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.

Gloucester Old Spots

Our latest additions to the farm are a pair of gloucester old spot pigs.  They are both males and we do plan to eat them, so as a result the plan is not to name them.  However they have picked up the temporary names 'Not Yet' and 'Don't Know', due to the amount of people asking what their names are.

Adrian built this pig ark from material that we found laying around the farm and his own back garden.  The pigs seem very happy with it.

Our two youngest goats have already made friends with the pigs which has been a bit of a suprise.  The baby goats are able to squeeze through the fencing and we have seen them licking the pigs and the pigs licking them back several times.

Hans Kendall came to visit the farm and although he was terrified of them, eventually managed to make friends with one of the pigs.

Both of our boys look really happy in their new home and they have loads of room to run around in since Andi, Steve and James put up a new stock fence.

Grafitti Art

We had grafitti artist AKS join us for a day to brighten up the inside of the big shed.  He used some pictures that we had taken of our goats and drew outlines for us to paint.  Then we found the right colours and began making the outlines look like pictures.  By the end of the day the shed looked fantastic.

Hatching of the Eggs

26th March

We bought 18 mixed colour orpington chicken eggs on eBay to put in our incubator.  3 weeks later 7 of the eggs hatched in our classroom.

New born goats.

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

The baby goats at 1 day old.  Mark Underwood accidently named the boy 'Buster' and the girl is now called 'Twist'.

'Buster'

'Buster' on the left and 'Twist' on the right.  The middle one isn't a goat.

The proud mum 'Miriam'