East Yorkshire poultry businesses that had to cull 35,000 birds is up and running again

Edward and Emma Wilkinson have re-built the family business from scratch again after a “traumatic” year that saw more than 35,000 birds culled.

The unique approach of feeding the poultry herbs produced by Edward’s aunt’s local business, Herbs Unlimited, to produce a high-quality bird, has attracted customers far and wide.

But, in September they noticed that there was a high mortality rate in one of the huts and it didn’t appear like anything they had seen before, so they contacted their vet who in turn contacted APHA who came to the farm to do some tests.

It confirmed that there were symptoms and the entire flock of 24,000 chickens had to be culled - the worst part is that most of them were healthy birds.

Two months later, devastation would strike again when bird flu was found in one of the turkeys. The flock of 12,000 birds, reared for Christmas, had to be culled - just a week before they were due to be slaughtered and processed for orders from butchers, farm shops and online customers.

Edward said: “It has been extremely traumatic in some respects, but we have got through it - or are getting through it.

“It just felt such a waste. As a farmer you want to produce something for the table and effectively, it all gets thrown in the bin. There is the animal side and that sadness, and that what you are producing did not get where it is meant to be.

“The chickens are not kept where we live and could avoid seeing it but when you are watching all your turkeys get culled after we had it in the chickens, it is a bitter pill to swallow.

“The chickens were our monthly cash flow and the turkeys were the seasonal boost and so to lose both has been a big challenge.”

After some, albeit enforced, time out to reflect on the business and assurances that their customers would buy from them again, the Wilkinson’s started the process of rebuilding the business.

“One of the biggest postives was that we saw that the customer base, 250 butchers and farm shops across the UK and an online presence, said they would come back to us and really missed our products while we were away.

“That gave us the drive to get back up and running because we knew we had a business.

“The other thing was it gave us time out from being on the treadmill. You get a clearer vision of things and making changes and adjustments. When you are in the business it is hard to be able to do that when it is a continuous cycle.”

They have undertaken a full cleaning and disinfecting programme and are starting with a sentinel flock that are blood tested and can provide early warning of infection or disease.

They are starting with a reduced flock of 5,000 to allow staff to get back into the swing of things after such a long time off and the flock will be built back up from there.

Herb Fed Poultry’s chickens were back in shops for the Easter weekend and there are new flavours while they have also added a new level of management to the business structure and procedures.

Mr Atkinson added: “I am excited to be coming back. I think positivity is the key to coming back. There is an element of risk but the closer we get to summer that reduces in terms of bird flu, and a number of bodies are pushing the government and Defra to get a vaccine and when that happens the risk reduces further.”