The Hub - A Duck-Free Wildlife Pond

Saturday 14th April 2018
A dry day and blue skies!
Today's job was to build a hazel and willow barricade around the small wildlife pond which forms the hub of The Wheel, my veg plot design. This preformed plastic pond has followed Sue and I from our first house in London where it was the centrepiece of our 16 foot square garden. Our current plot is over 800 times that size!

I want to move the ducks into the veg plot to hoover up the slugs which live under the grass overhangs where the beds are edged. But they will trash the pond. Instead, I am building a new pond for them, more of a duck lido in fact.

So I set about cutting the stakes for my duck barrier, using hazel I had harvested. I then weaved in the willows, using basic weaving techniques.

I have to say I am very pleased with the end result.

And the ducks are so impressed with their new lido that they have not even noticed the other pond. That one can be kept a secret between me and the wild birds and the frogs and toads.

Flash News

Tuesday 10th April 2018
Most of today was spent on and off tending to Flash the ram lamb. He has been weak and has not been seen to feed from mum, even though both the other lambs are now suckling well.
He is resistant to bottle feeding too and we have had to keep him going with Lamb Boost, an energy liquid.

Flash is the little one lying by mum's tail

Ewe 0009 and her lambs seem really healthy.
She is tucking into her oats and hay.

Early evening his mouth was no longer warm inside, a sure sign that hyperthermia was setting in. This is the main cause of death in a lambs first days, though I think it is more a symptom than a cause.

Sue brought him into the house and nestled him in a blanket with a hot water bottle. I down-played his chances of survival. But by late evening we were able to put him back with his mum and brothers. If he survives, I would be surprised if we don't end up bottle feeding him.
At the moment, Flash's future hangs in the balance. We are trying to get him to feed every couple of hours and topping up with Lamb Boost. The longer we can keep him alive, the better his chances of getting through.

On a different note, the Muscovies are thoroughly enjoying the fact that the giant puddle has topped itself up again.

Lamb Triplets and Twins Arrive

Monday 9th April
You Might Want to Come Down to the Sheep Field
Main job for the day was to finish constructing the pond which I began digging out yesterday evening. This pond is purely for the ducks, who will soon be moving into the veg plot.
The weather was dull and drizzly, but I decided to ignore getting wet and carry on till I was finished.

Pond dug, liner ready

Lined with old carpet underlay.
Just a precaution as stones are rare in our soil.

In goes the water, straight from the water butt

Filling up nicely

So by midday the pond was well on its way to being finished. I had only been working on it for about six hours. It should be completed before dark... or so I thought.

It was 12:30 when I heard the sound of bleating from the sheep field. I went to investigate and here's what I found.

I phoned Sue, advising her that she might like to come down to the sheep field. While I was away, the geese decided to test the new pond. It seemed to meet with their approval.

We moved Ewe 00010 up to the stables as there was heavy rain forecast overnight. I had already set up a pen in readiness for this moment. When we got there, she promptly gave birth to lamb number three! This is unusual for Shetland sheep. 

The only other time one of our ewes gave birth to triplets we tried to adopt one onto another ewe. It didn't work out and we ended up bottle-feeding. At the time we decided that should the occasion arise again we would supplement feed. This means leaving the three lambs with the ewe, but bottle feeding all three as a top-up. Without this, mum's resources would be overstretched, especially as the lambs grow, and all four would be at risk.

But the ewes are not in tip-top condition this year. It has been a difficult year for lambing for everybody.

By the time everything had settled down it was nudging toward 3 o'clock in the afternoon. I returned to the pond, still determined to push on and try to get it finished.  I just needed to edge it with decking.

But it wasn't long before I was interrupted again. More bleating!

I phoned Sue again. "You might want to come down to the sheep field!"

For there was Ewe 0009, one of our badger-faced Shetlands, tending to a newborn pair of twin lambs. This was the first time that either of the badger-faced ewes had given birth to more than a single lamb. Both looked good and healthy. The badger-faced ewes give absolutely no hints that they are about to give birth. The lambs just appear! I am not complaining.

So five lambs in two and a half hours. 

