Sheep and Making Honey Down on the Farm

# Come join us down on the farm today

# Learn about nature along the way

# From seeds to crops and fields and barns

# So much to do down on the farm

# Summer, autumn, winter, spring

# Ploughing, planting, harvesting

# With JB and Storm to lead the way...

# Come join us down on the farm today. #

CHICKENS CLUCK

Hello, I'm JB and welcome to summer on Down On The Farm.

Today we are going to be finding out about sheep.

And also, do you know what this is?

It's raw honey, and we are going to see exactly how bees make honey,

so you don't want to miss it.

Coming up, I'll be visiting some young gardeners

with a very special garden.

We meet Farmer Mark, who knows all about honey.

I'm also going to show you around my own farm.

But first, Storm will be learning about sheep.

So come join us down on the farm.

COCK CROWS

Welcome to the Lake District, with its beautiful lakes

and its rolling hills, perfect for a sheep farm.

But enough of the sightseeing, we're here to meet Shepherd James,

his wonderful family and his very special sheep.

COWS LOW

This is Shepherd James.

-Come, boy!

-HE WHISTLES

He's been looking after sheep most of his life.

James's family simply love sheep.

This is Molly, James's daughter,

her pony, Blaze, with mum Helen.

And Molly's little sister, Bea, brother Isaac

and their sheep dog puppies.

So, Isaac, can you tell me who the dog is just behind you?

-Tan.

-Tan.

And what about that dog there?

-Floss.

-Floss.

And so you all help look after the sheep, is that right?

That's right, it's a family farm, isn't it? So we all work together.

The family help shepherd James

move the sheep to where he needs them.

These sheep look very different from any other sheep I've ever seen.

What makes them so special?

These are Herdwicks. They come from the Lake District.

They're super tough. They live in the hills

and they can survive the snow, rain and long winters.

There's something else very interesting about them.

They change colour. What colour are they when they're born?

Black with white ear tips.

What colour are they as they grow up?

-They go brownie blackie.

-Brownie-blackie?

-And then do they just stay brownie-blackie?

-No.

-What happens?

-They turn grey.

-They turn grey.

Then they are white!

And then they turn white.

-Come bye. Come bye.

-HE WHISTLES

Come bye!

SHE TRIES TO WHISTLE

I can't even whistle.

Shepherd James and his family all use a stick called a crook,

which helps guide the sheep.

These sheep do something else that is very special. Hefting.

It's a new word to me. What does it mean?

Hefting is a really old word. It means going back to the same place

that your mother and grandmother lived in.

Even when there's no fences, they go back to the same place.

It is a special way of farming, an old-fashioned way of farming.

-How long have they been here?

-At least 1,000 years,

so we think they came with the Vikings. That's amazing,

-that's a long time ago.

-That's longer than you.

-A lot longer.

STORM LAUGHS

-How do you identify them all?

-I have a special mark for each farm.

Our mark is a blue mark in front of a red mark on the shoulder.

And it is like an oily paste. A little bit messy,

but we put that on. It tells us who they belong to on the hills.

We have tags that we put in their ears.

That tells us who their mum, their grandmother and their dad was.

How many sheep do you have?

We have 500 sheep and then all of the lambs running with them.

I've had the most perfect day in the Lake District

and learnt so much about Herdwicks.

While I help shepherd James out with the sheep,

why don't you find out what else happens in summer?

Spring was a time of new beginnings.

BIRDS CHIRP

As birds filled the air with their sweet songs,

tough little plants woke up and started to grow,

making our world colourful once more.

Down on the farm there was lots of new life, too,

as baby animals were born.

PIGS SQUEAL

Soon the days grow longer and warmer,

and when the swallows arrive, we know that it's summer.

SPLASH

This is the warmest season of the year.

A time to enjoy parks and gardens,

beaches and countryside.

But while we relax and have fun...

..all around us, nature is hard at work.

Every plant and creature must make the most of the sun's rays

while it can.

Plants and trees grow faster than at any other time of the year.

This great growth creates a feast for hungry mouths.

The summer air buzzes with the sound of insects,

busily searching for food.

And down on the farm,

summer is one of the busiest times of the year, too.

I'm in the middle of London to meet a group of young school gardeners.

They've said they have something to show me. I wonder what it could be.

-Hi, everyone.

-ALL: Hi, JB.

And what are you guys up to today?

-We are doing the weeding and the rooting.

-Oh, wow.

And I was told you had something to show me. Is it your new planters?

ALL: No!

-Can you keep a secret?

-Yeah, I love secrets.

Come with us, then.

OK, come on, then.

-JB, we are going in here.

-In here?

