Standalone Farm

This is a working farm with sheep, pigs and cows and also, for everyone's delight, has horses, goats, pigmy goats, rabbits, ,doves, guinea fowl, pheasants rare breed chickens and ducks, ponies, donkies and deer. The animals have both outdoor and indoor enclosures which will take you about an hour to walk round if you have an inquisitive little one.
Our toddler's face was an absolute picture when he found not only a barn full of pedal tractors but a real tractor in the back field beyond the pig sty giving trailer rides. And then add to that the pay per ride tractor track and the outdoor model railway featuring some of Thomas Tank Engines friends (take lots of 20p and 2p coins)and we had the recipe for a very enjoyable afternoon.
There is a big outdoor play area with 3 different climbing/swinging/sliding environments to keep older children happy and a small animal house with rabbits and guinea pigs for anyone too shy to say hello to the shire horse or the goats. Bags of feed cost 20p and all the animals are very friendly and used to children.
I would recommend taking your own pic nic and making use of the fields and pic nic tables as the cafe has a limited choice of pre-prepared sandwiches, pies, choc bars and ice creams but no fresh homemade food. There is also an indoor pic nic table area in case it rains.
The gift shop is a lovely place to find farm related birthday gifts but beware the 'I want..' stage as you have to walk through the shop to enter and exit the farm.
Cost: Adults £4.75, Children £3.75, under 2s free
Family season tickets is £57 which is well it if you are going to go at least 9 times in one year.

There are lots of other visitor farms in Beds and Herts but they are more expensive. We particularly love this one as it is never so busy that we cant see all the animals and enjoy a quiet pic nic.