Sue leads the ewe up to the stables using the lamb as the lure.

I was carrying the other lamb.

Each new birth was accompanied by bleating and baaing all round.

Even the rams were taking a keen interest.

By now the rain had really set in and I was glad to have got both mums and all the lambs safely into the stables. I mixed up some oats for the mums and set up a couple of hay racks. They would be hungry now.

The triplets were struggling to get milk and Sue could not get milk out of one teat. It is essential that the lambs drink in their first few hours, since the first milk contains colostrum from the ewe which transfers all her antibodies to the lambs.
The lambs were small and mum was looking a lot, lot skinnier than she was this morning.
We called a friend more experienced in teat management than us. She could come over and help but I would have to babysit her two grandchildren. Joy!

I survived an hour with a three and a five year old. I had never quite clicked what a poor message Cinderella gives girls about their aspirations in life.

The ewe's teats had cleared though one of the lambs was looking quite weak. Having said that, at any one moment any of the lambs was looking weak.
It was going to be a long night.

For the rest of the evening I busied myself in the kitchen making Chicken Tom Yam soup. One breast from the monster chickens went a long way and I have to say it tasted very nice. I cooked to the background music of a live band, for Sue had brought the Sugarbeats, the Smallholder Club's very own music group, over to the house for their practice.

Regular visits were made to check on the lambs. By now it was apparent that the weakest lamb was the last born of the triplets, one I had already named Flash due to the white streak across the top of his head. Oh, I forgot to say, we had to wait till the last lamb to get a female. All the rest are young rams, which is not the best news. Boys are always more troublesome.

Compared to the newborn lambs, Rambutan at two weeks old is looking like a giant! He had his final feed of the day at midnight. I fed some artificial colostrum to two of the triplets too, just to make sure they got enough of this vital ingredient and to keep them going through the night.
I set the alarm for 4.30am.

That was quite some day.

Is this how they moved the stones for Stonehenge?

Sunday 8th April 2018
A Friction-free Move
The ducks are moving into the veg patch and they will have a bunch of friends for a while as I shall soon be getting in a batch of Pekin ducks to raise for meat. They will all need accommodation so today’s task was to move a garden shed from the top paddock, where Rambo had been using it to hone his headbutting skills, into the veg patch. It would need some TLC too.

We managed to heave it onto a barrow cart but the soil was too wet and it just all sunk into the ground. Besides, this way we would have to pull the cart the long way round as we wouldn’t be able to take the shortcut through the gate. The whole thing was rather too unstable.

So Plan B was hastily hatched. We reverted to Stone Age technology, using some old fenceposts as rollers. This worked better but the battens that support the floor ran in the wrong direction and kept catching on each post as the shed rolled over them.

So Plan C was put into action, a cunning plan which made the most of the wet conditions. We managed to position two long decking boards under the shed and used them a bit like railway tracks. The shed slipped easily over their wet surface. Whenever we reached the end, I just tilted the shed and Sue pulled the boards further along.

cornering

In this way we quickly had the shed in the position we wanted it. It is as far away from the planned new duck pond as possible to encourage the ducks to stop off on their journey and forage for slugs.

While we did this the geese made the most of the gates being left open to wander out and discover the new pond I have put in at the back of the house. I can not leave a gate open for two seconds without the geese spotting it and making a break for it.

I rounded them up and herded them back into the stables, where they stopped briefly to admire my newly refurbished chicken house.

The toboganning sheep and other sheep adventures

Saturday 7th April 2018
Brown ram lamb has taken to the bath tub recently. Rambo is bemused.

Monster chicks, your time is up
The day started off with a bit of chicken culling. The time had come for some of the monster chicks as four of them met their maker. They have grown absolutely massive compared to the traditional breed meat birds we have been keeping. Two we jointed and two we kept whole for roasting. They were 3 and 3.4kg. Yes, kilograms, not pounds! I'll write a blog in the near future to summarise our experience of raising the monster chicks.

Fun and games with Rambutan
With Rambutan now two weeks old (how time flies) and looking strong, we decided it was time to move him and mum down to the paddock with the other ewes and last year's lambs.
The actual move was remarkably easy. Rambutan is being bottle fed, so he just followed me all the way down the land. The biggest difficulty was not tripping over him. And Ewe 0004 followed Rambutan.

