SBS Farm Blog August

28 Aug

Although the school has been quiet during the holidays, farm developments have continued – the pig ark is now on slabs ready for the winter and other areas of paths and fencing have been completed. Before she sent on her holidays, Mrs Strugnall gave the pigs some new toys.

Of course, the animals needed care and the pants needed watering all through the holidays and Mr Howard and Mrs Strugnall needed come holiday time too, so pupils had the chance to volunteer for these tasks on some days. A huge thanks to them all as it was quite a lot to learn and very important for the welfare of the SBS pigs and chickens.

Lara Rose from Gruffalo (going into Elmer) was one of the volunteers with her Mum, and I went along to see how they got on – it was all very seriously undertaken, and the best bit was the enthusiasm with which the pigs and chickens greeted them.

According to Lara Rose the funniest bit was putting the chickens in the coop for the night and not having got the drawbridge door shut properly so they all kept popping back out the bottom until she and her Mummy realised what was happening - very important to get all six safely tucked up for the night! And to “tell everyone it is not that hard to pick up a chicken if you keep their wings tucked in and concentrate”. If you volunteer to help in the holidays you get to take the eggs home too.

The chickens were named by each class and are: -

Gruffalo – Margaret

Elmer – Golden Cheddars

Paddington – Fluffy

Tulane – Meep

Shadow – Nuggett

Aslan – Hay Hay

A very exciting reason delayed the clearance of the nettles in the middle of the pig field as Mrs Strugnall spotted some Jersey Tiger Moth eggs – this species is very rare, so work had to stop until the eggs had hatched and he caterpillars metamorphosised into moths.

There will be lots of news to report once the new school year gets underway and the SBS farm enters its second year – look out for the next blog …

Suzanne – Nanna to Lara Rose – Elmer class from September