Sign in
BACK
October 2025
Posted Wednesday 1st October, 2025
New Aberblack Rams Join our Flock
We’re excited to introduce two new Aberblack X rams to the farm. Aberblacks are a crossbreed based on British and New Zealand genetics and include Suffolk and three other meat breeds in their breeding. The hybrid vigour adds health benefits and increased growth and the focus on their breeding is to rear lambs that thrive on just grass, just like our sheep at Fordhall.
The breed is known for their distinctive ‘shapier’ build and strong carcass potential. These rams have been selected to cross with our mule ewes, creating offspring with an ideal balance of shape, size, and robust genetics all while continuing to thrive on a purely pasture based diet. These boys will be joining their ewes on 5th October.
Autumn Honey Harvest with Andrew the Beekeeper
September has been a busy month for Andrew the beekeeper, who has been harvesting honey from hives around the farm. He takes care to remove only a modest amount, just enough for him to sell - leaving plenty behind so the bees can sustain themselves through autumn and winter.
With foraging season drawing to a close, and daylight hours shortening, Andrew will soon reduce the number of open hive entrances to help protect the colonies from wasps and opportunistic intruders. His hands-off approach through the colder months supports the bees’ natural rhythm while minimizing intervention.
Unfortunately, as of the end of October, we will be losing the use of Cottage Field. This is the land where we keep our free range Gloucester Old Spots and has always been part of the farmstead enabling us to run our pasture based farming system. It looks like the owners who rented us the land would like to progress with gaining planning permission to develop the land. We would really like to buy the land to keep it part of the farm, but unfortunately that’s not currently an option on the table with the owners. Fingers crossed the option for us to purchase the land and bring it back into Fordhall’s farming system will come up soon.
