Casa Rural Cortijo Roman

February in Jimena

Back to Calendar

What's on locally?

February really begins to feel like springtime. The Almond trees have come into blossom and many wild flowers are blooming including Spanish blubells, crocus and two types of daffodil (Narcissus). Another great pleasure is that the oranges, which are grown locally, are now available both in the shops and directly from the orange orchards around Jimena.

Orange tree

At last we have had some of the desperately needed rain. Both the river Hozgarganta and the little stream in the farm are flowing again. The water shortage in Andalucia was becoming quite serious so it is fantastic to hear the sound of running water. The rain here can be torrential and quite incredible to see. Generally we have either heavy downpours or no rain at all; overcast skies and drizzle are rare. Temperatures have not fallen very low this month, between 8 and 19 degrees in the day and 4 to 8 degrees in the night. However the temperatures were obviously much lower in the mountains as we were able to see the unusual sight of snow on the high peaks.

What's happening on the Farm?

February is proving to be an exciting month with lots of new arrivals at the farm. We have bought another 110 Castillano point-of-lay chickens making a total of 160. Twenty of the new arrivals are going to be kept apart from the others for breeding to enlarge our laying stock; in addition, we have also bought 30 Castillano hen chicks to rear for breeding.
We are hoping to get about 140 free-range organic eggs each day to sell in the local community. At the moment we are having trouble getting a cockerel, much to the relief of some guests, but two are due to arrive during the next month. The new pen for the hens is nearly finished but was set back a bit by the discovery of "fox city" within the area we were fencing off. It would have defeated the object of the fence somewhat if we had fenced the foxes in with the hens!!!

Other new arrivals are four one-year old goats; three of them are pregnant so, by April, we should have baby goats around. The brown one has been named Rosie and the three black ones are Nelly, Tinkerbell and Emily. We have fenced off a large paddock for them in the front meadow where they will enjoy the grass and the company of Benjamin the donkey - well he enjoys it anyway.