Families Go Wild in the Farmyard!

Today we had three new volunteers at Families Go Wild. They did a great job in the yard and are looking forward to the next time they come to the farm!

We started off by collecting the eggs that had been laid in the last day. We found three eggs in the rescue hens’ house, two in the Buff Orpingtons’ house, and one in the duck house.

We took turns to carefully collect the eggs and put them in our bucket. We made sure not to crack any! When we went to collect the eggs from the Buff Orpington hens, we accidentally let one out of their house! Luckily, farmer Emma was there to help us get her back inside. Phew!

Once we had collected the eggs, we put them in their boxes, and the volunteers decided to buy the eggs they had collected, to take home. We put them aside, and made sure we remembered to collect them at the end of our session.

Then, it was time to get started mucking out. First of all we had to get a wheelbarrow, and our tools from the hay barn.

We used our shavings forks to pick up the donkey droppings, shaking them to make sure we didn’t pick up too many wood shavings along with them. We dropped them into the wheelbarrow, and continued until there was no poo left! We noticed that there was a lot of poo to clean up, but our volunteers wanted to make sure the stables were nice and clean for the donkeys to sleep in later.

Once we had cleared all the poo, it was time to sweep the shavings back into the bedding area for the donkeys. Overnight they spread it all over the stables, so we had to sweep it all back into place. We had quite long brooms, but we still managed to do a good job.

Next, we fetched two pads of hay to fill the racks in the stable for the donkeys’ dinner. We all lifted the pads and filled the racks together, showing good team work.

Once the hay was in the racks and the shavings were swept, there was one more thing to do for the donkeys - change their water! Their water bucket was heavy, and we emptied it into the lavender so we wouldn’t waste the water. As we walked by the lavender, we could smell it’s lovely aroma.

We all carried the water back to the stable together, as it was very heavy once we had filled it up. We had then given the donkeys everything they needed, so it was time to put our tools away and then to visit a furry friend!

We returned our tools to the hay barn, and then went over to Marmite the ferret’s enclosure. She was asleep in the corner, but as soon as she heard us opening the door, she woke up and came to greet us. She sniffed us a lot, and we stroked her and eventually held her in our laps. The new volunteers were a bit apprehensive of her at first, but soon warmed up to her.

We sat in with Marmite for a while, watching her explore her enclosure, and sometimes holding her. After a while though, she got tired, so we left her to sleep.

After we visited Marmite, we collected the eggs that the volunteers wanted to buy, and took another box of eggs to the farm shop to be sold. We all washed our hands and said goodbye, and thanked each other for such an enjoyable morning!