Spring is one of our favourite times of year, with the arrival of new life.
We plan our lambing to begin in April to avoid the worst of the British weather… well that didn’t quite go to plan this year!
A record wettest March into a very wet April meant lambing this year was hard work. We have already had over half our average annual rainfall this year despite having the driest February we have on record (Alice’s Dad has been logging rainfall on the farm since 2006).
Despite the weather we have had a very successful lambing with our 11 Zwartble ewes producing 7 sets of twins and 4 singles. All with Zwartble colours despite being fathered by a white Poll Dorset/Texel ram.
Our two Herdwick ewes: Gladys and Gloria also had lovely lambs, one ewe lamb and the other a ram lamb both fathered by our Herdwick Ram, Huckleberry. We have been very impressed with the Herdwicks as mothers, the Zwartble ewes could do with taking a few tips off of them!!!
Spring has also seen the arrival of 4 new weaners to The Devon Croft. They are 4 very friendly Iron Age x Sandy and Black pigs. We have homed them in a disused pheasant pen which has a mixture of woodland and grass. They love hiding in the woods and rooting up out in the field, very happy pigs indeed.
Finally, we have got chickens back on The Devon Croft. After an extremely long bird lockdown due to avian flu (where we decided to
not keep chickens) we have got 2 batches of chickens in. The first batch are almost at processing age and the second batch are just a week old.
Our first batch have been scratching around in the orchard having a wonderful time! We hope once the weather permits we will be able to rotate the chickens around our fields following the sheep.
Although we have made good progress, the terrible wet weather has meant our cabin is not quite finished! We were hoping to be up and running by now however are now looking at an opening in the Summer. The Crofters Cabin is going to be a wonderfully peaceful escape.
Whilst we have been working up there, we have enjoyed stunning birdsong as well as being treated with a herd of Red Deer trotting past.
After a late start the trees are greening up, the grass is growing and the countryside is looking alive again, bring on Summer!
Thank you for your continued support
Jake, Alice,
Pod, Bean, Sika and Sybil
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