Farm sit at Woollard

Bonnie and Jasper - butter wouldn't melt!

I would like to apologise for the tardiness of this latest blog – I have been so busy with gardening jobs and trying to finish the decorating at the cottage, that I have just been too tired to write by the end of the day! However, I feel I must write about my farm sit, the other week, before my memory of it becomes too hazy. 

The weather forecast for the week that I was to be at Woollard, not far from Bristol, had been quite good, when I’d looked at it the week before, but I always pack full waterproofs and wellies when I do a farm sit, as there is nothing worse than having to go outside to feed animals in completely inappropriate and inadequate clothing. As it turned out the forecast was completely wrong and I spent quite a lot of my time in waterproofs and wellies – the great British Summer, it never fails to disappoint! 

When I arrived on the Saturday morning it was actually fine and dry, and I helped Chris and little Penny pick some raspberries and a few late strawberries in the fruit cage, so that they could take them on holiday with them. There were still lots of raspberries coming along and I was looking forward to picking them every couple of days. As it turned out, I only got to pick them on my penultimate day as it was too wet for the rest of the week, so a lot of them had spoiled. 🙁 

The girls

Sarah had been her usual efficient self and produced a couple of pages of instructions and also talked me through, in detail, signs of imminent birth in alpacas! None of the four expectant mothers was due until the end of the month, but Angelina was looking hugely pregnant, so I needed to know what to look out for. I kept my fingers crossed that Angelina would keep her legs crossed until they got back, as in the past, she has had to be assisted because she produces such large babies (cria). Apparently, alpacas usually give birth in the morning – if they show signs of being in labour in the afternoon/evening it usually means that there is a problem! Eeek! 

There are eighteen alpacas altogether – ten females and eight males, including young Dougal, the cria that I had to bottle feed last year – he is still small compared to the others, but very beautiful with fluffy, teddy-bear ears! 

The boys - Dougal is in the middle

Both groups are fed once a day, and the girls let out into the erstwhile hay field in the mornings (as long as Angelina isn’t in labour!) 

Apart from the alpacas, there were two pigs, who were fed three times a day, eight sheep, geese, ducks, many chickens, a couple of goslings and ducklings in an outside run and a box of chicks and a box of ducklings in the scullery – not to mention Bonnie, the dog and Jasper the kitten-cat. 

The six 'Scullery Chicks'

A typical day went something like this: wake up about 6.30, get up, wash and dress and go downstairs to let Bonnie and Jasper outside. Put on kettle for a cuppa and then feed and water the chicks and ducklings in the scullery. Feed Bonnie and Jasper and then head outside. First of the poultry to be let out were the ducks, so that they could feed in peace, but first of all I had to feed the pigs, who had heard me open the gate and would be shouting for their breakfast. Once I’d let out the ducks, it was on to the chickens, who live in several different house/runs inside their own paddock area. There were 35 hens (I didn’t count them, so I hope they were all there!) and there was also a separate house and run with a hen and four chicks, that she’d hatched all by herself. Clever girl!

Once all of the chickens were out and about in their area, it was back to the ducks to let the two older ducklings out of their house and walk them to their daytime run in the garden. Then it was time to let out the geese, who are housed in two separate sheds and they would graze their way down to the paddock that they share with the ducks. Once they were safely out, it was back up to the goose house to let out the two goslings, who share their daytime run with the two ducklings – they are great friends and call to each other. In fact, I took to letting the ducklings out of their run to come and fetch their friends. 

Ducklings and goslings - friends forever!

Then I would walk over to the alpaca girls and let them out into the hayfield before checking that the eight sheep were still all OK. At this point it was time for breakfast. 

After breakfast I would muck out the duckling box, wash the eggs that I’d collected the night before and put them out on the honesty shelf outside the front gate, so that people could help themselves. I was picking up about 18-20 eggs each day, so three boxes usually went out for sale. There was one day when I was hailed from the gate by a lady whose friend had just bought the last half dozen. She wondered if there were any more, so I quickly went up to the chicken run and checked and had just enough newly-laid, warm eggs for her to have – she was thrilled to bits! 

