Summer at the Farm!

Summer Baby Boom

Well Summer has definitely been slow to appear this year! It finally feels like it’s arrived and a flurry of farming activity along with it… The biggest and most important thing being that our hay is cut, baled and in off the field ready for winter! Always a relief. Here’s our update from this very busy time….

Equines

We are keeping our donkeys very busy as we have just taken on two new donkey handler volunteers. All our donkey volunteers do a great job of keeping our donkeys fit and stimulated by taking them out for walks, long reining them individually, pulling a little tyre and spending lots of time grooming them. Our dream is to have them doing little harrowing demonstrations in the fields. It’s so important we keep our donkeys minds active and attempt to keep their tummies in check!

Two of our horses, Sensation and Friar, are just back from two full on days at the Cheshire Show where they perform a ridden demo and ride to music in the Countryside Arena. This year’s theme was ABBA and we certainly had a brilliant time showing off to all our ABBA favourites! The lovely Tabby is currently at the stallion as we are hoping to add a new addition to the herd next Spring! An early scan has shown a positive result but with an 11-month gestation there’s a long way to go so fingers crossed…

Pigs

Our next two pigs to farrow are the Saddleback sisters… Skye closely followed by Susie. These will be our summer litters. You will be able to meet the piglets over the school summer holidays. Bonnie has just been weaned and Martha is still nursing her litter and Luna is currently refusing to get pregnant!

Sheep

The ewes and lambs are all out to grass and looking well. The lambs grow so fast, they are catching their mums up already. We had 6 pet lambs, all from sets of triplets, that are still being bottle fed and will be trained ready for our Sheep Racing activity that we do daily all summer holidays. An event not to be missed. We think that long legged Ben will be the front runner this year but who knows… Two of them will be going to a lovely new home over in Appleton.

Cows

Our dairy heifer Gracie has had a gorgeous Guernsey heifer calf that we have called Mabel. She has taken to motherhood brilliantly and we are so proud of her. Her best friend Hetty is due to calve very soon and we have had 3 calves from our Red Poll cattle as well with more to come…

Goats

The beautiful Emily has kidded twin girls on 23^rd June! They are totally adorable. Emily is on our adoption scheme and the Golden Guernsey goats are a rare breed, so it’s great news all around. One of our other goats, Honey, is due to kid at the start of July. Newborn goat kids are one of the cutest animals ever so make sure you come and see them when they are little.

Poultry

The hatchery is in full swing and we do ‘Meet the Chicks’ twice a day for all our visitors. Come down and learn all about our rare breeds of poultry and the process of egg to chick. We hatch a new batch of chicks once a month until the end of Summer.

We are Tuesday - Sunday 11am - 4pm (last entry 3pm). Please check the website for details.

Newsletter compiled by the Farm Team.