Interesting to know, I making a list of places in the UK that have peaked my interest in this lockdown to try and visit in the next few years. Jimmy's farm is up there right now, along with a few gardens, castles and parks. I want to go see the pigs, sheep, goats and cattle. The poultry I know pretty well from keeping poultry myself.
No we don't have any of those. Although they're very cool, all of our cattle have to be fairly handleable to some degree (Lucky, one of our bulls, is a bit of a knob though). Tbh, I don't have much to do with the cows and pigs as they're mostly on the working farm side of things. I feed them occasionally, but that's it really.
I hope that when zoos are allowed to reopen, the public are quite forgiving in that they won't be seeing the parks at their best with all the restrictions that will have to be in place. It's certainly going to be a very strange time, and hopefully more and more parts of the zoos (enclosed buildings etc) will be allowed to open over not too long a time. It's probably the subject of a different thread, but for our part, the play areas and tropical house will be closed for the time being, and although people will be able to walk through the butterfly house, there will be no butterflies because the big double doors will be open, thus not making it an enclosed space.
Happy to announce that we introduced some guanacos to the park yesterday. With so few on show in public UK collections, and certainly none locally, they’re a great addition and we all love them already.
So now that's it's been made public, I'm thrilled to tell you that we have a second series! "Autumn at Jimmy's Farm" will be on Ch4 later this year. Spring was all about how a small wildlife park copes during lockdown, and although I'm not allowed to say what Autumn's main theme will be yet, what's planned is going to be veeeeery interesting with a kind of different vibe now that we're open! It'll still be shot in the same way that the first episode will be put out in a matter of a couple of weeks after shooting begins, so that the public will feel they're stuck in the middle of whatever's going on. Hoping for the same production team to come back, because we all became firm friends.
Half way into the 2nd week of filming "Autumn at Jimmy's Farm", and it's shaping up to be a belter! Saying goodbye to a few residents, and hello to a few more exciting new species. New builds, exciting secret news, bit of comedy, bit of high stakes drama, and already seen tears of joy and sadness. Airs in October on Ch4.
"Autumn at Jimmy's Farm" starts on Wednesday 14th October on Ch4. We're still filming for another 10 days, and it's getting pretty hectic! With two big builds ongoing (including our most ambitious one to date by a loooong way), it's a race to the finish to get them completed and the animals moved in before the film crew leave. I really hope we manage it, and I hope you tune in and enjoy
@mrcriss If you don't mind me asking, do you guys have a YouTube channel? Or is the show available for viewing online?
Spring at Jimmy’s Farm is still on All 4, as will be this series immediately after airing. Wednesday’s show is a corker! Yes he is
Not as far as I’m aware, sadly. Unless you’re able to download illegally somewhere....bit I'm not very tech savvy
Did anyone catch last night’s episode? Just curious what you thought of it? It’s one thing to get feedback from general public, but interesting to hear from zoo and wildlife park enthusiasts. Thanks in advance
Really enjoyed it- the Turkey semen part required a strong stomach to watch!Haha! Very interested in all the developments and the care and attention you give to the animals is clear to see and can’t wait to see what the big build that has been teased on social media turns out to be! Extremely excited for the future of the collection especially as you are actually my local wildlife park as I live in Suffolk!
Yeah, although the anteater and Suffolk punch arrivals were leaked on social media, we’re trying to keep that other one quiet for now. They came today and are pretty wonderful!
Watched the new series with my daughter and enjoyed it,looks like a very nice collection. Our highlight was the "accident" with the tapir,everyone loves a baby. Did wonder if Jimmy is normally that hands on with the day to day running of the farm though?
@mrcriss where is the enclosure for the new arrivals? I visited Wednesday and couldn't see it. When's the anteater likely to be on show?
Thanks for watching ....we'd love to welcome you to come check the place out sometime soon. Although Tip Tap was on 'Regumate' (which is a horse contraceptive that obviously didn't do it's job properly), we're very excited at the prospect of a little tapir calf. Tip Tap is such a gentle soul that I hope she remains chilled once the baby arrives. Still, it's a fair old way to go yet, and anything can happen between now and the due date, so it's not time to get too excited yet. Jim is obviously quite busy with filming for his various TV shows, but when he's free, he loves nothing more that getting on a digger and doing some work....he's the best one of us at driving it. His wife and kids are here a lot too....always nice to see them.
Hi, thanks for visiting. I wonder if I spoke to you? The big new build is in a different area of the park up past the donkeys and pigs. We've had to considerably extend the perimeter fenceline to accommodate it. It'll be opened for October half-term. Basil (anteater) is now on show from today. The way his enclosure works is that there are several different areas. His house has 2 dens (one off-show and one viewable), which leads to an off-show holding area (somewhere we can contain him if need be for vet stuff etc). Then there's a tunnel which is being opened today so that he can access his grass paddock. Beyond that, there's a woodland paddock for him, which for the time being is staying closed until we finish the extension to the perimeter fence. I wanted him to settle in a bit before we made him public, but everyone will be able to see him this weekend. We'll also be starting private encounters with him soon, which will be unique in the East Anglian area.