Fun at Farmer Palmers

Farmer Palmers has been one of our favourite places to go to with the children and is where they found their love of animals.  We had season passes for many years but sadly I let them lapse last year as Eliza goes to pre-school every day from 9-12 which cuts the day in half and makes it impossible to go and visit for any length of time.

When asked what they wanted to do this Easter holiday both Isaac and Eliza demanded we visit Farmer Palmers and who was I to disappoint them.  As we made our way inside they shot off heading straight for the slide barn and the ride on tractors.

The slide barn is full of hay and all the kids always put a pile at the bottom of the slide before zooming down and making it all fly in the air – great fun.

When you arrive at Farmer Palmers you are given a list of times that the planned activities are on and our first one of the day was pony grooming.  We sat down in the activity barn and listened carefully to the staff who told us how to groom the pony safely before being handed the special brushes.

By this time Sebby, who had been asleep until now, was starting to stir so once Isaac and Eliza had finished grooming the pony we took him out of his buggy and let him see all the animals that were housed in the barn which included some cute, but very sleepy, piglets, lambs, goat and more ponies.

Next on the to-do list was to bottle feed the lambs but we had half an hour to wait so we made our way to the play park next door which has been updated with some new play equipment.  All the old favourites were still there though and they all enjoyed exploring the wooden play houses, climbing on the wooden animals, playing on the see-saw and swinging on the swings.

Farmer Palmers also has a small splash park but I hadn’t brought a spare set of clothes so I let Eliza play with the water but thankfully avoided the water jets whilst hubby zoomed around the go-kart track with Isaac and Sebby played in the sand.

I did think we were not going to be able to tear them away, however the promise of bottle feeding the lambs seemed to work and we headed back to the barn that was already packed full of excited children.  Again we had to listen to the staff as they explained what we had to do and then the bottles were handed out and the famous call was made.

“Shall we let the lambs out?” which is always met with loud cheers of “Yes!!”

The 19 lambs, who had been bleating loudly, raced out of the gate towards all the eager children. As there were lots of children we had to share the bottles and pass them down the line, but everybody got a turn including Sebby he seemed more content to watch than join in!

Once the lambs had finished their bottles they were allowed to remain in the barn so the children could stroke them, but Isaac and Eliza were more keen to go off exploring so we headed off in search of the paddocks.  Isaac spotted an escapee chicken and having been taught how to catch them by Guy when we stayed at Coombe Mill he expertly picked it up, posed for a couple of pictures and popped it back in its pen.

Farmer Palmers has increased its variety of animals since our last visit last year and as well as the traditional goats, pigs, chickens and sheep we found some Emu and Alpaca too.

The farm is huge with plenty of things to keep the kids busy including a huge field leading to the woodland walk that is filled with wooden animals to identify and play on as well as balance challenges.

The woodland walk which Farmer Palmers has improved since we last did it, has had lots of flower bulbs planted by students from Bournemouth University to encourage bugs and wildlife.  As we walked around the path we spotted woodland characters, the trolls bridge and even mother hubbards shoe as well as Butterflies, bees and some minnows in the water.

The woodland walk is lovely a quiet and perfect if you want to get away from the noise of the farm and takes around half an hour to complete with little legs.

We headed back as I was keen to do the Deer Safari but it clashed with the cow milking session the kids wanted to do, so am saving that for another day.

The milking session is always great fun and although the children cannot help, they are involved by a fun Q&A session with questions such as “what is a good name for a cow?”, “what do we use milk for” and guessing how many pints of milk the cow can produce in a day.  The Jersey cow they were milking today was called Pat……yes really!?!

We got to stroke Pat once she had finished being milked so we headed into the courtyard to wash our hands before heading into soft play.

One of the best things about Farmer Palmers is the huge variety of things to do and they have three indoor play areas which are perfect to either get out of the sun, or to shelter for the rain.  One has a giant bouncy castle inside along with the ride on tractors I mentioned earlier.  Another is a gorgeous wooden play area complete with twinkling lights, a play house and toys and the third is a traditional soft play frame.

They also have the Hen House which serves hot and cold meals, snacks, drinks, ice cream and the most delicious cakes – well it would be rude not to, wouldn’t it?  It is also attached to the play frame so it meant we could eat in peace whilst the kids ran off any excess energy they still had after their ice cream.

Farmer Palmers is a fun filled full day out for all the family and you can choose whether you want to do the staff-led activities such as cuddling guinea pigs and feeding the animals, or just roam the farm and explore in your own time.

I for one have remembered just how much fun it is and shall be renewing our season pass very soon.