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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.
Animal update
The animals at the farm have been getting on well since the last update; the piglets have grown even bigger and will be going for meat at the end of July. If you are interested in purchasing any meat then please phone the office. We hope to get Jimmy the boar back to be with Molly in the new year and hopefully we will have more piglets by springtime.
The goats are fine, as stubborn and greedy as ever; at the moment Katie has some sores on her mouth due to a virus, but with a bit of TLC and veterinary assistance she is getting better fast. The sheep have moulted and look much better now in their summer coats, although Bart had to be sheared as he is a Soay cross and was getting a little hot and uncomfortable. The lambs are growing very fast and gambolling well!
We have had a bit of a problem with a young male fox that has taken some of our chickens but we haven’t seen him for a while now so we hope that he has found another source of food. The rest of our chickens however are laying well despite having to be cooped up in their inner enclosure to protect them from the fox. The Light Sussex chicks have recently been let out of their hutch; as they have been close to our larger flock they are fitting right in without any problems.
The ducks are fine and we have acquired 4 Khaki Campbell x Runner ducks, unfortunately they did not have much contact with people when they were very young and are consequently very nervous of humans. Sadly we decided to sell Dudley, our very tame duck, as she was being picked on a lot by the larger male, but she is in a very good home where she is lovingly cared for - we will miss her a lot.
This summer we have the Aberdeen Angus cattle back grazing our in our fields. They are very friendly but they are also rather big so visitors need to be vigilant around them, especially with children, and it would be wise to keep your dog on a lead when you are in their field. They often come up to the fence for a pat and a stroke and arrive to say hello to the piglets every morning.
Written by Liz Doughty,
Work experience student.
Hello from Laura
Hi my name is Laura and I have taken over from Helen as Volunteer Co-ordinator while she is on maternity leave. I started working at the farm in April but I have been a volunteer for approximately 5 years; helping to feed and look after the animals.
I am really enjoying working at the farm; being able to work outdoors in such a stunning location is certainly a bonus, and having the chance to work with local school groups and such committed volunteers is extremely rewarding.
Everyone has made me feel very welcome and I am really looking forward to the rest of the summer and getting ‘stuck into’ all of the excellent volunteer and family activities that we have planned.
Summer family days at the Farm
There will be something for everyone to do here at the farm every Thursday during the summer holidays. We are running the Family Day on Thursday’s together with First Steps and South Side Family Project, the Play Rangers will also be basing their summer activities at the farm for 5-14 year-olds every Wednesday and Thursday afternoons (times TBC)
Following the success of last year, there will be a range of activities for kids and parents to get involved in over the summer including; face painting, pottery classes, mono printing, fruit bug making and miniature garden making to name but a few. There will also be nature walks, bug hunts, visiting the farm animals and much more.
Each day runs from 11.30am to 3pm so bring along a picnic and come and enjoy the fantastic 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.
Volunteer update
Every week there are more and more people wanting to volunteer at the farm and this means that even more jobs are getting done to help improve and maintain areas all around the site.
During the spring months Monday volunteers have been kept busy finishing off the fencing around the chicken area and also the pathways to the animal paddocks. Raspberry bushes have been planted and there has also been lots of weeding around the other fruit bushes which are beginning to produce a bountiful supply of strawberries, blueberries and gooseberries.
More and more organisations are also choosing the farm for Team Building days. In May a team of 27 men and women from Nutritia in Trowbridge gave the toilets and kitchen area a new lick of paint and they also planted fresh herbs and flowers in the farm garden. One of the team members said; ‘It was great fun – we like to do things involving children and there were so many mums with their little ones. It really was a good day.’
B&NES Adult care team (Social Services) had such a great time here last year that they decide to come back again! They contributed £200 towards materials and they all worked very hard especially considering the weather wasn’t great! They renovated the roundabout in the car park, removing the ugly wall and replacing it with reclaimed sleepers. It is now ready for us to sow wildflower seeds and also to plant a tree. They also treated the rust on the Farm lock –ups and prepped them ready for painting. Hopefully we can get some local children involved in painting murals on them over the summer.
Fundraising and community events
In May we had two successful fundraising events for the farm; the Bath Spring Flower Show and a Healthy Living Celebration.
The Flower Show was a huge success for the farm again this year especially considering the weather wasn’t so good and numbers where down on last year. It took place over the May bank holiday from the 3rd – 5th May and we managed to raise over £600, which is even more than what we raised last year. We believe the Farm’s marquee and the animals have become a bit of an attraction at the show and this is why we managed to raise so much. This year we shared the marquee with the Bath Organic Garden and the main theme was ‘Happy Food’; promoting meat that has been raised to high welfare standards and locally grown, organic fruit and vegetables.
We took Bart and Lisa the Soay-cross sheep, along with Lisa’s two new-born lambs, the goats; Katy and Kashmir, a selection of chickens and also ducklings and chicks which proved very popular with children and adults alike!
Many thanks to everybody who helped out at the show; let’s hope next year is even more successful.
The Healthy Living Celebration took place on the 29th May as part of the Bath Fringe Festival. The weather was perfect and about 200 people came along to enjoy a nature trail, face painting, fruit bug making, obstacle course and also the animals. There was also a ‘Healthy BBQ’ run by the Bath Foyer in Twerton, which proved very popular. A big thank you to the Quartet Foundation who contributed towards the food costs for the BBQ and also to Waitrose who donated £40 for all of the fruit.
Sarah and Trish (Farm trustees) attended Widcombe Rising Community Celebration on 15th June. It was a great opportunity to promote the farm to the surrounding community as well as sell some cards and bookmarks!
During the summer months the farm will be running family days throughout the school holidays and on the 25th August, Bank Holiday Monday, we will hold our Big Summer Fundraiser, which will hopefully be even more successful than last year.
Funding News
During the last few months two successful grant applications have come through for salary costs and funding for the volunteer programme from the Henry Smith Charity and the Garfield Weston Foundation.
On the 25 June Gerry Curran and Sarah Rees (Chair and Vice-Chair) gave a talk about the Farm to the Bath United Services Club at Combe Down Rugby Club, they had an enjoyable evening and the group hope to be able to donate an amount to the Farm from their activities this year.
We have had several generous donations from local organisations-
Bath Rag (for Roots and Shoots club) £350
Brownsword Charitable Foundation £1,000
Roper Rhodes Ltd £3,300
Annett Charitable Trust £200
Norton Radstock College students raised £750
on their Bonanza Day
Molly Ricketts (long-term volunteer) very kindly donated £500 towards a much needed new lawn mower for the farm. Many thanks also to Mr Hurley from Hurley Engine Services Ltd in Bath who very kindly offered the farm a discount when we purchased the lawn mower and strimmer together.
The Staff and Trustees are working on bids to the Lottery that, if successful, will improve the Farm’s facilities and looking at other ways the Farm can generate income to support it’s charitable activities.
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