Knockquhassen Farm

Our very local egg suppliers!

Summer is here and with the lovely long days our little flock of hens are spending more and more of their day outdoors, ranging freely round our large garden and adjacent fields. They love to help with any gardening or digging that is going on as well as helping with cleaning out the horse barn! They are a productive little bunch, producing an egg each most days, so plenty to offer guests for breakfast and some to take home if you want!

…and another new supplier
We have also started using a great new supplier for our breakfast coffee.  Ovenbird Coffee Roasters are based in Glasgow and offer top quality speciality coffee, sourced direct from farmers and growers in Africa and South America. We think it’s excellent stuff and it’s a great way to start the day, with a carafe of coffee to accompany your breakfast in our lovely sunroom.

Add in bacon or sausages from Clash Farm Saddlebacks, black pudding or haggis from Alex Jack Butchers and toast made from lovely bread from Logan Bakehouse and you’re all set up for the day!

Our girls ranging freely!

One day’s work for our little beauties

8th January 2016.

Happy New Year from our 6 lovely speckled ladies, now producing 5-6 eggs daily! The pic on left shows a recent day’s efforts, including the huge one in the centre – perhaps a goose snuck in somewhere!

So……fresh, free range eggs are now on our B&B breakfast menu,  subject to availability of course! Boiled, fried, scrambled, however you like them, I am sure you will enjoy them as we do. They have super yellow yolks, a good size and taste lovely! We may also have some for sale, again subject to the girls keeping up the current pace of production!

10th October 2015

This week we finally realised another ambition, to have our own hens and hopefully, eggs soon! Decided to go for 6 ‘recycled’ hens, that is, ex-battery, from Homes4hens near Dumfries. They are now installed in their lovely new house and run, also recycled (plastic from Solway Recycling) and slowly adjusting to their new life. As the pics shows, they are a bit sparse in the feather department but apparently they grow back in time. Otherwise they seem very sprightly and at only about 12 months of age, they should have a good few years left to enjoy life with us!

Day 4 today and the girls are starting to get a bit more confident. At the moment ‘free range’ consists mainly of staying indoors but they seem to like company, so I’m learning the art of ‘chicken whispering’! Sitting by the run and chatting to them seems to encourage them to get out and about and it’s fun just to sit and watch them. Actually managed to get all 6 out of the run at the same time today! Slight issue with the nest boxes as they all pile in at once – a bit of squash! They don’t seem to know how to use the perches so have had to give them a wee lesson! They’re a bit wobbly but I’m sure they’ll get the hang of it eventually – poor things have probably never had perches before! No eggs yet so I think I have to play the long game!

23rd September 2015

We are very pleased to say that following our recent assessment by Visit Scotland, Knockquhassen Farm B&B has been awarded 3 stars under their Quality Assurance scheme. This means we are rated as offering a ‘very good’ standard of service. This is very exciting after only 4 months in business and we hope this star rating will encourage more visitors to our B&B to sample the delights of Dumfries & Galloway! We specialise in providing flexible accommodation for dogs and their owners as well as offering a locally sourced breakfast menu and very friendly welcome to all our guests, with or without dogs! We are lucky enough to live in a stunning location so visitors can enjoy the wonderful views from the house and easy access to the wonderful countryside and coastline nearby.

5th August 2015

New addition to the breakfast menu!

We seem to have inherited a wonderful blackcurrant bush! We thought it was a flowering currant until it produced loads of lovely fruit, which is now being made into jam or gently cooked with sugar to make a fantastic sauce for ice cream! At least something seems to like all this rain! 3lbs of fruit so far and plenty more on the bush. So, blackcurrant jam is now available with your toast for breakfast!

14th June 2015

Finally the sun is out, the grass is growing and the birds are singing!
However long it lasts, we’re going to enjoy it. Everything sparkles when the sun shines – come and visit and see for yourself!

These pics are of my 3 enjoying their summer pasture.

Our little herd at home in their ‘field with a view’ – Loch Ryan in the background

June 9th 2015

Just one example of our garden fauna. Who needs to watch it on the telly when you can look out of the window! Neil captured this sweet girl early this morning from the sunroom, tucking into our nettles!

26th May 2015

Now that spring is here (allegedly!) we have been out and about with visiting family, to nearby Castle Kennedy Gardens which are stunning and an absolute must to visit if you are in this area. Acres of informal gardens to explore and lose yourself in, with rhododendrons and azaleas in flower at the moment and a sweet resident oyster catcher nesting near the lovely walled garden.

We had a new visitor of our own this week too – a cuckoo, seen here on the garden fence just a few feet from the house!

15th May 2015

From 23rd May 2015 we will be ready to welcome guests to our home.

We are opening as a B&B with 2 newly decorated double rooms, both with ensuite shower rooms.

We have a special offer until the end of June of just £55 per room per night.

With summer just around the corner why not visit this lovely corner of south west Scotland soon and see it at its very best?