Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

Thyme (left hand photo) has been taking lessons from Onion in how to keep us guessing about when she might give birth. Four days ago we thought it might be within 48 hours. We got that wrong didn't we? Today she has spent her time grazing with the rest of the herd and tonight we left her in her stall happily chewing the cud. We are sure her kids will appear when they are good and ready and in the meantime, we are starting to watch Pickle (dairy goat) very closely as she is now on day 145 and so could give birth any time!! Our first three pygmy goat kids: Ebony, Chestnut and Silver Birch are all doing really well and as we have been inundated with visitors this weekend, they have been getting plenty of cuddles. This is fabulous because when we sell them as pets in three months' time; we want them to be really tame and socialised (used to people and lots of different situations).
Our bantam chicks are now five and a half weeks old and today we noticed that 'mum' (our golden bantam) was not always with them. It looks as though she might be starting the process of leaving them to look after themselves. They are still quite little for her to be doing this, but it is not something we can really control. Chickens that raise chicks vary hugely with regard to the time they spend with them, anything from six weeks to several months and often the bonds will remain in that 'mothers and daughters' may then perch next to each other at night for years. Our bantam family were all snuggled up tonight thankfully (the nights are still a little chilly) but as you can see from the photo, the chicks don't quite fit under mum anymore and she has really had to spread out her wings to cover them. Can you see all four?
And finally, we are moving forward with our 'broody' plans. We now have five broody chickens, possibly six (the picture shows another bantam, notice how really flat she has made herself...) and so we have ordered 30 Orpington eggs from a local breeder (we are picking them up tomorrow). The plan is to divide the eggs between all the broody chickens and then sell on the resulting chicks. We have bred Orpingtons before: they are big, fluffy chickens with a very calm character and so are great for children. We have no idea how successful this mini-venture will be but we will hopefully enjoy the journey!!