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 Why not become a member of Bath City Farm? If you would like to receive a copy of our all singing, all dancing newsletter, in glorious colour and with pictures, please consider becoming a member of Bath City Farm. Membership only costs £8 a year (concessions available). Your membership fee helps to support our running costs, e.g. salaries, site work, newsletter and of course our animals. Summer Holiday Fun at the Farm The farm has enjoyed a very busy August with our ever popular ‘Family Days’, run in conjunction with First Steps Nursery, Wansdyke Play Rangers and South-side Family Project. First Steps enjoyed coming here so much that they want to get involved with the autumn activities too! There were five Family Day’s held throughout the holidays and like previous years, we didn’t charge for entry or activities. Amazingly we had fairly good weather each Thursday and turn out was good. On average 60 people attended each event and there was lots of positive feedback from parents and children, comments included: ‘lovely day out for all and it’s free!’ ‘Good fun, lots to do, great atmosphere.’ The farm also held its annual Fundraising Day on August Bank Holiday Monday. The weather was dry if not a little dreary, and even though numbers were down a little on last year the atmosphere was superb! The BBQ and cream teas proved very popular and raised the most amount of money on the day. We were selling sausages and burgers produced from our very own Tamworth pigs and some people were coming back for seconds and even thirds! There were also lots of stalls including: bottle tombola, hook a duck, darts, tin can shy, face painting, car boot stalls and a raffle with some fantastic prizes donated from local businesses. There was live music supplied by ‘Inu’ a local Bath folk band and there was also a dance act by some local children. A big thank you to everyone who attended on the day, especially all of the very hard-working volunteers who helped make the day such a success. Hello from Kilda Hello, my name's Kilda and I'm the new Play ranger working in Rosewarn Park and Bath City Farm alongside Adam. Some of you may recognise me as I used to work at the farm 3 years ago. Since then I've been living and studying in France and more recently I’ve been working as a play ranger in Keynsham. I'm really happy to be back and I hope to see some old faces and some new ones at the farm. Come and say hello or join in the play ranger sessions every Monday at Rosewarn Park 3.30-6pm then every Wednesday and Thursday at Bath City Farm 3.30- 6pm. We will also be doing activities during the holidays, keep your eyes on the notice board and come and see us on Snap Apple Day on the 30th October. Volunteer Update Considering the weather this summer has been pretty damp and dreary, there has still been a steady amount of committed volunteers turning up to help us on Monday’s. Animal care is always a priority for our volunteer days and the pig pens, chicken house and goat and sheep shelters are kept very well maintained. The chickens have also had their annual de-lice and their house will have its deep clean once we have a dry spell! Gardening is also a non-stop job over the summer months and volunteers do a great job helping to keep the flower and fruit beds in tip-top condition. The post and rail fencing around the chicken area is now complete and the pictures of chickens that local children painted have been put up around their coup. The whole area looks really good and we must give a big thank you to the Bath Round Table for enabling us to rejuvenate this part of the farm. We organised a trip to Prior Park in Bath to say a big thank you to all of our volunteers for the amazing work that they do at the farm. Paul Poulton, a trustee of Bath City Farm, works for the National Trust at Prior Park and he kindly gave us all a tour around the gardens. The weather was fantastic and everyone really enjoyed themselves. Bath Mind and the Genesis Project have had a fairly good harvest from their vegetable plot. The poor weather produced an increase in slugs and the tomatoes suffered from blight but there was still a bumper harvest of potatoes, rocket, radishes and carrots to show for their hard work. There are more team building days booked for the autumn too. Recently we had a team of 16 very keen, hardworking people from the Ministry of Defence. Not only did they build a new raised bed for the farm, they also contributed £160 towards materials. The raised bed will be used to educate school groups on growing vegetables and at the same time promote healthy eating. Sally from the MOD said; “We all very much enjoyed working together to build the raised bed and it made a complete change to be outdoors doing something really worthwhile. The day certainly brought our team together and we hope the beneficial effects carry over to our working life.” The autumn and winter months continue to be very busy at the farm and there is plenty of work to keep all of our volunteers busy. See the Volunteer Programme for more information on up and coming jobs that need to be done. Animal Update Molly’s piglets were a great success; born in mid winter, they brought many visitors to the farm, in what is often a quiet time. On August 14th they went for slaughter. Members and friends of the farm bought a lot of the meat and at the Big Farm Fundraiser, members of the public; many of whom had watched the piglets grow up, had a chance to sample what good quality, outdoor reared pigs should taste like. All of the feedback was positive and many hot dogs and burgers were sold. Thank you to everyone who helped to rear these piglets; a successful cycle has ended and in January 2009 we hope to get Jimmy the boar back to start the cycle again. We have recently had to treat the chickens for scaly leg mites. This tiny mite finds its way under the scales of the chicken’s leg, and bores its way through the skin, forming crusty deposits which force the scales outward. This is irritating to the birds and can cause lameness. The best way to treat it is to soak all the birds’ legs in surgical spirit and then coat their legs in Vaseline which helps to suffocate the mites. This process will need to be repeated several times to prevent it spreading further. All of the birds are currently being treated for lice too. There are over forty different species of lice that affect birds; they can feed on blood, skin debris, or the roots of feathers. All of the birds will be given 0.2ml of IVOMEC, deposited on the back of the neck, and eggs can’t be eaten for eight days after treatment. The chicken and duck house will be disinfected thoroughly before we give the bird’s this treatment and lice powder will be regularly spread in all of the chicken’s favourite dust bath areas too. Kedric Fisher. School Visits Bath City Farm is an ideal place to provide outdoor education for children of all ages; it can offer hands on experience in ecology, culture and agriculture. Three Ways School, The Link, St. Michael’s Junior School and Hayesfield School have regular weekly or fortnightly sessions at the farm and the groups enjoy the benefits of being outdoors and getting close to the animals. This autumn we have a fantastic timetable of activities for school groups to get involved in. If you would like to find out more, or if you would like to arrange a visit for your group or school, then please contact Laura on Team Building Days Would your company or organisation like to take part in a Team Building day at Bath City Farm? • Path building We can cater for groups of around 30 people; groups are either split up to do smaller tasks or can work together, depending on the activity. Team building days not only benefit the organisation but also the local community. Sarah from B&NES Adult care team, who took part in a Team building event this summer, said of the day; “It was a fantastic day, set in a wonderful location. The sense of achievement we all felt at the end of the day was very rewarding”. Call the Farm on 01225 481269 if you would like more information. Funding News We were recently granted £4,700 from the Co-operative Community Fund Scheme for family activities at the Farm. Our Big Farm Fundraiser raised about £700 and we all had a good day despite the gloomy weather (at least it didn’t rain). A big Thank You to: Bath Race Course, Harvest Natural Foods, Zany Zone and Brokerswood Country Park who donated prizes for our Raffle. We have had donations towards our work from:- Bath Moral Welfare Fund £500 Thank You to Caroline Frances-King who has continued to organise the volunteers who generously give their time at Glastonbury to support the Farm
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