August 25, 2009
A couple of months ago I won 6 duck eggs on e-bay. After a month in the incubator 5 eggs hatched. Now 4 weeks after hatching it is hard to believe they were ever able to fit inside an egg.
They are running free in the farmyard now drinking and eating just as much as they possibly can.
August 25, 2009
Andy and Ian tending the hive
The bee hive has been keeping Andy buzzy this summer (please excuse all bee puns). This picture shows Andy and Ian feeding the bees. The bees have all bee-haved really well – making a bee-line for the meadow flowers and fruit blossom. Andy has learnt to bee careful when checking up on his swarm. He has now put a fence around the bee hive to stop Clifford the dog sticking his nose into the hive – again!
Thank you to Gail for bee-ing brave enough to take the photo.
August 25, 2009
Southdown Sheep
Our 4 Southdown ewes have now settled in on the farm. They are a local breed of sheep which are quite compact and have beautiful furry faces and legs. We are planning to keep these lambs and breed from them to start a small flock of pure Southdown sheep. If all goes according to plan we are hoping to have lambs born on the farm in spring 2011.
Thank you to Joke and Susan for the picture.
May 21, 2009
Sometimes Andy and I end up doing things that we never in our lives believe we would ever do. Take yesterday – our friend Natalie who is fantastic with all animals offered to shear our Alpacas, so we spent the afternoon and into the evening shearing our very woolly coated boys.
Alpaca Shearing at Elmfield Farm Cottages
We started with Gorgeous George as we thought he would be the most amenable. In fact he turned out to be a bit of a pickle as he has ticklish legs, but with a blanket over his eyes and his nose in a bucket of food and a lot of Natalie patience we got there.
Ben was next, well behaved although he did insist on lying down for his haircut.
Elvis who had never been halter trained before was a star. Once he got used to the halter he stood and seemed to enjoy the whole thing.
A huge thank you to Natalie, and to John. John added insult to injury to the Alpacas by vaccinating them on the same day as shearing.
Needless to say Ben, George and Elvis are not talking to me today, but seem to be enjoying rolling in dust baths and soaking up the sun.
We now have around 18lbs of wool. I have ordered a book on how to spin!
May 18, 2009
Baby Lamb at Elmfield Farm Cottages near Canterbury
Our 2 Southdown cross lambs have been doing very well. They are growing fast now, and really enjoy drinking their milk. Children young and old seem to enjoy feeding them, but as you can see they are not the tidiest of eaters!
Thank you to Ian and Gail for this picture!
April 20, 2009
Yesterday we acquired another couple of lambs. These are just 4 days old and are being bottled fed as their mother had triplets but didn’t have enough milk to keep them all fed. They are Southdown crosses so they are very woolly and extremely cute. They are getting more stable on their legs. I am amazed that they can drink 1/2 a pint four times a day. I hope this means they will soon grow into their woolly coats which look a little oversized at the moment.
We have made a nice den for them in the barn with lots of straw – but the weather was so lovely today that I put them in the field with the older lambs. They all got on very well, playing chase, doing mad lamb jumps in the air and trying to eat grass like big sheep, before settling down to snooze in the sun.
Ben George and Elvis the Alpacas look over at them from their paddock and aren’t quite sure what to make of them!
Our new lambs have come from Cuckoos Pit Farm in Woodchurch – a small organic farm producing delicious free range lamb, chicken, beef and pork.
March 31, 2009
They arrived last night – and have been nicknamed Cute and Gorgeous. These baby lambs are 1 and 2 weeks old, and as a result of their mother being unable to look after them they are being bottle fed. At the moment they are getting 4 bottles a day. Andy and I have found ourselves behaving like new parents again uttering delighted phrases like “he’s taken 4 oz really well!” The eldest one has already learnt to drive Clifford the Retriever mad by running up and down the fence next to him.
March 23, 2009
We have a lot of birds visiting the cottage gardens including greater spotted and green woodpeckers. The greater spotted one was a regular visitor last year – but we hadnt seen him for a few weeks. But today he was back – eating as many peanuts as he could from the bird feeder.
March 20, 2009
Andy has been busy over the last few weekends with the help of sister Kirsty and friend Ian planting an orchard at the bottom of Middle field. So far there are nearly 30 trees, some apple, pear, cherry, damson, plum and an optimistic apricot. We have chosen old fashioned varieties which have wonderful names like Worcester Pearmain, Egremont Russet and James Grieve.
To help the trees and to produce wonderful (we hope) honey, Andy has built a bee hive, and it will soon move to the orchard. We hope to get the bees in the late spring, and should be able to gather honey as soon as the summer!
Andy getting ready to put the bee hive together.
March 20, 2009
We have been plagued this year by moles. Huge mounds have appeared everywhere, and after struggling to find any mole man even willing to tackle the mole-Himalayas – Andy decided to give mole catching a go himself.
He has been very successful and would highly recommend the book ‘Mole Catching – a practical guide’ by Jeff Nicholls for anyone who has a problem. Surprisingly it doesnt seem to be available in that many bookshops (!) but can be found at www.crowood.com.
Duckling in the farmyard August 2009.
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