A kind-hearted Meirionnydd couple have literally opened up their home to farm animals – sometimes allowing them to join them for breakfast.

Tree surgeon and farm owner Ned Griffiths and his wife Carol moved to their Talybont farm eight years ago.

Most farm animals live outside the house, but Ned and Carol have adopted a different approach.

“We like to have the animals in,” Ned said. “The more food we give them, the more they come up to you. The farm is only 25 acres and we have cows, horses and sheep as well as chickens.”

One of the lambs on the farm, called Beaky, was born in May. Beaky has had some health problems, as Ned explained.

“He has an overshot mouth and couldn’t suckle. We looked after it and then returned it to its mother, but it got rejected. We decided to keep it, and now it comes in the house for breakfast.

“He has more independence now. We keep one of the paddocks open where the grass is higher, it makes it easier for him to graze.”

Beaky even has his own special bed on the farm.

“We have an oil barrel cut open and he goes in there to sleep. He is sometimes joined by some of the other animals. It’s important for animals not to be lonely.”

Ned said some of the animals they own are rescues.

He said: “We have a rescue horse which was rescued by the RSPCA. It was tethered up in a field which was flooded by a burst river bank. We brought it here to be company for our other horse.”

And news of the couple’s kind-hearted treatment of their animals has travelled abroad.

Marilyn Jones who lives in Switzerland, but once lived in Dyffryn Ardudwy and is half-Welsh, was made aware of the farm by her sister.

She is amazed at what Ned and Carol have done.

“I’ve never seen animals treated so well,” she said. “It’s very humane, kindness is everywhere. They all get along with each other.”