Well hello there yolks!

Easter is approaching and spring is in the air - we hope ewe are all planning an egg-citing visit to the farm at one of our most egg-citing times!

The smaller tortoises have just come out of hibernation in time for the glorious spring sunshine. The 2 giant tortoises have been awake throughout winter and will soon be out in the sunshine. We will just wait until the better weather is definitely here to stay – until they go out into their summer homestead.

Our two new foals Georgia and Poppy are settling into the farm fab-ewe-lously. Georgia is the bay mare and Poppy is the coloured mare. Saying they are new arrivals they have settled in very well and have already become firm favourites with Farmer Sam.

We had a new healthy happy male lamb born yesterday - so don’t miss the chance to see him this Easter!  Lamb feeding is currently on 3 times a day. The bottle-fed lambs are full of cheeky mischief and love feeding time and meeting visiting children.

The peacocks are already showing off their beautiful feathers ready to flaunt for visitors and the lady peacocks alike.

We have some eggs in the incubator so keep everything crossed for some new chicks in time for Easter.

Our star volunteer this month has just got to be ‘Farmer Leila’. She has such a natural gift with all the animals, talks to the owls and plays hide and seek with the lambs – what a star!

Eric and Oscar, the naughtiest of all Farmer Parr’s animals, have been playing football outside in the paddocks. However, the football has mysteriously vanished, leaving Eric and Oscar a wee bit grumpy! We will have to go and buy them another one.

All the animals at the farm are in a great spirits and full of the joys of spring. It is one of the most egg-citing times of year at the farm with newborns, hatchings and much growing greenery.

The Giant Easter Bunny will be at the farm over Easter weekend. Don’t ewe forget the Vintage Easter Rally on the 7^th and 8^th April either. The farm fills with all kinds of old exhibits – and I don’t just mean the museum staff!

Enter the Easter Quiz and Egg Hunt and you could win a fab-ewe-lous prize too – so bring a pencil and put ewer thinking caps on...

Eric the naughty Jersey Calf enjoying the sunshine and green grass!

First blog of 2012!

Well hello there folks.

It’s a wee bit nippy today but the sun is shining – let hope we have a blue sky half-term.

We have just had our first 2 lambs arrive at the farm – FAB-EWE-LOUS! Children will be able to feed them over Half-Term – SHEEP-A-DUPA!

We also have 4 chicks already – so chick handling will be on every day too.

Why not tweet ewer-selves to some farmery fun over this Feb half-term?

Remember it’s just £3 each to visit the farm until 1^st March – so make hay while the sun shines.

Just to catch up on things since the last blog – we had a super Christmas here at the farm. Santa lived here for over a month and lots of children came to see him. He is now living safely back in Lapland until December. He took off on Christmas Eve and we have not seen him since.

We have some super new volunteers at the farm – Farmer Sam has being showing them the ropes and a few of them have taken to farming like ducks to water.

The ponies have started to lose their winter coats – a sure sign of spring!

‘Eric’ (our Jersey Calf) and ‘Oscar’ (our Anglo-Nubian goat) are getting along really well in a new pen together. Eric seems to really love Oscar and they have become inseparable over the past month. They can’t wait to get out in the paddocks this spring and start causing some real mischief.

‘The Wizard’ has arrived for spring again. The African Pygmy Billy Goat! He hails from The Lake District. After such a lovely tribe of kids last year – we wanted ‘The Wizard’ back again. He loves the ladies and as he is pretty and compact himself, we should get beautiful, petite off-spring again this year. Fingers crossed for the Wizard and his Magic Wand!

'Pedro' the Eagle owl has become quite a chatty one - and he loves having a good old beak wag with one of our more chatty volunteers Layla!

Roll-on SPRING – so the animals can kick their heels and let down their hair in the paddocks very soon!

See ewe all soon – Farmer Parr.

Firstly, I would like to wish ewe all a very Merry Christmas and a Baaarhh-illiant 2012!

We have all been very busy getting ready for the Festive season here at the farm. As ewe probably know, Santa lives here during December and he has already taken up residence in his very special log cabin. Rudolph is by his side and he has already received a lot of visitors – keen to be first in the queue to see him.

We hosted a very special ‘Charity Launch Party’ this year. Santa arrived in an army tank and all funds raised during the night were split between ‘Help for Heroes’ and ‘Trinity Hospice’. The Mayor and Mayoress of Wyre opened proceeding and thoroughly enjoyed telling Santa what they would like for Christmas.

