Animals at Dell Farm
We have a variety of animals at Dell Farm who are all extremely friendly. Whilst you are here you get to feed, groom and stroke the animals. To find out more details about the animals we have on the farm click on the ducklings below:
If it is the spring time it is possible that you will see babies being born.
The eggs that are laid on the farm are put into the incubator where they are kept warm until they hatch. These 2 ducklings are still under a lamp to keep them warm until they are ready to brave the barn and then the outside pond. If you are lucky you may get to see the ducklings first ever swimming lesson in a paddling pool!
Due to popular demand here is our lovely Sally. If you haven't met Sally before she is Mr and Mrs Harwin's dog who comes out with the residential groups on all the walks. She is the most well trained, beautiful dog in the world....and yes we are bias!
Jacobs Sheep
At Dell Farm we have a rare breed of pure bred Jacobs sheep. They are black or brown and white and can have up to 6 horns! They have exceptional markings on them and make very good mums. Click on the photo below to find out more about sheep.
Above is a mum (ewe) with her new born lamb.
Ponies
Dougal is a Shetland pony. He is very greedy and eats a lot! Dougal has his winter coat on below. You can see how much thicker and warmer it would be. Click on Dougal below to find out more about ponies
Above Dougal has been groomed by the groups that have been at Dell Farm and even had a soapy scrub from Mrs Cosgrove which left him gleaming.
Benny, below, is also a shetland pony and he is at least 20 years old. He is on loan for as long as we keep him for. Benny and Dougal are getting along very well and it is nice to see Dougal with another pony.
Goats
This is our old Billy (male) goat. He is very smelly because to attract the Nanny (lady) goats he wees on his head!!! Don't stroke a Billy goat, unless you want to smell all day!! Unfortunately we have sold Billy to another farm now where he has lots of admirers! We need to use a different billy because he couldn't obviously mate with his daughters. Click on Billy above if you want to learn more about goats.
In 2006 we had 2 golden guernsey kids (baby goats) born who are extremely friendly. A boy and a girl were born and they were named at the DELL FARM FUN DAY on the 21st MAY 2006!! They were born over Easter and are a couple of days and then weeks old in the following pictures. Unfortunately their mum died only a week after their birth. She was only 2 and we miss her a lot. Luckily we got a few pictures of her and her kids.
They had to be bottle fed with milk suitable for baby goats and sheep. It is powdered milk that is mixed up with warm water. They were fed 3 times a day. It is a good job they had each other.
Below the twins are dozing. They are 3 days old here.
They were very cheeky and adventurous at 2 weeks old.
Here are the guernseys a little older enjoying life outside. See how Jenny is watching them as they bound about. They were named at the Fun day Ian and Abigale. We kept Abi but Ian is now at another farm having lots of fun!
Below is Abigale fully grown and loving life at Dell Farm. Click on Abi to find out more about goats.
Here are the lastest additions to the farm. They are pigmy goats, a small breed of goat and her two kids, a boy and a girl. They were born on the 16th April 2008.
Below are two kids born on the 4th May 2008. They are enjoying their first time ever outside. The white one is a nanny goat (girl) and the brown, white and black one is a billy (boy) goat.
We have recently sold both the baby billy goats together so we only have the nanny goats now
There is more information about the goats and more pictures at the end of the is section under Spring and Summer animals.
Donkeys
Jenny is the mother of Beauty and Josephine the two other donkeys born at the farm. She is a rescue donkey and has lived with us ever since.
Below is Beauty, she was born in 2003. She is very friendly and still at Dell Farm keeping her Mum, Jenny company.
This is Josephine below (named by Richmond Hill). She was only a week old here. She got very tired and couldn't stand for long without a good rest and a lie down. She now lives at a different farm and is very happy with her new friends.
Josephine has gone to a yard to be a companion for a rescue donkey called Dave who is only 4 years old. It is a lovely place with fields to roam in and beautiful stables for the winter. They aren't far from here so we can visit her to see how she is getting on. They are hoping to train her to be ridden when she gets old enough (about 4). If not she will chill on their farm with Dave! I'm sure she will settle down fine. Below is a few pictures of her taken the day she left. We miss her lovely character a lot.
