LOCATION!

We are located 4 miles north of Cirencester, between the villages of North Cerney, and Woodmancote. From A435 you take the turning towards Bagendon, go up past the Church to the T junction. Turn right towards Woodmancote and Scrubditch Farm is approximately 100 yards on the right. The Care Farm is situated down the drive, up the track on the left.
From A417, turn off at Perrotts Brook/Daglingworth, and proceed towards Perrotts Brook. Just before the A435, turn left towards Woodmancote. Go for approximately 1 1/2 miles and Scrubditch Farm is on the right, just past the Bagendon/North Cerney Cross Roads.

Saturday 23 April 2016

Getting ready for farrowing!


ewes and lambs scampering down the hill
for their feed!
Emma (the vet) and
Alan drenching the ewe
We have had a busy week ....we moved the 13 ewes and 18 lambs down to the bank field, as they didn't have enough grass up here.  It was a tricky manouvre; we put the lambs into the small open top trailer, and normally the ewes run along behind - but this time they were more interested in eating ....and some ran off down the road instead of across the field!  a few of the them even got into the cricket pitch...(not actually ON the pitch i hasten to add!) We eventually got them all down into the field, and then let out all the lambs...they were thrilled to get some decent grass.  The lambs look fantastic in the main - we are still feeding them once a day on hard feed to keep up the milk supply for a while longer.  We brought Alice and Annabel back to the farm, so that we can continue halter training them.  Sadly one of the last two ewes to lamb; has gone rapidly down hill.  She was due to have twins, and suddenly stopped eating on Thursday - we've had the vet out twice, and been drenching her with a glucose/mineral fluid, and serious antibiotics, but she is still not eating any hard food.  She is out in the Care Farm Garden today and at least eating a bit of grass, but i am not hopeful about her chances / or the lambs....we rather fear she could be carrying dead lambs, or has 'absorbed' them...the trials of sheep farming.

Sandy is looking 'imminent'....i reckon she will farrow within the next 48 hours - i'm really hoping she doesn't start till Monday, when Gerry is back!  We have her in the nursery all ready, and the heat lamp is rigged up just in case....

We have another bantam sitting on eggs in the poly tunnel - the other one is out with the hens in the main run - unfortunately 3 of her 5 chicks are cockerels...!

We have had 4 chicks hatch over the last 24 hours in the incubator - let's hope they aren't all cockerels!

We have loads of seeds coming up in the poly tunnel, and have been planting out broad beans, and onions and getting the pots ready for sweet peas.  We have planted carrot, beetroot, and pea seeds out, and sown more salads inside the poly tunnel.

we were really lucky to be given funding for two new pig arcs that arrived from Devon on Thursday....our others were inherited second hand, and very delapidated, and definitely wouldn't do another winter, so we are really thankful to The Cotswold Primrose Trust for their help, and to 'Traditional Pig Arks'.
preparing woodland for the new
pig arks

all the buckets cleaned out after lambing!



Thursday 14 April 2016

Nearly finished!

Lambing has nearly finished.... 13 of our ewes have lambed and we have 9 ram lambs and 9 ewe lambs!  They are a cracking bunch of lambs, and are all out in the field next to the Care Farm.  There is a real shortage of grass though, so we are going to move them back down to the bank field next week.  We still have two left to lamb so they will stay up here, and we will (if she will come to call) catch Alice up again, and bring her back, so we can continue to halter train her with the students.
The students all helped today to catch the lambs, and separate them so we could worm their mothers....it was a great team effort.

We brought Sandy down to the Nursery on Monday ....it's all ready for her to farrow at the end of this month.  She is certainly looking pregnant again - so fingers crossed they will arrive the last week of April (if not before)  Hazel is with Perry, and so she should be pregnant too....we will wait and see for a few more weeks, before moving him out.

We have two lots of eggs in incubators at the moment; one lot are due to hatch this weekend.  We are trying a new method as we had such bad luck with hatching them last year ....no water in the incubator until 4 days before hatching, when you take out the racks.  Who knows whether it will be a success...i will keep you posted on that!

All our seeds are coming along brilliantly in the poly tunnel, and we planted out beetroot and pea seeds today, in the raised beds.  Each week, the students have been turning over the beds, and adding compost where needed - it all looks very professional, and hopefully we will get a really good cropping of vegetables for our veg boxes.

This weather is a real pain....really warm one minute, then pouring down with rain the next - and then freezing at night - nothing is growing quick enough for us.  Apparently we may even get snow on Saturday!