SHE'S DONE IT!

Sandy has farrowed!  15 minutes after the last student left on Thursday....sandy's waters broke (luckily just before Gerry left for home!) and i got a frantic phone call asking me to come back NOW!

CLEVER MUM!

I got back in time to see 11 of the 13 piglets born - it was an amazing sight ....they rush out at such a rate with their eyes wide open and they have eye lashes!! one of the piglets didn't last the weekend for some reason - but Sandy is an amazing mother, so we are hopeful that we wont have any other problems. She's so quiet around them, and feeding them all well.

Gerry holding the first one!

We had a disaster on Saturday afternoon - a fox ran berserk around in the hen run slaughtering our laying hens.....it must have had at least 8 of them (both black cockerels had disappeared earlier in the week) it left them lying around in the hen run ...obviously hoping to come back later for them - really sadly Fiver was among the dead ones - she was our favourite; having managed to save her when she was a chick....such a shame.  The foxes are SO brazen at the moment; chancing their luck, picking hens and ducks off all day if they can - it's their feeding season, and they just try anything.  They seem to know when there's nobody about.  So all those people out there who think foxes are sweet animals...take note they are NOT!

we have two chicks that have hatched in the incubator and Bluebell has hatched one chick in the hen run - not a good tally again i'm afraid.  We put the quail out into the hen run with their ark too as it's too hot in the poly tunnel now.
The students worked hard today filling and watering everything in sight - it's so dry everywhere...the potatoes have shot up as has the salad in the poly tunnel - and the beans and sweet corn are nearly ready to go into the prepared beds.

Just off to feed Sandy again - she's getting 3 feeds a day now....proud mum!

Farrowing.....due to start this week!

The students are all back and raring to go...we have a new student on Thursdays, and he is settling in very quickly.

Sandy settling in to her new home!

We moved Sandy into her own 'farrowing nursery' last Thursday - great fun running down the track with some food; being followed very swiftly, considering her size now, by Sandy!  We were a bit worried the first couple of days, as she didn't sleep in the ark.   We have added some straw to the shavings and she has now settled in there.  We put up a heat lamp yesterday, ready for the impending piglets (fingers crossed!) so that she gets used to that too.

our newTractor - in need of some tlc...but
 all in working order!

The students have been planting out madly - beans, cauliflower, cabbages, sweet peas
and in the poly tunnel we have salads, tomatoes, and other veg waiting for some warm weather

Sandy meeting the sheep!

We found this tractor advertised in wiltshire, and i sent off Mike (husband) with Dan friend, and tractor man to have a look at ....and they thought it was a good buy, so Dave (another friend!) and i went and collected it last weekend, and took it straight round to Tim down the road, to look at and service - he's coming up with a list of things that need doing!
It will be a real help to have a small tractor to do topping, mucking out yards, collecting up stuff, and generally maintaining the site.
Apparently it's very easy to drive, 4wd, so we may even be able to teach some students to drive it in the future...
The quails are going mad, we have collected 10 eggs in the last three days, and there are only 3 laying hens...?  Not sure what's going on there, but we are not complaining!
We have eggs under a broody 'Bluebell' hen, and some in the incubator so will have some special chicks hopefully in two weeks time.