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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.

Schools and Learning at the farm

We will soon be having two regular schools visiting us every week for a bit of ‘outside the classroom’ learning. The boys from the Link will hopefully be returning soon to take up where they left off back in October. We may also be seeing a lot more of the students at Hayesfield Secondary School, who are planning to come here regularly to learn about farms and what we do here.

We have had lots of first-time visiting groups from schools recently, thanks to wider publicising via emails. Monkton Combe Pre-Prep, St Martins Garden Primary and Hayesfield Secondary schools have all been down to feed the animals and explore the farm. Bookings for assemblies have been flying in fast, and we have been taking Dudley (or is it Debby?!) the Duckling with us, to the delight of students and teachers alike.

Kingswood Preparatory School recently held an ‘Eco Day’ and invited us to come along and do a series of ‘Chicken’ sessions with their reception and first year classes. Molly (company secretary and long-term volunteer) and I took Florence the Hen and chicks plus Dudley. We had a pergola all to ourselves, which in the end we needed not because of the sun, but the rain.  The children sat in a circle around the chicken run and Dudley walked around so that each child could say hello. Florence was carried so that everyone got a turn admiring her feathers and feeling her feet and comb. It went down a storm, and one teacher even got to fulfil one of her life’s ambitions, to hold a duckling (thanks, Dudley!). After the sessions, the classes drew pictures of chickens and ducklings, and sent us their newsletter with an article all about our visit to the school.

If you would like to book an assembly or visit to the farm, give Abby a ring on 01225 481 269, or send an email: admin@bathcityfarm.freeserve.co.uk

Summer Holiday Fun

There will be something for everyone to do here at the farm every Wednesday and Thursday during August. Following the success of last year, each day will have a range of activities for kids and parents, with a family emphasis on Wednesdays. We are running the Family Day Wednesdays together with First Steps and South Side Family Project. The Play Rangers are basing their summer activities at the farm this year for 5-14 year-olds every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (times tbc).

We are planning to have some pamper sessions with hand and baby massage; gazebos for shelter from sun and rain; paddling pools and the return of the waterslide. Face painting and the bouncy castle will be returning for one of the days. Competitions such as colouring in and wacky races will be held. There will be wool crafts, straw doll making, plate and welly garden making, and pebble painting. We will also be doing nature walks, bug hunts and things with the farm animals. Ice-lolly and fruit bug making will be regular features. In fact, there will be more to do than I can list here!

Each day runs from 11.30am to 2pm. So bring a picnic and enjoy the views. Unaccompanied children aged eight and over will need to have a Lone Child consent form completed and returned before they are allowed to join in with any of the activities.

Animal Update

This past season has been full of the joys of newborn animals. 23 healthy lambs were born this spring and are growing more independent every day. Due to the unseasonably warm weather in April there were a couple of hard labours for the ewes, but most turned out well in the end. Most ewes had twins; it was only the young or old sheep that had single lambs. This year we will be looking for new homes for quite a few of the older sheep. We would like to thin out the flock so that we can introduce a new breed, such as Jacobs, next year.

There have been 15 chicks hatched out so far this year, nine of which were a surprise. One of the hens (Florence) got broody and disappeared for three weeks. One morning we were amazed to see her coming out of the hedgerow with some lovely little baby chicks. The rest of the chicks hatched from our incubator and Florence has taken on some of them as her own too. What a great mum she is.

One of the stars of the farm this past month has been Dudley the duck. He is from a batch of incubated eggs, in which he was the only egg out of four, to successfully hatch. As Dudley is on his own he needs constant attention. He keeps staff company when working in the office or follows us around when feeding the animals. He has also stayed at lots of willing carers houses overnight and watched television; he has even made friends with a dog!!! There are some more duck eggs in the incubator as I write, so Dudley will have lots of ducky company soon.  
The new pigpen has finally been finished, and Molly has been moved into it. Jimmy the Boar from Gloucester City Farm will have arrived by the time this goes to press, so we hope to have the pitter-patter of little trotters come the autumn. Maggie will also move up to the new pig pen after Jimmy has settled in, which we hope will make her bad leg better. Ashley the goat still has not given birth yet but it is only a matter of weeks away.

Unfortunately we will be having no cows this year due to Farmer Hugh Gay being restricted by T.B. testing. You now have to get it done to every cow before they are moved anywhere, and it’s expensive. If this continues we may have to re-think how we manage the cow fields. 