There was the expected hustle and tussle when everybody met up again. This is always the most difficult time for the lamb as the ewes reacquaint themselves and sort out the pecking order. For maybe half an hour the lamb is vulnerable. Rambutan got butted over a couple of times but lambs bounce back up very effectively. However the young ram lamb was being a bit rough with him . I had considered this might happen. Luckily rams come with horns which in an emergency act as a good handle for catching hold of them. The only reason he had moved up with the ewes was because grass was in short supply in the top paddock, but now that spring is allegedly here that won't be an issue for much longer.

It was time for the older ram lamb to come back up to the top paddock with Rambo and brown ram lamb. For an hour or so he probably wished he had been gentler with Rambutan as the other too chased him around the paddock. Order was soon established though and no serious damage was done.

With that operation over and done, I headed for the veg plot where the soil was freshly worked and dry enough for me to plant my first early potatoes and my onion sets. The potatoes especially are a couple of weeks later going in than I would have liked, but sometimes in the UK you just have to bend with the weather.
I kept checking on Rambutan and was happy to see him following mum around the paddock, now separated from the rest of the flock. Everything had settled down after all the initial excitement.

I decided to take the dogs for a walk around the circuit path which passes the sheep. Boris and Arthur are fantastic farm dogs who have grown up with other animals. In a young lamb Arthur just sees the potential for another friend.
As we passed the sheep paddock, Rambutan came running over but he didn't stop at the electric fence. He carried on straight through it and started following me. The trouble with bottle feeding is that he now thinks I am his other mum.
I tried putting him back over the fence but every time he came back through. In the end I gave up and let him trot round the circuit with me and the dogs.  It must have been quite a sight! When we got back towards the farmhouse I put him over some metal hurdles to go back in with the flock and left them to it.

I briefly forgot about the sheep as somebody turned up to buy some of our turkey eggs for hatching out. I introduced them to Rambo, who turned on his charms, and we chatted about sheep and chickens and turkeys. It was at this point that the whole sheep moving plan went wrong. For our neighbour turned up on the doorstep holding Rambutan! He had become separated from mum again and was trying to get in with next door's four ram lambs.
I am not sure if he had actually got through the stock fence to next door, but they were worried about him if they took their hounds (their word, not mine) along the path, for they are not trained to be with livestock.

And so, for now, Rambutan and Ewe 0004 have returned to the back lawn. I shall have to come up with another plan!

Forcing Rhubarb

still Thursday 5th April 2018
Forcing Rhubarb
Just a quick one this.
We have lots of rhubarb plants, far too much for us to use every year. This is no bad thing though, since it means the plants are not over harvested. Rhubarb is a great plant because it basically looks after itself and is just about the first to poke its head out of the ground every year.
The advantage of perennial crops is that they are ready to go every year as soon as the sun warms the soil. They give a crop way before the other plants are even ready to go outside
The other big advantage of rhubarb is that it shades out everything else, so gives a virtually maintenance free bed.

This year I decided to try something I've never done before and force my rhubarb. This involves covering over a whole crown to deprive it of light. This causes the stems to shoot upwards and to grow pale pink, giving them a more delicate flavour than the more earthy rhubarb hit of the normal stems. It also gives a crop a couple of weeks earlier.

You can buy some very nice looking terracotta rhubarb forcers for fifty quid or more, but mine are hidden away behind the compost bins in one of the less attractive parts of the plot, so something more basic was called upon to do the job - upturned black plastic dustbins. I put a tyre on top of each to prevent them being blown over by the wind. Being black, I figured the bins would help raise the temperature inside as well as depriving the stems of light and giving them shelter from the wind.

The terracotta forcers usually have  a small hole in the top, maybe to give the rhubarb a small light source to reach for, but I decided to try my plastic bins without a hole. There was nothing to lose if it didn't work.

To cut to the chase, here are the results.

You can see the difference between the forced stems and those left to grow naturally. A very successful experiment I would conclude.

