January 25th

Its official! We are a regional winner of the Countryside Alliance Awards or the "Rural Oscars". What a fantastic surprise! When we opened the post this morning, we were over the moon. In March we shall be ditching our grubby farm gear for our best suits to mingle with other winners at the house of Lords. Thankyou to all our customers who nominated us and of course all our staff who make this job so worthwhile. We received some lovely aprons with the awards logo on but not sure if theyll be suitable for wearing around the farm though!

January 18th

...Three more sets of twins born last night with a little help from Farmer Will. Super cute and very warm and snug under their heat lamps!

January News:

All of a sudden, its the big freeze! We've had to have a good check round all of the animals this week to see if theyre ok in this weather. Obviously the reindeer are in their element as they love icy conditions but we have to pay particular attention to Sheldon our giant tortoise who needs to be kept warm all the time. The rabbits &

guinea pigs need a bit of extra bedding at this time but generally everything is fine.

We had a great surprise yesterday morning when we saw twin lambs being born in the field. Its a bit early for lambing and what a carry on it was getting the three of them all into the shed! Mum and lambs are doing fine and the rest of the sheep will be coming in tomorrow. The nursery is now set up for them and who knows if we will have any more this week or whether she was just a bit early?! Watch this space....

New year News...

We hope you all enjoyed your Christmas Break - its certainly felt like a long time since Christmas eve but it was only a week ago! We had a great Christmas here in the barn and we hope you managed to get tickets to see Santa in the rush!

The weather has been so warm this year which has made it much easier for us to feed and look after all the animals. With half term just round the corner weve got to get all the animals ready for Spring, the ewes are being checked daily for signs of lambing and we need to get our sheds ready to make a nursery for the little ones when they come. Its probably the busiest time of year for farmer will as he will be up most nights checking his sheep and helping them along their way. Some of the first time mums need a bit of help in the early days and thats why its so important to keep checking theyre ok. Theres also baby rabbits and chicks to think about and although its only January weve seen a few daffodils trying to spring up - lets just hope that the warm weather continues so that they dont get too cold!

Autumn news...

Autumn is one of our favourite seasons. Its the start of our calving season which means its a busy time at the top of the hill! Its best that the cows calve outside in their natural environment rather than being in the shed so we check on them every day. So far weve had two lovely white faced calves which youll be able to see from the Tractor ride.

The red deer are really enjoying eating the cobs from the corn maze which gives them a bit more of a varied diet. As part of mini keepers youll be able to help throw the corn in for our deer!

Its now the time when the animals start to grow their winter coats and they will be needing a a lot of energy from their food to grow them properly. The reindeer are looking particularly well and their velvet (fur) is also shedding from their antlers which means that the breeding season is just round the corner. We hope to have another 4 more reindeer calves next year.

There's just a bit of time for us to catch up with the end of Harvest before October half term is upon us where well be celebrating with mountains of pumpkins and lots of scarily painted faces!

Dont forget we are still open every weekend until the school next holiday...

Lancelot the stag...

As is custom at this time of year lancelots "velvet" is coming off his antlers which tells us that he is close to starting the breeding season. It can look a bit painful when he rubs it off but its perfectly ok.

Did you know we are now a zoo?

We have been granted zoo status which proves that we demonstrate good standards of animal welfare and care on our farm. Well done to all our animal staff for helping us achieve this fantastic milestone.

Baby reindeer number two!... (19th May 2011)

Perfect timing... just as New Silksworth Infant School were arriving, Twinkle was giving birth to a new calf. This one is a little girl and Farmer Will showed all the school children how to care for the new born calf. Well done Twinkle!