A Little community

We have some more chickens in the room. There are now 3 in total making up a little family. They all get on in their home.

All one big happy family


Steve and the tamest chicken that ever lived.

Danni the Dexter

We were given Danni the Dexter by Gerald and Sarah Barnes as a wedding present. We would like to say a VERY BIG thank you to Gerald and Sarah for Danni. She arrived on the 7th December and she has settled in well, getting on with all the other animals.

A lone chick

This time round we have had some trouble with our incubator and have ended up with having only one egg hatch. Our chick is very lonely in the classroom, with only humans to keep it company. We are looking for some new chicks to join our 'lone wolf'. We also have some more eggs in the incubator ready to hatch in about 2 weeks so our chick won't be lonely for much longer.

Roast Chicken Dinner

We had four cockerels and only two hens so last week three of the 

cockerels had to be despatched.

In celebration of its life we plucked, gutted and roasted one of them!

Delicious!

Jake and Matt plucking the cockerel.

First egg!

Pingu the black hen laid her first egg! 

She made a little nest in the nest box and popped one out!

Carrots are meant to help your eyesight right?

We thought carrots were meant to help your eyesight... seems not for Mim. Her 20:20 vision has gone so we had to buy her glasses. And she is going grey in her old age.

Here's the proof!

4 New Piglets

We have four new piglets coming to the farm. They are taking the place of the pigs we used to have. These new additions will be joining the farm on Sunday 20th September. They are Gloucester Old Spots, the same breed as our previous pigs.

Guinea Fowl chicks

We have a new addition to the the farm family. We have 10 Guinea Fowl chicks which have kindly been donated by Phillip Merton. These new additions are alot more timid than the chickens or the ducklings and don't like being picked up too much.

Fruit In The Orchard

We have lots of fruit. We have apples, blackberries, pears, plums and we are making elderberry wine (adults only!). Poached pears covered in melted chocolate are just the best!

Sausages, nice juicy sausages

Our pigs have been taken to the slaughter :-(. Adrian and John Heasley had the job of taking them to the slaughter house for us. I think Adrian is still recovering from the trauma. They have become nice juicy sausages, chops and pork joints. They taste GOOD! Really delicious. The pork has quite a bit of fat but that is usual with rare breed meat and is why they are not used commercially. The flavour is worth all the effort. We now have a chest freezer full of meat. Ask Steve if you fancy buying any. 

Celebrate good times, c'mon!

We are married! The farm was the venue for our wedding. We decorated the picnic area with bunting, had a hog roast and everyone who came brought some food. We had a wonderful day and celebrated it with our good friends and family. Thanks to everyone who helped make the day so memorable.



Adrian giving Andi away:





Andi and Steve being wed:

4 cockerels and 3 hens

Wahey we have some layers. We have 4 cockerels and 3 hens. Unfortunately Limpy, one of our hens, has died. SO we now have 2 hens and 4 cockerels.

R.I.P. Limpy

3 of the cockerels are due to be made into Sunday dinner this week. We can't keep all of them unfortunately, especially as they outnumber the hens 2:1.

Grown Up Ducks

Our duckings are all grown up. They are now fully grown and are part of the family. They waddle around the farm and have settled in well. They are very comical and chatter away to each other endlessly. We have two ducks and three drakes. We need to get another duck to make things even because they like to pair up. 

Veg beds

The veg beds have been built and are being prepared for growing vegetables next spring. The weeding process has begun and the beds are nearly ready.

Being built:

Time for food?

The picnic area has been fully cleared and is now available for use. With fresh green grass, and benches to come when completed, this area of the farm is peaceful and a nice place to relax. It's also a goat free area so you can enjoy your picnic in peace!

A new gate

Roger Dukes and Mark Underwood have put up the new farm gate. The animals are now securely enclosed in the farm. This new gate is about 6ft tall and weighs a ton!

No more homeless chickens

It turns out that we have 3 hens, they are not all cockerels. Our layers now have a place to lay their eggs each morning. The hens are not laying at the moment... or they are and we just haven't found the eggs yet. Hopefully they will start laying soon so we can have eggs for breakfast. Adrian built this hen house out of the old wood that was boarding up the windows and the old pump house doors. Excellent bit of recycling.

Wild man of the woods

At the Kadesh Farm we managed to photograph a rare sighting of our very own resident wildman

(aka Jake)

Mischief

Steve teaching Twist circus tricks

Roger and mark brought this trailer up to the farm whilst putting up the new gate. The goats thought it was a new adventure playground.

This bale of straw delivered by Cecil was something to play on too.

Not sure what Twist finds so funny but she's probably laughing at Steve's antics.

Buster, Twist and Spice chillin'

Ducklings

The ducklings have now moved to the farm and are enjoying their new pad.

In the absence of a mother they will follow any pair of legs that happens to walk past. It's quite a comical sight to see someone walking along the path followed closely by a line of five little waddling ducklings (actually, being runner ducks, they run, not waddle).

One of the ducklings has found a safe warm place to fall asleep. 

I think he thinks Jake is Mother Duck

Relaxing 

The ducklings' new pond

Indian Runners

The Indian Runner ducks have now hatched and are causing mischief already.  We had 6 eggs of which 5 have hatched and developed into healthy little beasts.  Andi's cats are scared of them because when they run around the floor they make a lot of little patting noises, so they have been staying there for now without fear of being attacked by cats.  They will be moved upto the farm in a few weeks time.  There are only 4 ducks in these pictures as 1 of them took a little longer to hatch than the others.

The chicks' big move.

The chicks have now been moved to the farm and all seven are still looking nice and healthy.  We have introduced them to the goats, who were very curious about the new additions and they seem to be getting along fine.

The chicks will live in this ark for the next few weeks.  After that we will move them into a bigger premises.

'Twist' keeps following them around and is still not 100% sure what to make of them.

'Joy' (As named by Hans)

'Spice' is attempting to blend in as a chicken.

The seven chicks, now 6 weeks old.

Indian Runner Ducks

We now have 5 Indian Runner duck eggs in our incubator.  There were 6 eggs but when I got home after a weekend away there was quite a distinct smell filling my flat.  On closer inspection the smell was coming from one of the eggs which means that one of them hasn't made it and had to be thrown away.

They are due to hatch on or around the 20th May.  Watch this space for an update.

Chicken Shed

Adrian has built a small chicken run for the chicks, mostly from bits laying around his garden and the farm (like an old 'hope tree' sign and some roofing battens).  I'll get some more pictures of the chicks soon as they are getting fairly big now.  Unfortunately it is looking like we might have 7 cockerels and no layers, but at least that means we have some nice meals coming soon.

In the picture below you can see some sort of wild animal has managed to get inside the chicken run with a drill.

Update on the baby goats.

'Buster' and 'Twist' are now so tame that even our regular volunteer Hans 'Mintcake' Kendall is starting to get over his fear of animals and embrace them.

'Buster' is getting frustrated with everyone taking pictures of him so has started to make rude gestures to the camera.

The goats like to check the pigs are keeping their place clean.

'Buster' gave a very good report on the standard of Adrian's roofing skills.

'Twist' and 'Buster' aren't too keen on any humans entering the pig pen and have been known to knock me to the ground to get me out.

Here are the deadly duo.  'Buster' on the left and 'Twist' on the right.