Pray for the family farm here today. Orchard Organic Farm: 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