A chance to meet and greet lots of new born baby lambs in the new Lambing Tunnel plus a chance to watch and maybe help out in our now famous Pig Racing spectacular are just two of the highlights of Easter at the Rare Breeds Centre, Woodchurch near Ashford.
‘We’ve timed our lambing this year to coincide with Easter, so many of our Rare Breed Ewes are due lamb over the Easter Holidays, giving our visitors the chance to see this and learn more. Our Rare Breed Piggy Racers are also in training…. Lots of audience participation required!!
As well as the pigs and the lambs, we will have a Straw Bale Burrow where, after doing the Farm Yard Easter Trail the children can meet the Friendly Giant Chicken and get their free Easter chocolate (bank holiday weekend only).
All that plus friendly farm animals to get close too, two indoor play barns, the amazing Mysterious Marsh off-ground assault course, encounter paddocks, walk through aviary, the make and do Activity Barn, bluebell walks, woodland trails and Discovery Gardens and over a hundred acres of country fun, adventure and discovery.
Here's the Piglets in training - one going the wrong way back up the track!!!!
By the view across this field you can see Spring is here, blossoms on trees, buds on others, the woodland is covered in a green carpet - soon to be blue with Bluebells.
Soon the trees in the distance will be green with leaves!!
The first Lamb was born a week ago and we have had a couple more since then, Lambing fortnight starts on the 31st march.
Come along, you may be lucky enough to see our Rare Breeds Ewes give birth.
Length of Incubation
Approximate incubation periods for commonly hatched poultry and game bird species in small incubators are:
| Species |
Days |
|
| Chicken |
21 |
| Most ducks |
28 |
| Muscovy ducks |
33-35 |
| Turkey |
28 |
| Most geese |
29-31 |
| Ringneck pheasant |
23-24 |
| Japanese quail |
17-18 |
| Bobwhite quail |
23 |
| Chuckar partridge |
22-23 |
| Guinea |
26-28 |
| Peafowl |
28 |
STEP 1: Gather eggs from a flock of hens with a rooster in the pen with them. It takes one rooster to every ten hens to produce fertile eggs.
STEP 2: Store eggs in a place that's between 50 and 75 degrees F until they're placed in the incubator.
STEP 3: Read the incubator instructions and follow its guidelines.
STEP 4: Keep the incubator indoors where it's easy to maintain.
STEP 5: Start the incubator a few days before you place eggs in it in order to adjust the temperature, humidity and airflow.
STEP 6: Place an "X" with a pencil lightly on one side of egg. This will tell you if you have turned the egg.
STEP 7: Turn eggs at least two to three times a day for the first 18 days. Do not turn them the last three days of incubation.
STEP 8: Test for infertile eggs by "candling" the eggs.
STEP 9: Clean and disinfect the incubator after all the eggs have hatched
Laila has a few eggs in the incubator at the moment, We hope that we will have a few cute Chicks for Easter time
