Animal Care
Boaz is home to a flock of 120 free-range, egg-laying hens. That’s a lot of ‘girls’ to look after. Each day we make sure our chickens have plenty of food to eat and fresh water to drink. It’s fun searching in the straw-lined nesting boxes for fresh farm eggs. We count, sort, wash, box and stamp the eggs for sale at the nearby Barton Stacey Village Shop. A less popular chore is cleaning out the hen houses. It’s a bit stinky, but chicken poop makes great compost!
We have two sheep. Their names are Fluffy and Bonnie. Both ewes usually get pregnant, so we have cute lambs to watch bounce around the fields in spring. We take care of two guinea pigs, Murphy and Jaffa. They are kept in their hutch in the barn at night but have an outdoor run. The guinea pigs are a bit shy but lovely to cuddle.
Skye is our much-loved resident donkey, who we enjoy taking for afternoon walks, though sometimes she refuses to budge from her paddock even when fed Ginger Nut biscuits! Newly arrived donkeys Dominic and Dave are now keeping her company. Every afternoon we enjoy taking the donkeys for a walk around the farm – which means we get exercise, too.
At weekends and holidays, Johnny cares for our chickens, sheep, and guinea pigs, taking a break from his day job as a forester. Johnny is hard to miss as he has the biggest and bushiest beard you have ever seen.
