Cheshire Wildlife Trust are looking for volunteers to lend a hand at their wildlife-friendly farm near Malpas.

The conservation charity has been based at Bickley Hall Farm near No Mans Heath since 2007 and manage over 200 acres, including looking after several hundred traditional breed livestock including Longhorn and Dexter cattle, along with Hebridean sheep.

In addition, the farm is home to an array of rare wildlife including harvest mice, barn owls, great crested newts and thousands of butterflies in its wildflower meadows. A number of ponds also attract dragonflies and often their top airborne predator, the hobby, each summer.

The farm has also been the focus of the Trust’s expanding badger TB vaccination scheme, begun in 2012, and will be home to a new children’s outdoor education facility, due to open this spring.

Volunteers will get the opportunity to assist the charity with a variety of conservation and agricultural-based tasks, actively contributing to the management of the farm.

Sue Tatman, from the Trust, said: “Bickley is a real wildlife gem, home to many traditional farmland birds that have been lost from other parts of the UK.

“We’ve recently added barn owls and harvest mice to the increasing list of species that call the farm home, and those lending a hand in the volunteer group will be actively helping to support these creatures and much more.”

The task list for the group is expected to be hugely varied ranging from practical jobs such as hedge and tree planting, installing nesting boxes and fencing, through to surveying during the summer to help the Trust track the wildlife visiting the farm.

Sue added: “It’s been proven that outdoor exercise or ‘green gyms’ can be key to a healthier lifestyle and in reducing problems like heart disease, so there’s no better way to burn off the Christmas and New Year calories whilst giving nature a helping hand our your doorstep.”

The new volunteer group will meet on the last Thursday of every month between 10am-4pm.

For more information contact the project coordinator Joe Pimblett at jpimblett@cheshirewt.org.uk.