Lower Hearson Farm, Self Catering Farm Holiday Cottages, North Devon

August 2010

Both Pheobe and Brackens piglets are growing up fast. We have moved Pheobe and her litter back into the wood. Pheobe was so excited to be back in the wood that she was dancing round between the trees. The piglets took to their new home immediately and were running around, happily rooting the soil and covering their noses with mud.

   

July 2010

Pheobe gave birth to six little piglets on the 13th July and Bracken had six more piglets on the 15th July. They are all very beautiful. They are both very good mothers and the piglets are such fun to watch as they are growing up. They are now playing chase boisterously charging in and out of  the bars of their creep area and around their mother’s feet.

   

The Light Sussex chicks have at last been given their freedom to roam around the gardens. They are most likely to be seen grazing the grass in the orchard and chasing the occasional insect.

 June 2010

The Light Sussex chicks are now 6 weeks old and have been moved outside into their lovely spacious chicken hut and pen and are enjoying the outdoor life. They are desperate to escape into the gardens with our other laying hens but need to wait until they are a little bit older before they can join them and truly free range.

Pheobe and Bracken are now heavily pregnant. The piglets are due around the 10th of July and the pressure is on to build their farrowing quarters in the barn so they can be down in the farmyard where we can keep an eye on them.

April/May 2010

 Pheobe and Bracken are now back with us after their holiday and enjoying the fine weather during the early days of their pregnancy. They are certainly more calm now they are pregnant and really enjoy having their tummies rubbed lying on their verandah of straw outside the hut. The piglets are due during the second week of July.

  

March 2010

Spring has come to Lower Hearson Farm.

There are fantastic snowdrops in our woodland and the daffodils are waiting to burst into their full glory. The cold weather has kept the primroses very quiet which will mean that there will be a complete carpet of yellow in April. 

Our two Oxford Sandy and Black gilts (female pigs who have yet to have their first litter) are now with the Boar at his farm near Taunton. We know that the Boar is a decent young man of good pedigree and even though we kept telling them about their exciting holiday they were very reluctant to be loaded into the trailer. Pheobe decided to jump out of the trailer and have a wander around the garden with us having a fun time trying to coax her back with a trail of food. If the mood is right hopefully they will conceive at the first time of trying and the piglets should be born in late July.

 The lambs are coming out into the field now and are starting to jump and skip around and have some fun in the spring sunshine.

We have successfully hatched 15 Light Sussex chicks in our incubator. They spent a week in the kitchen in front of the range. It was time to move them to the Root House when they started escaping from their box and every morning when we came down there were chicks wandering around the kitchen.