Forcing rhubarb like this does sap its energy, so I will take it easy on harvesting these two crowns any further and will choose different crowns to force next year.

Now for a rhubarb and orange crumble!

Friday 6th April
Is It Spring Yet?

I know I keep going on about it, but the weather so far this year has been pretty dreadful. Winter dragged on and Spring hasn't exactly hit the ground running.
We are now behind. Maybe as much as four weeks behind. Blossom is only just starting to appear, the soil is still wet and cold and seedlings have no stimulus to get growing.

But at least yesterday's lovely weather dried out the soil just enough to try the rotavator today. And a stiff warm breeze today continued to drive the moisture of the surface.

The sun didn't manage to appear until late afternoon, but the warm southerly breeze meant that the wet soil lifted to the top got a chance to dry out and I was able to rotavate for a second time in the evening.

Tomorrow I hope to get the new potatoes in and to plant the onion sets. Later than I would have hoped, but I'm sure everything will catch up by the end of the year.

Smelly Chicks

Thursday 5th April 2018
Smelly Chicks

With Sue due back today, a general tidy up was in order. After wrestling with the hoover for a while I headed outside.
Today was a rare one for 2018, a fine sunny day. I resisted the temptation to work the land though, hoping that today's sunshine and warm breeze would dry the soil enough to be rotavated tomorrow.
Even the polytunnel has been struggling to get warm so far this year, but today the temperature in there rose to over 90 in old money. That should kick all the seedlings into action.

The twenty chicks I brought home last week have been doing their utmost to mess out their cage and stink out the front hallway where they live. We usually keep them here for the first four weeks before moving them to larger and more airy accommodation in the garage, but I decided to speed up the process of getting them outside.
I needed to set something up where I could place the chicks while I cleaned out their cage. It needed a good scrub and a strong hose jet. So I set up the broody ring in the garage - I would need to do this anyway in a couple of weeks.
The chicks were quite happy in there. So happy in fact that I decided they can stay in there. To be on the safe side, they have an overhead heat lamp and the electric hen heat plate. That way they can choose which is most comfortable for them and if one fails the other will keep them warm enough.

SPLISH, SPLASH, SPLOSH

Sunday 1st April
Is this an April Fool's Prank?

Wet does not describe it!
The whole smallholding has basically been transformed into one of those very trendy wild swimming pools. Needless to say, the only animals enjoying it are the ducks and geese.

Piled onto the cold start we've had to the growing season, this is going to put everything back even further.

The wet weather job list
I have a long list of jobs to do on the smallholding, but luckily I have a separate list for very, very wet days, when the soil can't be touched and it is just too unpleasant to be working outside. Since I much prefer to be working outside, there are some jobs that have been on this list for an exceedingly long time.
Working in the polytunnel is always a good option for such days, but there is only so much tending to seedlings that I can do. Love them too much and they die.
So reluctantly I started mending one of the chicken houses which have been sitting in the garage. The space will be needed soon for rearing chicks. Mending chicken houses is a case of scraping and scrubbing all the surfaces, a quick coat of creosote on the outside, new roof felt, often new hinges and a few bits of wood replaced. I quite enjoy doing it but always put it off too long.
Here's my starting point for the current project.



Turkey eggs-it
I spent some of the day trying to sell turkey eggs and goose eggs on the internet, as well as our trio of Ixworth chickens. It's amazing how many people can't read your location, the price, or even what you are selling!
We usually sell them at school but they quickly build up in the holidays.
Anyway, I ended up with future orders for turkey eggs which people want for hatching. So the last of last year's offspring needed to go as she was the daughter of the stag. I caught her after dark, when you can just pick the birds off their perch rather than chasing them round a muddy, waterlogged pen. Turkeys are easy to dispatch and surprisingly easy to pluck, although doing it in the dim light of the stables added a degree of challenge.
Finally, it's been covered in a separate blog post, but Ewe 0004 was looking slightly better today.

... while one of the other ewes is looking very close to giving birth. This is the same ewe who looks very close to giving birth for weeks on end every year. I am checking on her every hour or so but praying that she does not choose such awful weather to go into labour.