-Close my eyes?

-Yes.

-OK.

-What about that?

-No, no.

OK, OK. OK.

OK, I won't look, I won't look.

Wow!

This is amazing!

'It's a secret garden.'

-Did you guys do all this?

-Yes.

-By yourselves?

-Yes.

You're going to have to show me everything. This is incredible.

-Can I show you the carrots?

-Yes.

'In the school garden, the children are taught by their teachers

'how to grow all kinds of flowers, fruit and vegetables.

'And how to use gardening tools properly.

'Learning outdoors is fun!'

-So what do I need to do, guys?

-You need to dig a hole.

-OK.

-So what plant is this?

-It's a pumpkin.

-A pumpkin.

OK, so I take this out.

'The children regularly visit the secret garden

'and have a gardening club.'

These broad beans look fantastic.

-Will you show me how to pick them?

-Yes.

Twist, twist, twist, twist.

-Ah!

-And then you...

-And then you open them up?

-Yes.

-Is that one of the beans?

-Yeah.

Fresh broad beans.

'The produce is harvested and sold to the local community.'

Girls, I've brought you some old broad beans for the compost.

-What is compost made of?

-It's made of things that rot.

-And what do we use compost for?

-We use it

for...to put in the plant.

-To help them grow.

-To help them grow.

-Good.

Well, keep up the good work, girls.

Guys, your secret garden is incredible.

Thank you for sharing it with me.

Would you like a secret garden? I know I would.

Coming up next is our summer poem.

BEE BUZZES

At the bottom of my garden

-There's a hedgehog and a frog

-FROG CROAKS

And a lot of creepy crawlies

Living underneath a log.

There's a baby daddy-longlegs

And an easy-going snail

And a family of woodlice

All are on my nature trail.

Summer on my farm is a very busy time.

There's lots to do and lots to get ready,

but first I need to make sure the animals are well looked after.

Animals that are kept on a farm are often called livestock.

On my farm I have chickens and pigs.

Mucking out pigs is not a glamorous job,

but they need to be cleaned out every single day of the year.

PIGS OINK

People tend to think that pigs are ready dirty animals,

but actually they're really clean.

They like to roll in mud all day to cool them down when it's hot.

But they select an area where they go to the bathroom,

and that's the area I need to clean out.

PIG OINKS

I like to feed my pigs twice a day.

Pigs fed, now I'm off to the shop.

A country store is a special shop for anyone with pigs,

chickens, cattle and horses.

It sells everything farmers need for their animals.

And I need some chicken feed.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

-See you later.

-Bye-bye!

CHICKENS CLUCK

I'm going to feed my chickens and check for some eggs.

Buck-buck-buck!

CHICKENS CLUCK

Having chickens on my farm means lots of fresh eggs.

While I get back to work at the farm,

let's see what else happens in summer.

This is farmer Mark, and on his farm,

he makes honey with a team of thousands of helpers.

Mark is a beekeeper and has boxes called hives that his bees live in,

spread all over Perthshire in Scotland.

Each of his hives has 40,000 bees living inside,

and they all fly around the countryside

looking for the flowers that have nectar, or sugar water.

They take the nectar back to the hive to make honey.

Mark puts on a special suit to protect him

from the bees before he checks the hives for honey.

The bees work really hard and each worker bee can produce

a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime, and it flies up to ten miles a day.

Inside the beehives are trays that the bees put the nectar into.

The trays have lots of holes for the bees to fill up

with nectar, called honeycomb.

The clever bees use their wings to fan the nectar to get

rid of the water, and what's left is honey.

To protect their honey, the bees cover the honeycomb with wax.

The bees will make much more honey than they need,

so there's plenty for the bees and for Mark.

Mark gathers up the trays of honeycomb,

and makes sure the bees are all safely off before

taking them to his farm to collect the honey.

Back at the farm,

the wax is scraped off to leave just the honey in the trays.

The trays are then put into a machine called a spinner,

which spins them round and round so all the honey drips out.

It goes through a tube, where it is warmed up and sieved to make

sure it's smooth, and is collected in a big drum like this one.

The honey goes into jars that we're used to seeing in shops

and at home, ready for us to enjoy.

Storm and I have had a fantastic time down on the farm,

and we hope you've enjoyed it, too.

You can check out more great things to see and do

from Down On The Farm on the CBeebies website.

See you soon. Bye!

# Come join us down on the farm today

# Learn about nature along the way

# From seeds to crops and fields to barns

# So much to do down on the farm

# Summer, autumn, winter, spring Ploughing, planting, harvesting

# With JB and Storm to lead the way

# Come join us down on the farm today. #