Week 7 / 8

The Bantam has hatched 11 out of 12 of her eggs!  Clever girl....they are safe and sound in our small ark in the poly tunnel - away from danger hopefully.   She is a pretty ferocious mum, so i don't think they will come to any harm!

Bantam chicks!

She keeps them all under control!

We've had some more arrivals too....we took delivery of four more 

Oxford and Sandy Blacks today!   Butts Farm had four piglets that had got chilled in that awful weather at Easter, and so haven't grown up as quickly as the others, so we have taken them off their hands!  We have 3 male and one possible future 'sow' weaners - they love their Nursery!!

3 weaners - one is hiding inside.....!

On Thursday we have a video company coming to do a short 'piece' on the Care Farm, as part of the Awards Ceremony for 'HEARTS OF THE COMMUNITY GLOUCESTERSHIRE'!  The Care Farm were put foward for the Award, and we are one of the Finalists!  It is organised by The Gloucestershire Echo and The Citizen Newspapers....so watch this space again

FINGERS CROSSED THE WEATHER IMPROVES FOR SATURDAY - OUR CAR BOOT SALE

HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL THERE!

Week 6

Planting has been our main past time this week - with the weather being warm followed by wet, we've been 'hardening off' our runner plants grown from seed, french beans, and corn on the cob.   In the Poly Tunnel, we have been thinning out tomatoes, planting rows, and planting some mixed lettuces.  We hope to have quite a good selection of herbs and veg plants to sell at the Car Boot Sale, followed by our Open Days.

Rows of Flower Pots given to us
recently

The chicks started hatching in our incubator on Wednesday!  We have five so far - and one still in the incubator, that is not looking too good!  I had to call on a friend to come and help 'hatch' it yesterday (it had been struggling for 24 hours and the egg shell had got stuck to it) and today she came back to help 'bath' it to get all the dried egg gunge off it!! Back in the incubator for another few hours to 'fluff' up its feathers, and then hopefully into the 'chick' box with the others!  This is a bit of a trial incubator session, to see how well it works, then we hope to get some more 'specialist' fertile eggs to incubate...

hard at work!

Yesterday we had a visit from South Cerney Barracks - 18 extremely fit soldiers turned up to help us again!   They strimmed, weeded, tidied, turned the muck heep(extremely hard work!) and fenced part of our hen run - it's FOX time again, and we are trying to keep them out / ducks in / and lambs away from the hen netting!!  We really appreciate them giving up their time to help us.

The bantam is still 'sitting' on her eggs safe inside the poly tunnel - they should hatch over the next few days.

We have been very fortunate recently, to have been given lots of plant pots from a friend, and a boot full of wonderful herbaceous plants from a volunteer friend - thank you so much!

Last but not least - someone entered us for the 'HEARTS OF THE COMMUNITY' Awards, organised by The Gloucestershire Echo and Citizen Newspapers, and we have got through to the finals!  We will find out if we have won on 12 June - so watch this space.....!

Update on bantam....her first chick has hatched - Tuesday 21st May!

Update on incubator chicks - only 7 hatched out of 24 - unfortunately a lot of the other eggs had full sized chicks in, but didn't hatch so died....if anyone has any experience of this PLEASE GET IN TOUCH!

weeks 4 and 5

Our last Ewe lambed last Thursday - Danny had checked her in the afternoon, and came rushing in and said she looked as if she was going to lamb, but when we looked at her we thought she was just having a rest....needless to say he was absolutely right, and at 5pm that afternoon, i had to give her a helping hand....she had an enormous ram lamb - Yes ANOTHER RAM LAMB!!

No. '35' and her enormous lamb!

We had a half day Monday, as it was Bank Holiday - and Helen had Alan and i all to herself - and she was in her element, checking the Ewes and Lambs, and helping to 'Worm' the Ewes, and 'Ring' the lambs before putting them out with the rest of our flock!

We have been really busy today - planting, weeding, watering,  and sieving....everything is growing at last, and we want to have plenty of vegetables to sell later on so everyone took a turn at something plant related today! We are aiming for our Open Days in June, where hopefully we'll have lots of produce on display.

week 3

LAMBING HAS FINALLY STARTED!   All four of our original Ewes have lambed, we have 3 sets of twins and 1 set of triplets!  Two of our new ewes have also lambed - one set of twins and a single....all

Gerry holding on the the triplets!

healthy and happy, so fingers crossed!  We have only had 3 ewe lambs

Mark taking Patch out to the field in his 'fly rug'!!

so far.....

Lambs in the sunshine!

This term we have started working with the horses; students are learning about stabling, mucking out, bringing the horses in from the field, and grooming them.   Some of our students have only ever looked at a horse over the stable door, so it is an exciting new phase in their learning skills!

We were given a lovely donation recently, and have bought a digital incubator with some of it!   We had been lent one last year, and the students thoroughly enjoyed the whole process, so we thought we would invest in a digital one this time.   It's got 'viewing' windows as well, which saves having to take the top off each time to check on them!  So in 
three weeks time, we hope to have some lovely bantam chicks and some of 'Fiver's' offspring!

A 'clutch' of bantam eggs found
 under a pallet next to the lambing
pens!  We have a bantam now sitting
on them, so fingers crossed!

week 2

Thank goodness we have some lambs arriving .....i was beginning to think we had been imagining their 'largeness'!

'Lamby',  Ella's Ewe with her two lambs

 Lamby had her two lambs in the middle of the night sometime.....and we didn't get to the lambing pens till around 4.30am.....by that time one of the other Ewes had 'taken' over the lamb - licking it and mothering it.  This is a real pain, as now Lamby doesn't want it, and it's our only Ewe Lamb so far.....so we have had to put her into a special neck brace for a few days.  This helps, as she can't see the lambs, and then doesn't keep 'knocking' the lamb back;stopping it from feeding.
Hopefully after 3/4 days she will accept it normally again.

The 3 Ewes, Mary Jane, Lamby and March with their lambs

We have had 6 lambs so far, but only one Ewe Lamb - but it will mean lots of Lamb for sale in October/November time....!

They've arrived at last.....!

Mary Jane - our first Wiltshire to lamb.....

Aren't they sweet.....good strong lambs hopefully!

one of the main flock ewes with triplets....!

WEEK 1 SUMMER SESSION!

With the weather being SO awful over the Easter Break, the Ewes seem to be 'hanging' on to their lambs....so nothing so far!  The students were all pleased to be back, and on Monday, we finished off the pens and made sure everything is ship shape.   We had one Ewe that  had to be put  in isolation in the trailer....she unfortunately had a dead foetus (very small) and now doesn't look as if she will have any more lambs this time.  Fingers crossed all the others are ok.   Thursday we had a full house, and spent the morning getting the raised beds finished, cleared and fenced (against those naughty bantams!) and planted out the potatoes.  Penny one of our volunteers is working with some of the students to make mosaic tiles to go into our 'wild flower' garden.  In the afternoon we had a bit of a tea party to welcome everyone back - scones & cake!
Today we had a rather soggy stand outside Dobbies; raising the profile of the Project - next time we need to make sure we get good weather!  (thank you to Gerry, Mike, Penny, Ericka and Alan for helping)
Thank you too to Ashton Keynes Parish Councillors who had a 'Lent Lunch' in aid of the Project - they sent us £85!