Smallholding

Here on the Blue Rabbit smallholding we have free-range, rare-breed pigs, sheep, goats, and chickens – as well as alpacas and bees.

While we are not certified organic, we run our smallholding in accordance with organic principles and the welfare of our animals is our greatest concern.

Our chickens completely free-range around the smallholding and campsite. We hatch out many of our own chickens from our breeding stock – the cockerels live a happy life until the end of the summer when we kill and eat them.

Our pigs free-range and enjoy a long, natural life and we grow the very slowly (this is why they taste so good).

I keep my bees basically in accordance with Rose hive principles – I don’t use queen excluders and I don’t clip the wings of the queen (and not just because i can’t ever find her) – this means the bees are completely free to leave whenever they want. I always leave them enough honey for the winter so I don’t really have to feed sugar (except in emergency situations where the survival of the hive depends on it). The honey is not heat-treated or pasturised, it is raw honey that is simply filtered and is delicious

You’re probably wondering what the alpacas are for, well they protect the chickens from predictors (usually) and we collect their poo as fertiliser for the fruit and vegetables we grow.