Monday 2nd April

Splish, splash, splosh
Me and three dogs woke up one minute before the alarm to bottle feed Rambutan.
Yes, I did say 3 dogs - Sue has abandoned me for Lapland and left me with her friend's dog. We all went for a long walk (involving lots of splashing) although Charlie was useless at dyke jumping.

I delved into the list of wet day jobs and decided to clear the stable where Ewe 0004 had given birth to twin lambs not long ago. It needed sweeping and disinfecting in preparation for the possibility of another ewe being brought up closer to the farmhouse to give birth.
Then somehow I ended up digging about 20 metres of dyke. I didn't plan to do this. The small dyke hardly ever has water in and when it does it's a good time to check for blockages.
Halfway through this I literally skewered my thumb on a reed. I initially thought it had just stuck into the end of my thumb, but when I pulled it out it became apparent that it had actually penetrated about an inch!
It quickly started bleeding quite heavily and I hastened back to the house, sucking blood as I went. Fortunately the blood stopped flowing quite quickly but it was very painful.
Undeterred and with the thumb cleaned up I continued digging the dyke until darkness was falling.
The reed had actually gone in the top of my thiumb and come out  a couple of centimetres further down.
It didn't affect me doing big jobs, but I was unable to do anything fiddly.



Tuesday 3rd April
Keeping busy

Dogs fed and watered, chicks fed and watered, Rambutan bottle fed, chickens let out, fed and watered, ducks, geese and turkeys sorted, cats fed and watered, dishwasher on.

Thumb hurts!

Raining.

A morning of clumsy seed sowing followed by trying to joint a turkey without using the thumb on my dominant hand,

Then onto breadmaking - luckily the food mixer does the kneading now, 

Then cooking - turkey tikka.

The list of wet-weather jobs is gradually growing smaller but I could really do with getting on the land now.

Wednesday 4th April

With Sue away, the three dogs and two cats get to sleep on the bed. There's a little room left for me too.

Rambo and his friend got the big pumpkin today and quickly set about devouring it. Pumpkin seeds are an excellent natural wormer, which is a bonus.

The Muscovy ducks have been having the time of their lives lately, making their way down to the 'lake' every day. The sun appeared briefly today and they rested under the plum tree - this plum tree was overtaken by whatever it was grafted onto, so it is completely unproductive but is the most attractive tree in the orchard, especially when it comes into blossom. There is still not much blossom about this year. Everything is just so late.

-

Me and the dogs went on a long walk, though we had to abort when Charlie refused to cross the dyke.

Rumours of a resurrection would seem to be true

So here's a quick update on the sheep situation. After a poor prognosis from the vet, Ewe 0004 picked herself back up enough to deliver two live lambs, but the effort of the labour took it out of her.
Saturday 24th March 2018
After last night's surprise twins, Mum and both lambs were doing ok.

We were confident enough of their health to go out for the evening to the first meeting of the Fenland Smallholders Club Winemaking group.



We had a lovely evening, but a horrible shock was waiting for us when we got home. For one of the lambs was breathing its last few breaths. Despite our best efforts there was nothing to do to save it. It had seemed the strongest of the two.
Here is the last picture we have from its sadly short life.

Sunday 25th March 2018
We kept mum and the remaining lamb in the stables today, but mum is hardly eating and we have started to bottle feed the lamb.

Monday 26th March 2018

With mum still not eating I decided to move her and the lamb onto the back lawn. The lamb followed me out of the stable and into its new enclosure and mum followed the lamb. Straight away she started munching away at the grass and she even had a nibble on a mangel wurzel. The lamb is still being bottle fed.

Rain was forecast overnight so I put mum and lamb back in the stables overnight.

Tuesday 27th March 2018

A cold, soggy day. I constructed a shelter for the lamb to keep out of the wind and rain. Mum has taken another turn for the worse today. Things are not looking good for her and she looks like she has given up. I have come up with an exit plan for her should I think that she is suffering too much.
Meanwhile the lamb has been enthusiastically chasing a chicken around the pen all day!

