Poorly Piggy

Just a quick one to post a lovely picture of our dogs Ruby and Freya with a poorly piglet that we had to bring inside to feed and keep warm. Good news is the piglet seems to be getting much better.

Babies, babies and more babies!

Haven't written in a while again, seem like time is going so quickly. We've had some more births since I last wrote.

Firstly, another one of our Oxford Sandy and Black girls surprised us with 9 piglets on the 1st of October. We obviously knew she was pregnant but didn't think she was that far gone because she seemed tiny in comparison to Fudge when she had hers. Strange how different the pregnancies can be. Piglets and Mum all doing well. You can't beat watching them rooting around and playing with each other, so sweet.

We shall be selling these on as weaners at the end of November so please contact us on 01263732177 or burevalleyfarm@gmail.com if you are interested. We are also fattening up some of our earlier weaners so if you are interested in buying a whole or half pig from us then please also contact us. 

The other birth we've had is the first of Robin and Beckie's Boar goat kids. He's a little boy and they hope to register him and sell him on as a billy. Pictures to follow of this little guy. He's also doing well and is so much chunkier than the Nubian kids were. Seems the Nubes really were all legs!

Moving away from births (well kind of) we've manged to get our affix for our Nubians, which shall be Silver Cloud.

Kody and Hayley have another new pup called Freya. She's a black long coated GSD. Settling in well and Luna is loving the play time!

Growing fast

Our Oxford Sandy and Black piglets are growing fast and are now weaned off their Mum. They'll be ready for their new homes on 12th August so please contact us if you'd like any.

It's been a while and a lot has happened.

Where to start. We managed to find a whole heard of Boer goats for sale so Jackie and David picked up all 7 girls and 1 boy the middle of last month. They have settled in nicely and are now enjoying life outside on the meadow. Was lovely to see them all running around and jumping.

Our Light Sussex chicks are growing fast and some have already gone to new homes. We have added some Cream Legbar and and Marans to our traditional breeds so look forward to the different coloured eggs.

We thought our Oxford Sandy and Black pig was huge by her first possible due date but she didn't have the piglets until nearly 3 weeks later! We are so excited to have our first litter of piglets here. they are so cute and Fudge had a nice number at 12. We shall keep you updated as they get older. I'm sure there will be lots of pictures to come.

Piglets:

Hayley and Kody have brought home a lovely Husky pup to join the family too. She's settling in well and learning fast.

Our first kids

So this morning Jackie checked Lucy the goat at 5.30am and there was no sign of her giving birth. Then we had a shock at 8am as two little kids were with her. She did really well bless her. So our morning has been spent warming them up and making sure they get their colostrum. We have one little boy and one little girl, who we have named Lady May as it's May Day today.

Here's some pictures of the gorgeous little things:

Still wet:

 Lady May:

 The little boy:

 Both all dried out:

Chicks and weaners

So we've ended up with 19 eggs hatching out of the 23 we put in the incubator. All doing well and some are already developing their adult feathers.

On Sunday, David and Jackie went to pick up two gorgeous 8 week old Oxford Sandy and Black gilts. They're so friendly, love to play with you and get sad when you leave. So sweet.

First New Arrivals

Our first new arrivals of the year have come in the form of some fluffy little yellow Light Sussex chicks. So far we have 5 out but still some eggs in the incubator. We shall put a picture up and let you all know how many we get in the end. We just love Spring!

Geese!

We decided we'd quite like to try keeping, and maybe even breeding, geese and within a few days we already have 5 Chinese geese and some Embden goslings on the way. The chinese geese are currently sharing the pond with the ducks, lets hope they get on okay. We'll look forward to finding that first goose egg too.

New piggies.

On monday, Jackie and David picked up two new piggies, all the way from Somerset! Fudge is 2 years old and should be in pig so we're looking forward to little piglets in about 3 months time. We've called her neice Barley (sugar) and she's about 4 months old. Both lovely looking animals and Charles is so pleased to have new (lady) friends.

Fudge:

Barley:

All 3 together:

Catch up

So we stopped writing the weekly blogs as we didn't feel there was enough happening as yet. We're sure spring and summer shall bring a lot more to write about.
Our two GOS piggies went to the butchers and we have tried some of our lovely meat, yum. Let's hope the pigs in the future shall all be just as tasty and that others can enjoy them then too.
Charles has moved down to the woodland now and should have a couple of lady friends coming at the end of the week.
The snow drops are in full bloom down our lane and the weather is hinting spring but we do still have March to get through. There are also a couple of clumps of violets down the lane and in our woodland. We've seen a water vowl in our woodland pond, which has recently been cleaned. The otter has been spotted a couple of times on our river again. So there's lots to keep looking out for around the farm.
We'll keep you updated when we get any new arrivals.

Week 5

This week David and Kody helped put the new chicken hut up. They put the roof and veranda up themselves then treated the wood. The pullets started laying the same day they went in their new home. It is rather nice.
Yesterday, we picked up a 24 week old boar, to start our Oxford Sandy and Black breeding stock. Kody and David made him a hut out of a potato box, a few bits of tin and some OS board. Charles (our boar) seems very happy roaming on the veg patch.
Sadly, we've decided our GOS girls must go to the butcher so we can concentrate on breeding the OSBs. It's just in time though as we looked in the freezer this morning and only have a few sausages left. If anyone would like to order some sausages or joints, just let us know and we'll get the butcher to prepare them for you.
We've done well with the cottages this week too, taking several bookings for the summer.
We woke up to a decent coverage of snow this morning. Finally an actual wintery day.