One day, while I was mucking out the duckling box, I decided to let them have a play in the sink so, having taken advice from on-line sources, I put enough warm water in the sink to come to the top of their legs and then carefully lifted them in. At first they were a bit panicky but then they realised how nice it was and calmed down completely. Here is a link to the short video I made of them: https://youtu.be/na2MG9hB_Ec

In the afternoon I would take Bonnie and we would go out, across the hayfield (taking care not to get too close to the alpacas as they don’t really like the dog), into the long ‘leg’ that tapers to a point and marks the end of their land. All of these lower fields, and the garden, run alongside the River Chew and are edged with tall alder trees and willows. There are frequent fly-pasts by kingfishers, who use the river like a super-fast motorway. One of them has a lookout on a pole in the vegetable garden, and could be seen there most mornings. The pole juts out over the river, just under the overhang of the road bridge, and it was quite amusing to watch visitors to the village park on the bridge and then lean on the railings chatting and laughing (and in the case of some children, shrieking) while just a few feet below them, and completely unconcerned, perched the kingfisher.

Kingfisher on his lookout in the veg garden

Once Bonnie had had a good run around in the far field, we accessed the male alpaca field by way of a pedestrian gate and a long flight of rustic steps, up the side of the valley. Bonnie would then sit by the water container while I fed and watered the boys, and then we would continue through the far gate into their last field, which has a public footpath running through it, before returning to the farm, having done a circuit of the entire smallholding. 

By about 7.30pm it was time to start putting everyone to bed, starting with putting feed and fresh water in for the geese, opening the gate and letting out a stream of honking, hungry geese, whilst trying to stop the ducks getting out, too. Then I would open the gosling/duckling enclosure and usher all four up to the goose house, where the goslings would bid their friends a fond farewell and be shut back into their cage for the night. The ducklings would then walk down to their house and go to bed, while the adult ducks had another feed and I replenished the water containers, ready for the next day. 

The previous times that I had done farm sits for Chris and Sarah, the chickens had proved to be a nightmare to put to bed, with everyone ending up in the wrong houses/runs, but this time, they seemed to have sorted it out and didn’t cause too many problems. There was one hen that insisted she lived in Hen House #1 and, as she had no leg ring on, I couldn’t tell where she belonged: the hens in Hen House #2 mainly sported yellow rings; the hens from Hen House #3 had green or green and white rings; the Speckled cockerel lived in Hen House #4 with one hen that had a pinky-red ring and the rest lived in Hen House #1. However, later on, when I had to make sure all of the chickens were in the houses contained within the runs, it became apparent that the mystery hen did not live in Hen House #1 at all, and she got very upset, especially as the hens who did live in Hen House #1 kept beating her up! In the end I had to corner her, catch her and carry her to Hen House #2, at which point a small, very dim bulb would light up in her head as she realised that this was, in fact, where she lived! Eventually, after three nights of this, the penny finally dropped, and I had no more problems with her – now I know why the term ‘bird-brained’ came about! 

Finally, it was time to come in and make myself an evening meal. There was one evening when I decided to cook some chicken pieces in the oven, but had no idea what setting, of the eight on offer on their rather smart range cooker, was the fan oven. In the end I phoned Sarah, hastily reassuring her that it was a domestic, not an animal, problem. This gave Chris, particularly, much amusement, as the first time I went there I couldn’t work out how to open the child-locks on the kitchen cupboards! I don’t think I’m ever going to be allowed to live these incidents down!

At the end of the week I managed to hand back the same number of live animals that I started with which, as I said to Jeni, is always good! 😀  

And now a shameless plug for the alpacas - Sarah has just launched a Facebook page: 

https://www.facebook.com/BellFarmAlpacas. She will be running Alpaca Experience days where you can get up close and personal with the alpacas, learn all about them, have a cream tea and buy some alpaca merchandise (some of which features that handsome pin-up boy, Dougal)

P.S. Yesterday (24th July) two of the pregnant females gave birth to their cria - I am so glad that they waited until after I'd gone home, as one (Angelina) required veterinary intervention. Both Mums and babies are doing well.

Foxy and daughter

Angelina and son