The Animals

Helen, it’s fair to say, is an animal lover and then some, but having lived in London most of her adult life she wasn’t completely able to indulge this passion to the level she would like to. Cockatiels, tortoises and cats were all in residence, but a small back garden in south London precludes anything else too exotic along the lines of the sort of animals she would love to keep. However, the mill comes with no such restrictions, and it turns out that four acres of land, a keen interest in animals and a little bit of ‘madness’ are a ‘dangerous’ combination. Luckily, and while not to same extent as Helen, I am an animal lover too so was only too happy (mostly – I have had my moments) to see the menagerie start to grow. As the property came with its own paddock and poultry pen, we had a great head start in terms of enclosures and even before we’d moved in livestock was being procured. A rough timeline of the animal arrivals is as follows:

2018 – ducks, hens, two cats (moved from London to the mill), sugargliders.

2019 – geese, peacocks, guinea fowl, first dog, macaw.

2020 – sheep, rhea, turkeys, second dog.

2021 – emus,koi carp (in the lake).

All the animals live at the mill property currently with the exception of the tortoises, sugargliders and the cockatiels that are still in London but will be moved up when suitable enclosures are built.

CURRENT 'INVENTORY'

Resident at the mill

Cats – Tigris (female Bengal, born 2015) and Spotty (female moggy, born 2016 – daughter of Tigris).
Dogs – Womble (female Sheltie, born 2018) and Willow (female Papillon, born 2021).
Emus – Emmet (male, born 2021 – hatched at the mill via incubator), Charlotte (female, born 2021), Lucy (female, born 2021).
Rhea – Quetzel (male, born 2020), Rea (female, born 2020).
Sheep – Tikka (female Ouessant, born 2020), Masala (female Ouessant, born 2020).
Parrots - Archie, the macaw came to us in 2019 as a rescue bird. Sadly he had been treated a lot worse than we were led to believe and we simply didn't have the time to devote to the level of rehabilitation he needed. So it was that we decided to re-home him to a dedicated parrot rehabilitater.
Peacocks – we currently have 4 male and 4 female. We initially had three (one male, two females) which we acquired as chicks in 2019 and these were named Mogwai, Persephone and Penelope, but Penelope left the fold a year or so later to pursue a life elsewhere. We were then given another 6 chicks in 2021 (3 females, 3 males) so currently have eight all of whom seem happy to stay for now… must be something to do with the endless supply of food.
Geese – we currently have two geese - Lucky (female, born 2019 – hatched at the mill via incubator) and Sereni (female, born 2021 – hatched at the mill via incubator).
Ducks – We’ve had some come and go, but currently we have one runner, three Cayugas and two Pekings and a call duck called Cooper.
Turkeys – we had two young ones (Ant and Dec), but they fought when they grew up so Dec was re-homed to a neighbour and currently we just have Ant in residence.
Guinea fowl – we currently have eight guinea fowl. Before these eight we had another thirteen, all of which were killed by a fox when they were temporarily caged during a bird flu outbreak.
Hens – we have had numerous hens of various different breeds, many of which have passed away due to old age and one or two to the occasional fox. We take in ex-battery and barn hens as they have a much better retirement with us and currently we have about 12.

Resident at the London property

Tortoises – Yoda (Mediterranean, born early 2000s), Obi-Wan (Sulcata, born 2022)
Sugargliders – Michone (female, born 2017), Leia (female, born 2017).
Cockatiels – Oscar (male, born late 1990s), Baby Bird (male, born 2021 – hand raised).

Deceased

Cats - Jack (male moggy, born 2000, died 2019), Olly (male moggy, born before 2000, died 2019).
Ducks - our first duck was a male runner called Hopper, hatched at the mill via incubator in 2018. Hopper was a character, but sadly developed tumours and we had to have him put to sleep.
Geese - Angel (female born 2018), but she died late 2018 due to a fox attack.

Chris, Jan 2023.