News archive for 2012

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14/12/2012

We are delighted to announce the arrival of Ollie the baby donkey this morning! He will remain out of public view for a few days. We hope his debut will be at Holybourne Church on Christmas Eve.....

30/11/2012

We are pleased to have been awarded a Quality Mark from the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom which is a robust indicator that recognises the quality and safety of our visits

30/10/2012

Charity gave birth to 9 piglets on 23 September - all doing well. A variety of beautiful colours. They will be available for sale from end of November, in pairs as usual.

Maggie and Cleo our donkeys are keeping us waiting – they are both pregnant, but due to some miscommunication with the previous owner, your guess is as good as ours as to when they are due! We look forward to it, whenever it is!

Look out for works by local artist, Toni Goffe, who has a fabulous exhibition at Treloars College. Open until the end of halfterm, it includes works inspired by our animals!

30/08/2012

It was lovely to see many people down in town for the Alton Food Festival at the beginning of July. We had several people asking if the tractor that had been brought down to add a farmy feel to the day was ours. I am afraid not - it was far too shiny looking!

Tom did manage to get his new toy later in July - Rusty, the 40 year old David Brown tractor, in time to cut the grass during that week of really sunny weather we had. Cutting, turning, turning again, turning again, rowing, baling, lifting, stacking, lifting, restacking 280 bales of hay - gives you a new respect for "real" farmers - and ensures gym membership is still a long way off! We also became very aware of how much the weather affects farming activities - at one point we thought the whole week's work would go to waste due to a forecast of heavy rain. Fortunately, the Met Office got it wrong!

We were very sad to lose Chester at the beginning of July. He had been with us since March 2004, when he was 3 years old and has been a very faithful pet. He was in relatively good health up until the last 6 months or so when his heart murmur suddenly became worse. This was all controlled by a tablet regime until the last three days. He walked onto the patio and lay down about an hour and a half before the appointment we had booked for him at the vet. By far the best way to go.

Some weeks before he died, we had commissioned an up-and-coming artist, Hannah Angliss, to paint a portrait of Chester. The result can be seen here - Chester looking just as he used to! Hannah will happily take on other commissions - contact us and we will pass details on!

Finally, we had noticed recently that our donkeys, Maggie and Cleo were getting rather rotund. Was it over indulgence in grass, or had the 13 month gestation period been miscalculated? It appears the latter was correct and Harvey had already been to visit the girls when he was with his previous elderly owner. We are not quite sure when they are due, so you will be watching this space as much as us...!

09/07/2012

Chester, a SuperDog, 14^th November 2000 - 5^th July 2012.

27/06/2012

Apologies for the delay in putting things on here - slight technical glitch. We are able to keep the Facebook page more regularly updated so it is always worth checking on there.

We are now fully booked until the end of July which is exciting - and August is getting pretty full too! We have taken a Birthday Party booking for a 100 year old!

Since April, we have had more baby guinea pigs as well as Kune Kune piglets. Harvey our Jack donkey has also arrived and is keeping Maggie & Cleo company. Gestation is 13 months so hopefully we will have baby donkeys in the summer of 2013.

Kune kune piglets and guinea pigs for sale! Contact us if you're interested.

Look forward to meeting you on bookings - check out our Events page for a booking close to you.

16/04/2012

Thank you to everyone who braved the wet weather on Easter Monday and joined us at Andrews' Endowed School for our Annual Open Day. We were delighted that, despite the less than ideal weather, 500 people joined us for the day. Whilst we moved as much as we could inside the building, the animals remained under gazebos and welcomed cuddles from all the visitors! The four bottle fed lambs, the goat kids (who were less than a week old) and the donkeys proved to be real hits. Unfortunately shearing had to be cancelled as wet sheep don't make for good shearing! Meanwhile the Holybourne Guides helped with the handling of the chicks, ducklings, rabbits and guinea pigs. Alton Morris dancers kept us all entertained, encouraging guests to participate in the dancing and Botley Hog did a fine job keeping everyone fed. Our Chosen Charity this year was Hampshire Search and Rescue who had an impressive display of information and personnel who answered lots of questions about their work. We were delighted to be able to make a donation of £450 towards their fantastic work. A real community event and everyone kept smiling despite the damp!

07/04/2012

Whatever the weather will be, Open Day will go ahead you see. A wet weather plan is in place, Bring wellies and waterproofs in case!

14/03/2012

The lambs are arriving thick and fast - 7 have lambed and we have got 14 lambs - a pretty good lambing percentage! Daily updates are posted on our facebook page.

08/03/2012

Adelaide gave birth to twin lambs this morning - born between 3am when Farmer Tom had a quick check around the field and 7am when the donkeys woke us up braying! One ram lamb and one ewe lamb: Charles and Beatrice

06/03/2012

Cleopatra and Migisa the donkeys arrived on Monday 5th March, and they will be joined by Harvey at a later date. They are very gentle and well behaved when they are being led around. We look forward to bringing them out on visits soon."

15/02/2012

Charity gave birth to 9 piglets on 6^th February - 6 girls and 3 boys. One likes wandering around outside in the icy conditions (now named Oates) and another (named Tinker) is struggling to put on weight compared to his boisterous brothers and sisters. We are keeping a close eye on them....

01/01/2012

Happy New Year to everyone! Just a reminder that most of our news is now on our Facebook page.