Please help us to care for the animals by adopting an animal or becoming a friend of the farm. See the links on the homepage for details.

Funding news

We have had some great news funding wise in the past few months. The Local Network Fund has awarded us a grant of nearly £7000 to run family days over the next year. This grant includes staff salaries and some materials for twice weekly events during the school holidays and one off events during term time. We will start this summer kicking off on the 1st of August. Please see more info inside.

We are also very grateful to the National Lottery Breathing Places grant scheme for awarding the farm £10,000!! Hooray. The money will go towards improving the farm for people and for wildlife. Projects such as better pathways for disabled access, a small woodland, orchard, better signposting, building nesting boxes and much more, are all part of it. The funding will be spent on materials and salaries to carry out the work over the next year. If you would like to get involved with this exciting new project then please call the farm. B&NES Environment and Heritage have also awarded Bath City Farm £1419 towards restoring the wildlife pond. The pond contains greater crested newts and dries up completely during dry spells. This grant will help us to make sure the pond is permanently full, by re-directing a small spring to trickle feed the pond.

Despite these fantastic grants coming through, we still need to raise more to ensure the long-term future of the farm. None of the current staff have funding for next year so we are working on putting in a big lottery bid together. Anyone that can help with fundraising will be welcomed with open arms. Get in touch on 01225 481269.

Spring Flowershow

What a great success this year’s Flower show was. It took place over the May bank holiday from the 5th – 7th May. The Farm’s marquee was the star attraction with a tent brimming full of animals. Although the weather wasn’t perfect and the numbers were average, we managed to raise over £500, which is the best ever.

This year we took Bart and Lisa the Soay- cross sheep, with two-week-old George (Lisa’s lamb), Honey and Ashley the goats, Ducks, Chickens and baby chicks. We were lucky enough that one of our chickens had disappeared into the hedgerow and came out with nine chicks the week before the show, so we had lovely three-day-old chicks to show off.

Bart was very well behaved. Volunteers put him on a lead and walked him around the showground, even the floral marquee where there were lots of tasty prize winning blooms to make his mouth water. Ashley and Honey the goats were also walked around but were very stubborn and when they decided to stop the handler had to stop too.

Hilary and Maureen did a great job getting people involved in peg loom weaving and spinning in the centre of the tent. It was really popular with all ages having a go, from 4 yrs to 84 yrs old. We even sheared Bart at the show and used his wool on the spinning wheel, showing how produce goes from animal to usable product.
Green woodworking also took place outside the tent, as well as the ever-popular tractor derby.

We sold a test run of our new range of postcards, notelets and bookmarks depicting Bath City Farm scenes. They went down a storm (more info inside). We also held a raffle with first prize being tea for four with the mayor. 

Volunteers, staff and visitors alike all felt that this was the most relaxed and enjoyable show yet.  This year for the first time local young people helped at the show and did a great job collecting donations and looking after the animals.  A big thank you to all that helped out. Let’s hope next year is even better.

Roots and Shoots

Since the last newsletter, our Tuesday club for parents, carers and toddlers has been very popular. We used our Wessex Watermark Award to buy mini gardening equipment for the smaller farmer and gardener. These new toys and the mini tractors we already have here are helping to teach toddlers about sharing things, how to use pedals and above all, keep toddlers active while parents and carers have a well-earned cup of tea or coffee.

We have also been watching the baby animals grow up. It is amazing to see then change, alongside the toddlers and babies who come almost every week. Children seem to be fascinated with their animal counterparts, and it seems to be mutual. Dudley the Duckling will quite often follow the smaller members of the humans when they come to visit. The fact that some parents have been taking Dudley home overnight has probably encouraged this special connection. The lambs and chicks are ‘teenagers’ now, and don’t have quite the same appeal as the newest edition to the farm does. Sadly, he will soon be grown-up and moving to his new permanent home. The good news is that there are six ducks eggs waiting to hatch!

The changeable weather has put off the club’s serious gardening efforts, but every week, some weeding and watering gets done, and when the weather lets us, we will be planting flowers and a chamomile lawn. The ‘Roots & Shoots’ club is every Tuesday between 10am and 12pm. Come down any time between then, and bring a picnic to eat afterwards if you fancy.

Folk At the Oak

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