Wednesday 28th March 2018
Ewe 0004 has not been seen to eat or drink for two whole days now. She occasionally gets up and wanders around her pen sniffing at the various food offerings but not being in the least bit tempted.
I think it is only having her lamb with her which is keeping her going.
At the lamb's midnight feed there was a heavy frost. Of course the sheep are adapted to deal with this, but I am not sure how a very sickly ewe is going to cope.

Thursday 29th March 2018
Seemingly oblivious to the heavy overnight frost, Rambutan the lamb was bouncing around his pen early morning.
Mum was licking the water from the hurdles - the first time I have seen her even drink since Monday.
I threw in a couple of mangel wurzel tops before I left for work and she actually had a very light nibble on the leaves.
Things remained the same when I returned for the lunchtime bottle feed, with Ewe 0004 still nibbling very lightly at the mangels and a little bit of straw - sometimes just a little bit of something really plain can be what we need to start a recovery, but I don't want to build up any hopes. Ewe 0004 has been up and down for too long now and every glimmer of hope seems to be quickly snuffed out by a downturn.
When I returned from work late afternoon, mum was walking around the pen much more and showing none of the adverse symptoms of recent days. She is obviously still weak and has lost a lot of weight and we are most definitely not out of the woods. But I am not giving up and it seems neither is she.
Friday 30th March 2018
Mum has been nibbling at various offerings today. A bit of mangel wurzel, a bit of cabbage, a bit of dried up old leaf, a bit of willow bark. She is clearly still not back to normal, but this is another slight improvement. She seems more assured on her legs and generally more alert. I don't want to get my hopes up, but things could be worse.
Saturday 31st March 2018
Ewe 0004 was eating grass for the first time today. Not a lot, but it was great to see her grazing again. She tried some of the soaked sugar beet pulp too.
Sunday 1st April 2018
Well, if you'd told me on Wednesday that Ewe 0004 would still be alive today, I would have taken it for some kind of sick April Fool's joke.
But she is. She has cabbage, willow, mangel wurzel, hay, grass, oats, sugar beet and carrots to choose from! She isn't exactly eating a lot but nibbles at bits and pieces.

I think she'll have company soon, hopefully not another sick ewe but the other fawn ewe is looking very, very pregnant indeed.

Monday 2nd April 2018
More improvements today. Rambutan goes from strength to strength. He runs over to me for milk four times a day, though he usually wants it about an hour before it is due.
Ewe 004 seems much stronger. She is confident on her feet and stamps the ground when the dogs appear to look at the lamb. She is eating various bits and pieces, from willow bark to banana skins to brassica leaves.
Tuesday 3rd April
If it weren't for Rambutan, I would try moving Ewe 0004 down to the paddocks with the rest of the ewes. But there is always a bit of head butting as they settle back in and this can be a worrying time for the lambs. Besides, with bottle feeding it makes sense to keep the pair close to the house. With all this recent rain, they may be the only way I can get the lawn mown for quite some time.

So that's it. I don't want to declare the problem over yet, but the future is looking a  lot brighter than a week ago.
Where we go from here with the sheep I do not know. If we carry on breeding then it is unlikely Ewe 0004 will stay with us. But that is a big IF.
We just feel that we are in beyond our depth. Even though Shetland sheep pretty much do it by themselves,there have still been significant worries every year. This is mainly down to our lack of experience, but that experience often comes through some very worrying times.
It is lovely having lambs each year and an economical way of getting sheep for meat, but at the same time we have to maintain our breeding flock which often involves having to keep males and females separate. This has implications for our land use, plus keeping horned rams means that we cannot afford the sheep with any sort of decent shelter, for it just gets destroyed.

So what if we don't continue to breed? Well, Rambo would have to go, which I would find hard. The older ewes would probably go too, maybe over a couple of years as that is a lot of mutton! We used to just get orphan lambs in each year to rear up. This worked well in terms of resting the land over winter but we often couldn't get them before the grass was knee high and going to seed. This was the main reason we decided to get our own flock.

But there is a third way. We could keep a non breeding stock of Shetlands, mainly for grass cutting and for wool. Then we could just bring in what we need for meat each year.

We have a few months to decide, so no knee-jerk reactions.