Newsletter April 2020

Mantel Farm - Hybrid Hen availability and ongoing arrangements for deliveries and collections from the farm

29th April 2020

I hope you are all managing to stay well and keep in touch with loved ones during these troubling times.  Here at Mantel Farm we realise we are extremely fortunate to live somewhere where we have so much outdoor space around us, a business that is based from home and one that is managing to continue to trade.  We have been extremely busy the last few weeks putting in place ways to swap our business from the usual 'walk-in shop' to online ordering, and ironically as most of our customers are enjoying more of the outdoors with their chickens, bees and gardens we are finding it harder to make time to get outside with so much extra admin to process!  However we are certainly not complaining as we appreciate the support and custom and know that our lovely outdoors is always there waiting for us.

Swapping to a more internet based business feels at times like its taking us down a path we didn't want to tread - our business has always had an internet presence but is strongly rooted on traditional community custom and as usual our aim is to find the right balance between the two.  This balance also applies to so many other things during these extraordinary times and it will be interesting to see how many positive lasting changes we can make to our lives, I really hope the benefits seen to the climate and the problems many have experienced with global supply chains (especially food) are not too quickly forgotten as we rush to get our lives back to 'normal'.   

Please do help us to keep our usual level of customer contact by sharing your garden farming with us on our Facebook page, we love to see your chicken, bee and other pictures and as Tracy is managing our social media remotely from home it helps to keep her that little bit closer to the farm and our customers. 

So, looking forward please find below a reminder of our ordering, collection and delivery service currently in place and for all those waiting for chickens - our June flock of hybrids are now available to order:

Take care and keep safe, with our best wishes
Kerry, Jason and all at Mantel Farm

If you have ordered chickens...

MAY Hybrid Hens:

Our May flocks of hens are due to arrive next week.

If you have ordered chickens from these flocks then we will be contacting you during the next week to arrange a collection or delivery date.  

Please bear with us and wait to be contacted so that we can work through the orders to allocate the birds.

If you are waiting to order Hybrid Hens...

Thank you for your continued interest and patience regarding availability of our Hybrid Hens...

Our June flock of hens are now available to order on our website:

ORDER HYBRID HENS

select your breed(s), choose 'pay in full' and add to basket. 

If this option is not available then this breed has sold out.

The high level of enquires at the moment is unlike anything we have experienced in our 20 years of selling chickens and as our hens are pre-ordered from trusted breeders a year in advance our stock is limited.  We are therefore doing our best to keep you all up to date and allocate hens in the fairest way possible.  We are only taking reservations upon receipt of an order (ref MFxxxx) and orders are being taken on a first-come, first-served basis.   We usually only ask for a deposit for reservations, but to minimise the amount of admin and avoid payment contact during collections we are currently asking for full payment upon ordering.  If (although unlikely) we are unable to supply the hens we will of course offer a full refund.

If you have already placed an order (and have an MFxxxx order) for hens your order is secure; please see the information in the box above.

If you are waiting to order Pure Breeds, Bantams and Quail...

PURE BREEDS   Our May hens are all allocated.  We will have more available in June and will make them available to order within the next couple of weeks (as soon as breeds and numbers can be confirmed).

PEKIN BANTAMS Our next flock of Bantams will be available to order in a week or so for collection at the end of May.

QUAIL  Our 2020 flock of Quail will be ready in May, they are available now to order on our website with only limited stock left.

If you have already placed an order for these birds (and have an MFxxxx order) your order is secure and we we will be in touch to arrange a collection or delivery date. 

If you have booked your animals to stay with us...

Holiday bookings March - June 2020

We understand that holidays are being cancelled and so you may not need to board your animals with us.  Please contact us if this is the case for existing bookings between now and the end of June.  We will issue a full credit note to transfer your booking to a future date, please bear with us in the short term as we will be very busy with this and other paperwork that this crisis has generated.    

If you have booked a training course with us...

Course bookings March - May 2020

All courses during March, April and May have now been postponed.  We are doing all we can to put in place ways to get our courses to you as soon as we safely can.  We are working with our tutors to plan the best way forward for each individual course and will be in touch with updates.  

New chickens and introducing chickens to an existing flock...

Jason's fact sheets and articles

If you are buying chickens either for the first time or adding to an existing flock, Jason has shared his experiences and advice in his articles, fact sheets and check lists:

Poultry keeping essentials

Introducing Birds into an existing flock

Other Poultry fact sheets and check lists

Poultry Magazine Articles

Amandas Beekeeping News...

After another fine week in the latter half of April all the bees have been very busy, expanding and collecting nectar. I hope you have managed to keep on top of their needs for supers for nectar and also space for expanding brood....

Ordering arrangements...

Hatching Eggs, Housing, Feed, Supplies and Equipment:  We are still taking orders, please see below the current arrangements for deliveries and collections:

Please do not just arrive at our farm without an appointment as the shop is now closed to walk in customers.

Farm Collections:

We are offering collections from our farm.  Please place your order on our website and we will have them ready for you to collect:  Items can only be collected from our shop by appointment on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday.   

Local Deliveries:

We are offering an extended local delivery service for our customers.  Please place your order on our website and ensure you select the correct delivery option in the shopping cart.  Local Deliveries will be made in our electric van and are on a Thursday, deliveries to further afield will be by arrangement.

Courier Deliveries: 

We will continue to offer a courier service.  Delivery times will be subject to the courier company and please understand they are extremely busy at the moment.

Phone Orders:

We will answer your calls as soon as we can, where possible please contact us via email to keep the phone free for those without internet to ensure we can get supplies to them. 

General Contact:

As usual we will do our best to offer the best help and advice we can give, however please allow us extra time to respond at the moment.  

This email was sent from Mantel Farm to info@mantel-farm.co.uk
Mantel Farm | Mantel Farm, Henley Down, Catsfield, East Sussex, TN33 9BN, United Kingdom

01424 830357 | info@mantel-farm.co.uk
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