We were also joined by the totally baaarhh-illiant cast of ‘Snow White’ (this year’s Panto at The Grand Theatre in Blackpool). Amongst the stars were Vicky Entwistle from ‘Coronation Street’, Steve Royle from ‘Radio Lancashire’, Jenny Jones from ‘Hi-5’, and of course the show stopping 7 dwarfs (including Jamie John from Channel 4’s ‘7 dwarfs’, Albert from ‘Charlie and the Chocolate factory’ and several characters from ‘Life’s too short’).

They all danced with the children at the disco and everyone had a super time. Entertainment was provided by ‘The Barbara Jackson theatre Arts School’ and ‘Shakespeare School Brass Band’. It’s safe to say that Santa arrived in style this year! £400 was raised, so a big Thank Ewe to everyone that helped out.

Santa and Rudolph will now be at the farm every day until Christmas Eve – so why not come and see him? Some of our favourite animals have joined in with the animal nativity scene in the Christmas barn. These include Eric the Jersey Calf, this year’s lambs Max and Paddy, as well as Annie and Bobby our 2 miniature donkeys.

All the sheep and cows have now come in for winter – and are happy in their warm dry pens.

Steve, the adopted rat, which has been re-homed with Farmer Kelly – will be getting a new best buddy today, from Thornton Pet Shop – so here’s hoping that they get along!

We very much hope to see ewe all over Christmas – many kind festive regards – Farmer Parr.

The Panto Stars meet Santa!

Eee Byee Gum – Winter is on the way!

We have had a super new arrival this week – a Jersey calf called Eric. He is as handsome as all Jersey calves, with huge big brown eyes and a big round nose. He can easily keep his own nose clean with his tongue – charming. He has been at the farm for a week and has already become really tame. Farmer Debbie and Farmer Sam have spent lots of time with him to make sure he will grow up to be a very friendly little fellow. He has taken well to the head collar and lead - he likes joining the staff for a brew at 3pm.

The men are already building all the scary stuff for HALLOWEEN this year. ‘The Tunnels of Terror’ are well under way – they take a heck of a lot of building and decorating. It really is one of the best times of year down on the farm. It should be even better this year! All the staff really get into the SPIRIT of things – they are quite a scary bunch at the best of times.

In fact we have a real life paranormal investigation happening in the museum in December – a team of ‘paranormal investigators’ are staying up all night in the museum, with all sorts of sensory equipment, as several of them have already SENSED strange feelings whilst visiting the museum. This investigation is not open to the public – as they need peace and quiet to work all the equipment, but I will let you all know what they discover. I will be going along – I want to know who is living (or HAUNTING) rent free in MY museum!  Just remember that if you come to one of our night time Halloween Parties – it will be real GHOSTLINESS that you will see in the museum! What a HOOT! Rumour also has it that several WYRE WITCHES are planning on playing some TRICKS on staff over Halloween – I will certainly be telling them to GET OFF MY LAND!

On a less scary note, all the miniature horses have now been put together and are getting on really well. They have formed one big gang and go out into the nearest paddock on dry days.

Some of this year’s baby goats have gone to new homes. Most have stayed local this year and we plan on keeping in touch with their new owners.

The animals have started growing their big thick winter coats already. Gypsy and Jude have been treated to lovely new winter rugs (in red) – they look like Santa’s little helpers at the moment.

The small tortoises were about to go into hibernation before the recent heat wave struck. That has put them off track, but with the current weather change, it won’t be long before they are ready to snuggle down for winter again. The giant tortoises do not go into hibernation, but stay under a heat lamp in winter.

Rock FM wanted to borrow our tarantula for a show about spider phobias this week. However, most of our animal staff have their own spider fears – what a cowardly bunch (although I am not too keen myself). The one person who does handle the spider could not go along to Rock FM as the ‘handler’ so we had to turn down the chance to have a famous spider at the farm!

We had a super brass band from Stockport here last weekend – they did a great job of serenading all the animals. Will’I’Am just loved them – remember he is our very own dancing goat!

Coming soon to Farmer Parr’s – Ballroom Dancing – who would have thunk it!

See ewe on the farm over Halloween – join me if ewe dare!

Happy Halloween Hootings – from Farmer Parr.

We hope everyone is having a good summer holiday – we are having great fun down on the farm.

