April on the farm

Exciting new arrivals

Spring has officially sprung and we've had the first piglets of the year. These are the first litters to our new boar, Hamish, and with some well-marked saddleback piglets and good numbers, he's made a great start!Cows started calving at the end of March and the first 5 were all heifers (female). Last year we had mainly bulls so this is good news as we are wanting to keep some for breeding. The cold nights and dry weather have meant there's not much grass available and all stock are still getting hay.However, the dry weather is good for lambing and the sheep are out during the day and come into the barn at night.  After lambing, they stay indoors for 24 hours so we can make sure the lambs are feeding and the ewe has recovered from the birth.The garden ducks are sitting on eggs and are due to hatch in a couple of weeks. The Silkies are more adventurous now and can usually be found in the orchard.

In the garden

In the garden, we've finished planting out the new fruit bushes and started sowing and planting in the open ground with broad beans, carrots, beetroot, cauliflower and broccoli.Undercover, we have salads, beans, tomatoes and onions. We'll soon start sowing French and runner beans, courgettes and sweetcorn to plant out when the frosts have finished.The garden is open on shop days so come and have a look. Thanks to Geoff, we have a new garden gate so please keep it closed and help keep the rabbits out!

Farm walk on Saturday 20th April

Fancy meeting some of our new arrivals?Or going for a wander around the garden in the beautiful spring sunshine?Join us this Saturday (20th April) for a guided walk around the farm. We're meeting at 11am and will stop by to see our new lambs and piglets. All ages are welcome!You can find more detail on Facebook.

Information regarding our organic poultry

Due to an increase in fox problems last year, we've decided to discontinue rearing our organic meat birds at least for this year. We're currently assessing fencing/building improvements in the hope we may be able to resume in the future. But in the meantime, we'll be stocking Soil Association standard organic birds from Rhug estate. The layers hens are still here so the eggs we sell are from our own birds.As always, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch. We hope to see you soon!