That's it, nothing more to say, our very first lamb from the Neville Farm Lleyn flock, and its a girl. Stay safe little lady, your the start of something special..
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please We are about half way through lambing, it’s been an interesting season, we lambed our ewe lambs inside and due to bad weather, we never seemed to be able to turn them out, so we started lambing the main flock and the few Pure Lleyn outside. It was brilliant. Lovely healthy lambs, milky ewes, and no problems and then it all went wrong. Really wrong. We are under attack.. Look to the skies and they are there, somewhere. Corvids, the evil, malignant harbingers of death, pain and suffering. Magpies, and crows. Both guilty, how do we know, because we have seen them, so far, we have lost 6 lambs, and have now had to bring all the sheep in to be lambed inside as it’s so heart-breaking, so now by avoiding the Magpies we risk our Ewes getting twin lamb disease and other issues but it’s all we can do. Why is it so heart-breaking, well it’s the way in which they kill the poor lambs. They peck out the eyes and tongues of new born lambs or even as they are being born. That’s it, they peck out the eyes and tongues of perfectly healthy live lambs, not dead lambs as many would have you believe. So, we arrive to find live lambs unable to drink with no tongue or unable to see. The pain and misery of not only the poor lamb but the poor bleating mother as it nuzzles and tries to get her baby to stand.. I have been out checking sheep with my children and trying to explain this complete and utter misery to a 6 and 8 year old is impossible. We have declared war, Larsen traps have been set and I will have my vengeance, but that’s no consolation to those poor lambs and mothers bleating for their baby’s. Larsen traps are metal cages with a decoy bird in the middle and two sprung loaded traps on either side, they do not hurt the birds, just hold them, this enables the operator to release any non-target species and humanely dispatch any target species. The call bird in the middle is fed & watered it has a perch, shelter and is well cared for. So, next time you read a Facebook post or article from the animal rights groups extoling the evils of Larsen trap, and encouraging people to destroy and smash them. please spare a thought for the lambs, songbirds, ground nesting birds and wildlife that these evil creatures maim and destroy, we don’t want to wipe them out, just control numbers to a healthy population. So please if you’re out walking in the country and see a Larsen trap, with its decoy bird hoping around inside, please don’t interfere with it just walk on by knowing that its purpose is to save the misery and death these birds can bring..  A slightly odd title for a website that tries to sells you lamb I agree, but right now Bees and Honey are what’s on our mind. We have decided to get some Bees, Why.?? Good Question, don’t know really, always fancied some, and now the children are getting older I thought why not. (what better reason could there be than why not.) So, last year I bought a hive, saw this amazing hive on Indiegogo called the Flow Hive https://www.honeyflow.com it was an internet sensation and gained over $13 million of support...! So yes, being a sucker for tech I got one. they seem to have divided the Bee Keeping world, lots of people hate them for lots of reasons. Anyway, let’s not dwell on it I have one, and I'm going to fill it with bees this year. (well technicaly I’m going to let Bees fill it with more Bees and hopefully Honey I have joined my local bee keeper’s society http://www.somersetbeekeepers.org.uk/yeovil.html and am going to weekly lessons/ talks, with others looking to start, and hopefully with advice and a wing & a prayer will get some bees this year. More details to follow but in the meantime, this is what the flow hive looks like whilst repairing some fencing on Sunday (damn horses) this was the view that greated is. Stunning colours in the Autumnal sunshine.. #autumn #lamb #grassfed #organic #lovedorset After letting our new sheep out in the dark last night we went to check on them this morning, here they are in all their glory... Honestly they are out there somewhere... We saw them briefly, very very briefly...!  Eight Hours of Driving, yes Eight hours through the stunning Welsh countryside, the leaves are changing and it was beautiful. We have wanted some pedigree sheep for a while, something the Children can take pride in and possibly take to some local shows. Trying the find Pedigree Organic lambs has been an absolute nightmare but we finally tracked some down in Mid Wales, so on Sunday Fred (7-year-old son) and I set off in the lorry, we took my father, always good to get an experienced eye and he loves a road trip in the lorry so off we set. The leaves are turning now as Autumn sets in and we remarked many times that we have never seen such amazing colours. We went to Hangingheld Farm to see Nell and Hamish Wilson and their lovely family, Fred was particularly taken not by the sheep but by the Hoglets (baby Hedgehogs) in the kitchen and the boys motorbikes.!! Hangingheld farm is home to the amazing charity Degmo, have a look at www.degmo.org for a better understanding of what they do. In essence Degmo is a traditional Somali tented village set up in the middle of the Welsh countryside to promote understanding of Somali culture and history. Somali families and groups get hands on experience of British farming, milking goats, handling sheep and cows and in turn learn about their own agricultural and nomadic culture and rich heritage. It's an amazing place and we were delighted to be able to buy some lovely Shearling lambs from them. We got home in the dark last night but turned them out with our horses so they were isolated from our own stock for a few days, we'll flush them on some herb rich grass for a week possibly two and then put a pedigree Lleyn ram with them, fingers crossed in April we will have the start of our own Pedigree Neville Farm flock. Enjoying the last of the Autumn Sunshine and checking the sheep. #autumnsun #organiclamb #dorset #familytime #nevillefarm #slowfood #grassfed We've been shopping... While many peoples idea of a great day shopping is hitting Prada, Gucci or Vuitton, this is ours.. Yes we've been shopping for Rams, and what fine beasties they are, (if a little wild) these were the only pictures I got before they ran wild in a 20 acre field, we see them briefly twice a day before they run to the far corner... They'll be quieter just as soon as they've met our Maiden Ewe lambs and done a little "work"... After our win last year at the www.dorsetcountyshow.co.uk Carcass class we were feeling the pressure.. So we entered lambs in two classes,
We were delighted to receive First and Second in BOTH of the lamb classes. So when we say that we offer Award Winning Grass fed Organic Lamb we really do mean award winning…Multiple Award Winning in fact. We will have lamb available soon so please do get your orders in quickly as we will have limited numbers available this year. |
Neville FarmThese are the ramblings of a wannabe farmer, treat with caution..! Archives
March 2017
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