If only you could explain to an animal what was going on so they could say goodbye to each other. Apparently donkeys can create such a strong bond that even if they don't see each other in years they still recognise each other!
To find out more about the animals click on the photograph of Jenny and Josey above.
Caramel
This is Mel our Jersey cow. She was born in 2003. She hasn't had a calf yet which means she is still classed as a heifer. Once she has had a calf she would then produce rich creamy milk and that is the main reason she is kept on a farm. She has the most beautiful, big, brown eyes.
Click on the photograph of Mel above to find out more about cows.
Winnie
Well I've looked through all the animals and suddenly realised there isn't a picture of Winnie the pig. She is huge and absolutely lovely. She loves having her back scratched when she comes over to the fence. Winnie unfortunately died last term, in May 2008. She had the most fantastic life here having lots of piglets and then retiring to lazing in the mud and being well looked after. We miss her a lot but are hoping to replace her soon with a couple of pigs. To find out more about pigs and Gloucester Old Spots click on Winnie below.
Rabbits
Below are a couple of pictures of a very special rabbit whose mum died and we hand reared when he was only a few weeks old.
Click on Charlie below to get to the story.
Every year we have more baby rabbits born for the children to handle and then sell on to good homes. They are so gorgeous and fluffy.
Look how small the babies are in comparison to their mum. Have you noticed all 3 in the photo above? Look closely! Below are a few more pictures of this litter. I wish I could take the little chocolate one home!!
On the farm we also have a lot of different birds.
Below is our male turkey called Randy. We had a different male turkey (a stag) for years but he wasn't very friendly. We offered him to a new home where he is now an amazing 'guard dog' and we got a new one ourselves. He has been raised by humans and he is a little confused, is he a turkey or a human?!! You can pick him up and he follows you around as if you are best friends. He has that beautiful looking face to attract the ladies...the extremes some males go to look good eh?!! Click on the photograph of Randy to find out more about Turkeys.
Now before the birds get to their adult size they all start off so very tiny in an egg. We hatch many birds each year and below is a picture of the inside of the incubator. There are baby chicks just hatched that day or a day before and unhatched eggs.
Most of our chickens are lucky enough to have the run of the place and others still have a lot of space but we use them for breeding so we like to make sure we keep the correct breeds together in the same pens. Click on the chickens below to find out more about them.
Dell Farm has 3 ponds. This one below is for the ducks and geese. Do you know which are the male ducks and which are the females? Click on the ducks below to find out more about them.
Below are our 4 geese, 2 males and 2 female. One of the questions we will be asking you at Dell Farm is how do you tell the difference between a duck and a goose? See if you can work it out before you get here... Click on the geese below to find out more about them.
During the winter it is quite cold some weeks!
Here are some pictures of the animals wondering what all this cold, white stuff is!! All the animals adapt to survive in the colder weather. Can you think what they might do?
The spring and summer are a lovely time of year at Dell Farm.
Below is a ewe and her lamb suckling.
Some of these lambs are only a couple of days old.
In 2006 two guernsey goats were born, abigail and Ian.
Below the twins are dozing. They are 3 days old here.
Here are 2 new additions to the farm. These are Pigmy goats, a small breed of goat. This photo was taken 1 minute after they were born.
The following photos are taken 12 hrs after. You can see how the mother has cleaned them up so they are now all fluffy.
Above is Nigel and below is Jayne. They are so tiny and very weak still so each day we have our fingers crossed hoping they have made it through the night. The little boy is particularly weak but oh so gorgeous. They are such pretty little animals. Did you know a baby goat was called a kid? To find out more about goats click on the picture below.
I think Mum is trying to hide here, hoping they won't disturb her!!!
On the 4th May our second nanny pigmy goat gave birth to her 2 babies (kids). She had one billy (boy) and one nanny (girl). They will be named at the Fun Day.
The little nany kid below is so curious, she jumps all over us when we go in the pen with her.
We have just sold the 2 billy kid goats so now we only have the 2 nanny kids. They have gone to a lovely home, which is always so important in our decision to sell them. The nanny kid above is called Phoebe. We now have Phoebe and Jayne as the 2 nanny goats we are keeping at Dell Farm.