Charles:

His hut:

Week 4

We actually went a week without any new arrivals. Not too much happened again this week so we may have to start writing blogs as things happen.

Monday: David and Kody altered some of the chicken runs to make them a bit more secure.

Tuesday: Jackie and David picked up a big order of animal feed to help keep all the animals happy and healthy.

Wednesday: David, Kody and Robin started clearing one of our ditches, while Jackie and Hayley made marmalade.

Thursday: David continued with clearing the ditch, while Kody started mucking out one of the chicken huts. We had a visit from a man about getting a new straw burning boiler. Touch wood, we'll have better luck with this one.

Friday: The men continued with the clearing of the ditch and the mucking out of the chicken run. We managed to find a new home for all our 2 year oldk brown hens and today they left to make room for the new pullets.

Saturday: We all had errands to do today so not a lot was done on the farm. An extra large egg was collected from our pure breed hens today. Jackie cracked it open to make panacakes and found a triple yolker! We looked it up and apprently you're more likely to win the lottery.

Sunday: Today the weather isn't very nice so we probably wont be getting much done. Oh well, it is Sunday afterall.

Look at these 3 lovely, golden yolks:

Week 3

So there's not really been that much happen this week but best write a post anyway.

Monday: Jackie and Hayley cleaned out a cottage for the Irish workers we have staying at the moment.

Tuesday: David and Kody chopped up some more wood to keep us all warm.

Wednesday: David and Jackie went to the Lamma Agricultural Show in Lincolnshire. David tries to go every year. Kody and Hayley were left in chrage again.

Thursday: Our pigs, Primrose and Iris, were finally moved back down to their origional home in the woods. They seem so much happier already. So lovely to see! David, Kody and Hayley then started mucking out their temporary housing.

Friday: David and Kody finished cleaning up the pigs temporary housing. Fabion and Lucy, two of our goats, have been bullying the others so they've now been moved. We're not quite sure what we should do with them now.

Saturday: David and Kody did some tidying up around the farm.

Sunday: We're all having a bit of a lazy day today but obviously there's jobs that still need doing, like collecting eggs and keeping an eye on the shop.

Happily back home:

Week 2

So this week has brought even more new members to our ever growing family. Even winter has turned out to be a busy time after all.

Monday: David and Jackie picked up some POL brown hens to replace our old ladies, who we are currently finding new homes for. These hens produce the majority of the free range eggs we sell but we do have pure breed chickens too.

Tuesday: David and Kody cleared up some wood, ready to be burnt on our wood burning boiler, which keeps us and our holiday cottage guests warm.

Wednesday: Today all five of us got stuck in clearing branches, ready to put the goat fencing up for their summer housing.

Thursday: Went to see some goats and came home with a lovely Anglo Nubian billy called Duncan. Our three ladies aren't sure what to make of him yet but he seems very happy with his new company. Let's hope we'll have some kids in a few months then some tasty milk and other products. Duncan:

Friday: David and Kody put all the fence posts in for the goats summer housing.

Saturday: Last year we discovered our pigs are amazing escape artists so they were moved to temporary housing. Today David and Kody have hopefully escape proofed the origional fencing so our lovely ladies can be moved back.

Sunday: David, Jackie and Kody have gone to pick up the other goats from where Duncan came. These are two Anglo Nubian x Golden Guernsey nannies, Lucy and Fudge. Also, one castrated male, Fabion, to keep Duncan company when not with the ladies. Let's hope they all settle in well together. This afternoon we're all off to pick up three female Muscovy ducks. We haven't had much luck with these so far as one of our females turned out to be a male and the other sadly managed to get in with the dogs.

Let's see if we can go next week without bringing anyone new home.

Lucy:

Week 1 (first weekly blog)

The weather has been quite up and down. It's still pretty warm, considering the time of year. This week has been mainly about the goats.

Monday: Jackie and Hayley cleaned out all 3 cottages, after people had them for a New Year celebration. David and Kody started getting the winter housing ready for our new arrivals, the goats.

Tuesday: Today was a horrible, rainy day so we didn't do much really, just the normal routine of letting out, feeding, watering and collecting eggs.

Wednesday: The goats aren't the only new arrival this week. Robin has invested in a lovely collie bitch, which he hopes to breed from. Jackie, David and Robin went to pick her up, leaving Kody and Hayley to look after the farm.

Thursday: David and Kody mucked out and cleaned up an old chicken shed, ready for yet some more new arrivals next week. Jackie finished off preparing a cottage for new guests.

Friday: David and Kody did some more work on the goat housing.

Saturday: David, Jackie, Kody and Hayley all got stuck in finishing off the goats' new home, ready for their arrival tomorrow. We are all very excited. One of our cockerels was being bullied so we're hoping he'll share this space with them too and make some new friends.

Sunday: Kody and Hayley are left in charge again today, while Jackie and David pick up our beautiful new girls. There's no real days off on the farm.

Watch this space for updates on how the goats settle in and next weeks blog.

Keep an eye out!

Happy New Year everyone!

We'll now be writing weekly blogs to keep you all up to date with what's going on at the farm. The first one will be this weekend so keep an eye out.