Today, this year’s baby pygmy goats have had their first day out in the paddock. It’s very difficult to make any pen ‘baby goat proof’ but we think we may have managed it. Being so small they can climb and squeeze through almost anywhere – especially if they see people eating nice tasty sandwiches....

Bruno, one of this year’s orphan lambs, has taken over Oliver’s spot during the animal show! He has taken to it well and loves meeting new children every day. Oliver has now gone into semi-retirement. He is getting very old for a sheep and has slowed down a lot and now takes a lot more naps during the day. He is still a real favourite with everyone though – mainly because he actually thinks he is human.

Mrs Pig (aka Lady Gaga) is back doing what she likes best – roaming free around the farm. She loves meeting everyone and is really no trouble at all. If you see her – you may notice that she has far out-grown her supposed ‘micro-pig’ status, but there again, being a pig, she is rather fond of her food. Farmer Sophie was taking some great new photos for the animal adoption file last week. Mrs Pig didn’t even bother to brush her hair or wash her face – what a disgrace!

Psssttt - If ewe are a regular visitor to the farm it’s worth taking a look at our animal adoption scheme – as it reduces the entry price by more than half (and you get to choose one of your favourite animals too !!!)

We have also had some new ‘fancy’ chickens, guinea fowl and 2 golden pheasants. They have all been donated to the farm by Farmer Ivor.  Farmer Ivor works at the pottery, but has adopted the farm as his second home. He is a great lover of unusual animals and has in the past brought in an albino hedgehog and also the bald rats.

Farmer Hayley bathed and pampered all the miniature horses last week. It took her all afternoon and was a huge job. All the mini-horses had a go, except this year’s new foal. They all look spotless and fluffy at the moment – I’m sure that won’t last for long.

Noddy and Norman, 2 giant rabbits, have been moved into the new tortoise enclosure to help keep the grass down. They are loving it – plenty to eat and a bit of sunshine too. The big question is – what came first the giant rabbit or the tortoise?

We are currently hoping to revamp the aviaries over the next few weeks – so that is something to look forward to. TooWitt TooWoo!

We have just had a lovely visit from The Mayor of Wyre - he enjoyed a delicious scone and whistle stop tour of the farm, museum and pottery. Although The Pottery, always very strict on times, nearly didn't let the Mayor in - as we were running slightly late. Oops.

Fingers crossed the last couple of weeks of the summer holidays have some lovely sunny days and ewe get a chance to join us all down on the farm! Farmer Parr.

Mrs Pig at her most beautiful!

Well, the baby goats have started being born – we have many mothers to be who will give birth throughout the summer. So far we have had 7 baby pygmy goats, in various colours. They are so small, cute and playful – seeing is believing – most people at the farm could watch them for hours!

We also have wild boar piglets. These are growing big and strong at a rate of knots. Again, just like the goats they are very cheeky and playful indeed. All are big eaters and will not be small and cuddly for very long. But for small animals they really can make a lot of noise – when the staff pick them up to check they are healthy, they make one heck of a racket. Hearing is believing!

We also have a new Anglo-Nubian goat. He is a real smasher and turning into a real character. The staff have nick-named him ‘The Dog’, as he looks and acts just like a dog – in particular a weimaraner. He is tall and slim with big floppy ears.

We have 2 baby rabbits left – they are currently looking for a new home, as we have to keep an eye on our rabbit numbers – ewe know what they say about rabbits...

The tortoises and the goats both have nice new enclosures – so they can take their pick between indoors and outdoors. The tortoises are loving their new freedom and the staff have to hunt for the smaller ones at the end of the day – not that they are difficult to catch, they just like hiding!

A rescued signet (baby swan) was brought to the farm for care. We helped look after it for a few weeks – it has now gone to a very good home, with a friend who has a lovely large lake. So we all  wish the swan a long and happy life.

Max, this year’s new foal is a great little chap – he likes to be out in the paddock with his family, causing mischief.

Tara, one of the staff for the cafe, had just got a new puppy. Believe it or not it’s a Chinese crested crossed with a poodle – a ‘cresty-poo’ I believe! Deary me...

We are ready getting ready for this year’s Scarecrow Festival – we have had quite a few entries already. If you have not entered, then get stuffing QUICK! These will be displayed around for the last week of July – I will keep ewe posted on the winners.

Have a great summer – from everyone at Farmer Parrs.