It’s amazing what a little bit of sunshine does! Visitors flocked to the Farm during the warm March days and everyone seemed to be full of the joys of spring. However, it’s not only the visitors that kept us busy: 65 new goats arrived awaiting to be trained to drink from bottles. Poor Rachael looked very stressed when I told her how many young goats were arriving! These little kids have to be fed 3 times a day, with each goat taking 2 or 3 minutes to down its 300ml of milk. This is quite a task, but Rachael coped with a little help from her friends. I had been expecting Hannah the sow to give birth to lots of young piglets, as normally she produces between 12 to 15, so when she started farrowing and 4 piglets popped out, I thought that she was having a rest before the next 10 or so were delivered. I went back an hour or so later to check - but no sign of any more. I then did my James Herriot bit, and did an internal swipe, assuming that there were more piglets further inside, but nothing was found. I left her for a few more hours, and when I returned Hannah was up (which is a sign of a complete farrowing) with just a total of 4 piglets. With lots of milk, these piglets will soon be up to pork weight!
The Greyface Dartmoor ewes are lambing now, and as each lamb is born, we check it out to make sure that there are no
deformities associated with the dreaded SBV virus that is affecting so many flocks throughout the South of England. Thankfully, this virus is not spread to humans, but it is extremely distressing to shepherds lambing their flocks, and having to put down the lambs that are born with deformities. Billy the Shire has had some new shoes put on, and he is not very happy about this. For years now, Billy has had his feet trimmed every 6 weeks, but when Ed the blacksmith visited this month, he asked if he could put some shoes on Billy as he had entered a farrier’s
competition to shoe Shires. Poor old Billy was not impressed – in fact, he sulked for several days afterwards! The tractor and trailer is having a “spruce up” ready for Easter when, hopefully, the ground will be dry enough to start the bumpy rides again. We have attempted to make the seats a little softer to make it more comfortable for those of you with the less padded backsides! We have found a new husband for our donkeys, Tilly and Fi Fi. Samuel, a handsome jack donkey, arrived the other day and it was love at first sight! I have never seen Kim so excited either— you would have thought that I had found a husband for HER!! If all goes to plan, we should have some donkey foals in time for Easter next year as the gestation period is 12 months. Our alpacas have moved on to a new home in East Sussex and hopefully we will see some more on the Farm during the summer when we will create a new area complete with a field shelter—this will be situated below the picnic area. Easter is always a busy time for the film crews and we have been inundated with requests to film the animals in time for Easter publications. Don’t miss our fabulous Easter trails on 6th to 9th April—lots of fun for all the family. Children wearing their own Easter bonnet on Easter Sunday (only), will get
entry for only £4.00 each.
See you soon and ‘Happy Easter’ from Farmer Bryan and all at Longdown Activity Farm.
