Sutton Mawr Farm

Poppy, Trio, Bluebell, Jess, Moorhen and Teddy are our Dexter cows.

We are very proud to welcome our new calves born here in November and December, Scarlet, Beauty, Mutley, Santa and Rudolph. They are all quite gorgeous, come and see them soon!

They are rather indulged and we hope to build up our herd in order to have a ready supply for our home and for our guests to purchase.

We have Oxford Sandy Black pigs – Stella and Ruby are our breeding sows.. 

They are all very spoilt and supply us with more than enough pork, sausage and bacon to supply our needs and are a whole lot of fun.

We have kept chickens for 17 years now and as a chicken farmer’s daughter I know all that is needed to keep our flock happy.  They roam free range all over the farm, often in places they shouldn’t, often pecking up the seedlings just planted out in the vegetable garden.  They have the life of Riley here.

We have built up a variety of breeds which include Light Sussex, Buff Orpingtons, Cream Legbar, Lavendar Araucanas, French  Marans, all producing fabulously fresh and healthy eggs for your breakfast.

Our dogs Rosie, Dora and Tiger Lily all rule the main house and are very much part of Sutton Mawr.

When not sleeping by the aga will give you a friendly welcome.

Our small flock of Jacob sheep are very good looking roaming in the fields around Sutton Mawr Farm.

All our animals are slow grown based on organic/biodynamic systems.  We lavish much love and care on our animals as we believe this creates the best produce possible.  We let our pigs grow to one year rather than the traditional pork production of only 16 weeks, therefore more expensive but is higher quality and has a better taste.

BEES AT SUTTON MAWR FARM

When starting off I decided the first thing I would ‘get into’ was bees, it did not take me long to realise what a specialist job it is and after a day out at the smallholder with the sole purpose to equip myself with bees we ended up coming home having brought our first pigs, Oxford Sandy Blacks and cows Dexters!

We were lucky to meet Jeannie Hainsworth Lamb shortly afterwards and quickly decided she was the best most enthusiast bee keeper and perfect for supplying us with the best honey
She is very patient with me but with so much going on at the farm I have not had time to learn much about the bees but just seeing them daily on the farm brings us great joy and we are hopefully that our fruit vegetable and flower yields will improve with their presence on the farm, indeed we are proud to have them on our land.

The bee hives at Sutton Mawr Farm are very special and currently unique in Wales.  They are built of commercial grade plastic which is not as organic as cedarwood admittedly, but we believe that they are more hygienic, disease resistant, and better suited to the bees.  They are cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter than traditional hives.

The hives have entrances for the workers and drones and separate mating entrances for the queens which reduces the possibility of absconding and are designed to maintain the strength and well-being of the colony.

They are Langstroth hives which means that the frames are bigger than the National hive which is the most common hive in Wales, giving the queen more room to lay, and the nucleus more room to expand.  Lack of over-crowding should reduce the possibility of swarming.  Swarming is when the old queen relocates taking half the bees with her.  For a beekeeper this means the loss of 50% of honey producing stock and a weakening of the remaining bees in this colony.

The bees forage for nectar to produce honey, and pollen to produce food for the larvae that will be the next generation.  On the farm we have an orchard for spring foraging, pasture with clover, hedgerow plants, flowering herbs and garden plants so that the bees get a varied diet and produce honey that is diverse in flavour and consistency.  That’s the joy of natural food – it never tastes the same from season to season.

We hope you enjoy our honey at breakfast and see our hives when you stay with us and that it will make you consider the vital role bees play in the world, not just here at Sutton Mawr Farm.

If you are interested in apiary please see our Bee Courses information leaflet (download link below). We would love to see you on one of our courses - Jeannie is a marvellous teacher, she can tailor make courses to suit you from a beginners day to the Basic Bee Keepers Exam which would give any aspiring beekeepers all the info they would need to purchase and start running their own apiaries.

Download Bee Courses Information Leaflet