Old Macdonald is delighted to welcome to his farm some brand new arrivals, and all of them are just a bit piggish! First of all we have two proud mums here of, between them, over 12 piglets and you will find these in our special enclosures next door to our Meerkats. The patter of tiny trotters can be heard all day and night, and you really must not miss them!

Then we have a special treat as on Saturday May 11th we welcomed Smokey and Honey, a pair of Micro Pigs kindly provided by Claire from London. These two lovely and much loved animals are settling in very well, and Claire has sent these photos of their childhood (or piglethood perhaps). They have grown a bit as you will see from our current photo, but they are friendly and fun and a welcome addition to our collection here.

And Claire, we will make sure they write to you regularly and let you know how they are. By the way for all of you, Smokey is the black and white pig, honey the other and yes they are named after smokey bacon and honey roast ham, but don’t tell them!

And here they are, settling into their new home.

Finally, some of the children may well find these pigs below even more interesting!

Being a benevolant bloke as you know, Old Macdonald supports a lot of excellent charities during the year, and has four permanent ones to back. These are Hopefield, the local Brentwood Animal Sanctuary, the Wildlife Heritage Trust in Kent who run the Big Cat Sanctuary, the World Land Trust who protect important areas in the world, and the Starlight Foundation who grant wishes to seriously ill children and their families. So he thought a quick update might be interesting to you.

First of all Starlight, who staged a wonderful family day for their contacts at the Honourable Artillery Club in central London on July 3rd. Now Old Macdonald is not really that honourable a sort of fellow but he sent along some of his wonderful inflatables for the children to enjoy and asked your favourite Mary Martin, who runs workshops at the farm during busy times, to attend as well. Here are some images for you to enjoy.

Next he visited the Wildlife Heritage Trust at the Big Cat Sanctuary, and they have just seen the birth of some very rare and important Sumatran Tiger Cubs. Old Mac did not visit them as they are too little to be disturbed, but took a couple of pictures of other big cats at the centre which is a wonderful place to visit.

Next is Hopefield Animal Sanctuary, and as you know if you read these pages often, over the past two years the Sanctuary lost Paula and Ernie Clark, the founders, who had dedicated their lives to rescuing animals. Fortunately Leona Lewis stepped in as a sponsor and she has done a remarkable job in raising funds and with a dedicated committee the future of Hopefield seems secure, so here is Leona as we needed an excuse to publish her photo!

Finally the World Land Trust, and Old Macdonald was pleased to meet members of that organisation at recent events and chat about their new project which is called Keepers of the Wild and aims to raise funds to support local people in the various countries as they take on the vital role of protecting not only species but also habitat, as habitat loss is the largest factor in extinction.

So Old Macdonald is really pleased to see all his chosen charities doing so well, and just wants to have another look at the Leona Lewis photo!

Old Macdonald is pretty pleased with himself today as his new Fun Fact trail is up and running, with 27 information boards all around the farm full of interesting and entertaining facts about your farmyard favourites and the more unusual animals we have here in Brentwood.

From rabbits to rheas, owls to otters, and goats to guinea pigs you will all, young and old alike, learn a lot from these.

As you can see, our Meerkat family have been studying their boards in case you ask them tricky questions when you arrive, and do not forget for goodness sake do not let them sell you any of their dodgy insurance policies.

As the regular reader of our website will know, Kune Kune pigs originate from New Zealand (even if they got there by boat some time in the dim and distant past) which is why perhaps our pigs think it is Spring as they have presented us with a batch of bouncing (well squeeking) baby piglets, born on 20th September.

Come and visit them whilst they and their mother enjoy their stay in our VIP enclosure, opposite the play area, and marvel at these little bundles of piggery who are safe in the knowledge that they will never have to worry what bacon is!