wider context of diversity on the farm and how trees and water can be used as natural capital, bringing a range of benefits.


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Feed The Birds

10/04/2016 01:32:00 pm , , 0 Comments

There’s a nip of autumn in the air and British Summertime ends soon. But the birds at Honeydale are well catered for when winter sets in. We’ve planted two plots with winter bird food cover; a one year annual mix and two year autumn sown bumble bee mix which has another cycle to go. The fodder radish did particularly well and the mixes should provide plenty of food over the leaner months.


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Oats So Complicated

10/04/2016 11:07:00 am , 0 Comments

We are seeking a miller or the right equipment to process our oats.

Back in May we planted a small acreage of spring oats at Honeydale. We intended these to be a low cost and low input crop which would provide porridge oats, a wholesome, whole food product which we could then package, market and sell. The trouble is that since we harvested the oats, we’ve contacted several millers and none are interested in taking our relatively small tonnage.


The process of turning spring oats into porridge oats is fairly complicated. It involves removing the husk before steaming, rolling and milling. It seems that we’ll have no option now but to use the oats for animal feed, unless we can find a willing miller or small kit to buy so that we can do the whole processing ourselves.


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