Families Go Wild in the Farmyard!

We got a lot done today in the farmyard! We had some new and some regular volunteers today, which was a lovely mix.

We started as usual, with collecting eggs. Today we found one chicken egg and one duck egg. When we collected the chicken egg it still felt warm!

Next it was time to clean the show paddock. Our regular volunteers know where the tools for cleaning and mucking out are, so they showed the new volunteers where to go and what tools to get.

Everyday at the farm we have volunteers who help us in the farmyard, as well as having our family volunteers. Today however, we were missing a couple of volunteers, so the family volunteers had some extra work to do!

Luckily we had some regular volunteers on hand, who know the routine of mucking out the donkey stables. They did a great job, needing hardly any assistance from farm staff. It’s great that our volunteers are used to the farmyard tasks, meaning we can get more done and have time to spend with the animals!

As well as mucking out the stables and show paddock, we swept up and collected lots of leaves from the paths in the farmyard, to make them safer for people walking through. With all of us helping, it took very little time, and then it was time to hang out with some animals!

Peanut and Pickle, the ferrets, hadn’t explored the farmyard for a while, so the farmyard staff suggested we take them for a walk. We put on their tiny harnesses, and then took them out to the farmyard so they could run around for a while. They loved exploring, and they kept trying to escape the enclosed area we were in. We have a lot of skilled volunteers though, who helped make sure the ferrets didn’t escape, while still letting them explore.

After a while of walking them, Peanut and Pickle calmed down a bit, and we had some cuddles. Peanut even fell asleep in the arms of one of the volunteers, and Pickle kept burrowing into our clothes and trying to get through our sleeves!

We did a good job with taking turns today. It can be hard when working with lots of other people, to make sure everyone gets a go at holding the animals, or pushing the wheelbarrow. We talked about it between ourselves, and it seemed that everyone got to have a go at what they wanted to do. Great teamwork, volunteers!