About Us:

At the moment the only livestock we have are four guinea pigs: Joey and DeeDee (pictured) and Poggrom and Lizzie (pictures soon to come!).  These animals are our lawnmowers and now the guinea pigs are better (see the What's going On? page for more information) they are back out on the grass doing their job, which I think they're relieved about because they were getting a bit stressed out being cooped up indoors.  (but they've now come back indoors again because it's snowing a lot!

Joey (grey+white) and DeeDee try to hide...             

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My mum hatched some ducklings from a box of eggs intended for eating!  Thought you might like a peek:

Having a nap...I know they look like they're dead but they just can't hold their heads up yet!

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Here is a little about the breeds we intend to keep and why

Cream Legbar  

Cream legbars lay lots of lovely blue eggs and are used to create the hybrids that lay supermarket blue eggs (cotswold legbars, oaken blues etc) which has led to a decline in pure Cream legbar numbers as some people sell any old speckled bird that lays blue eggs as cream legbars.  We will keep a pure strain.      

     Marsh Daisy

    Marsh Daisies were developed near stockport in Lancashire reputedly by one man who was very secretive about which breeds he used to create it and never sold a bird or fertile egg!  Once upon a time they were famed for producing large eggs and plenty of them, evenin wet marshy conditions.  The cocks also produced plenty of tasty breast meat.  Unfortunately they were down to just one breeder at one point and subsequent unavoidable inbreeding has led to loss of egg size and numbers.           

   Ixworth

Ixworths were created by Reginald Appleyard (who also created the silver appleyard duck).  He wanted to create the ultimate dual purpose bird - lots of eggs, lots of meat and short feathers with fine white skin (desirable in a bird destined to be plucked and roasted!).  Numbers dropped to a handful and the breed is listed as critical by the Rare Breed Survival Trust.  Our first Ixworths are going in the incubator next week!

    Derbyshire Redcap

Derby redcaps were very popular in Derbyshire and Yorkshire as one of the five 'excellent' laying varieties.  Their most distinctive feature is their very large comb (hence the name) but they have been bred for exhibiton purposes as if only this matters and have now lost that famous laying capacity in most cases.

  Buff Orpingtons

Buff orpingtons are a very popular bird, certainly not rare you may think, but you are thinking of the show type bird, which is basically all feathers!  The traditional utility type laid well and had plenty of meat on it's bone, we aim to produce birds of this type.