Birds Available to Sponsor

Meet Rocky, a truly stunning Buff Orpington Rooster! If you pop along to our tearoom on your next visit to the farm you can see for yourself just how big this boy is! After his last moult his tail feathers are now starting to come in and they are promising to be a glorious flash of gold. Rocky was found running loose in our car park one afternoon with a single girlie for company. When he was eventually cornered and caught, he and his friend had to stay in our isolation stable for 10 days and then slowly we integrated him with a coop of 8 Rhode Island Red hens who had recently lost their rooster. This involved carrying him and his girl back and forth to the stable twice a day until we were confident enough to take away a fence at let Rocky in with all his new girls. Although Rocky is young, fit and fast, once caught he would simply droop his head down and play dead, he was reasonably easy to handle. Well, the same cannot be said now! Since becoming king of his own coop, he has become a true and valiant protector of his girls! Secretly, it is actually very fulfilling to see him behaving like a proper rooster...just don't ever let him know that, he's a handful already! Did you know? The Orpington breed of chickens is indeed named after Orpington, Kent where they were first bred! The original black Orpington was first bred by William Cook in 1886 and the buff Orpington in 1894 making Rocky's ancestors 118 years old!

Elvis (shown here on the right) is a rather magnificent Dewlapped Toulouse Goose! Although Toulouse geese are known for being placid, our Elvis can hiss up a storm when protecting his lovely lady friend Beatrice! Elvis has a condition called Angel Wing, which means that his'elbows' face the wrong way and his wings stick out at odd angles. The condition is caused by too much protein in the diet at a young age, unfortunately it is irreversible, although fortunately it doesn't cause him any discomfort. Elvis, being a goose, is naturally a forager and so he is now fed as naturally as possible. He has access to grass all day and all year, and we supplement this with good old fashioned wheat which both he and Beatrice love! We also place a bowl of water with a scoop of wheat in inside their overnight stable, filter feeding the wheat from the water is a very natural behavior for geese and they both seem to greatly enjoy it! Did you know? Records of this breed of goose have been found as far back as 1555! Having been domesticated for such a long time is what makes this breed so placid, this is why they do not mix with the other waterfowl here at FOAL who are far to active for their gentle nature.