It's beginning to feel a bit like Chr...

Wednesday 6th December 2017
Poultry Explorers
The monster chicks are faring well. They seem to have massive crops, which allows them to stuff in even more food at once than I am capable of! A tragic and unforeseeable accident meant that sadly we lost two but it could have been worse as I found them in time to save two others.

At this time of year I let the chickens into the veg plot and the soft fruit patch. I like to see them scratching around or huddling together under blackcurrant bushes or asparagus fronds. They can't do too much damage as there are few crops showing above the ground. If I can I like to turn the soil so they can clear it of larvae and eggs.
The geese don't get to go into the veg plot yet, as they are adept at finding root vegetables and have a liking for parsnips in particular. Instead though they get the run of the orchard while there is no fruit to stretch up and pull off. They can be surprisingly intelligent in this regard. I have seen them yanking on branches to dislodge apples clinging on for their lives.

Nice to see the three new Silkies exploring

The older hens stick closely together with Cocky

The young Muscovies are getting big now.

They give the run around every night and often just won't go into their houses.

The bigger males will be 'going' in the near future.

Thursday 7th December 2017

A Christmas gathering with good people

I wish the Cambridgeshire Self Sufficiency Group were based a little closer to us, for they are a lovely group of friendly people. Sue and I get along to as many events as we can.

I don't do many Christmassy things, but we were keen to get along to their Christmas Get-Together. It is always worth making time to spend it with good people. There are not enough of them in the world.

Friday 8th December 2017
By the time I get back from work it's pretty much getting dark at this time of year. So I took the time to admire the sunrise this morning.

Saturday 9th December 2017

More Christmassy stuff
I don't know what's wrong with me, but Saturday saw Sue and I at another Christmas event, the Green Back Yard Christmas Fayre. I must be going soft in my old age

Maybe it's the early morning frosts and the icy, clear air going to my brain.

Before we went out, Sue put some lamb neck in the slow cooker along with a selection of our own dried beans and some of our vegetables. This type of food is just perfect for warming the soul on a cold, dark winter's evening.

I don't often do 'what we had for dinner' piccies, but here you go.

We got to The Green Back Yard in Peterborough just past midday. The air in town was somewhat warmer than on the smallholding out in the rural fens.

I certainly don't do Christmas consumerism but I did enjoy seeing some of the crafts. I got a few ideas to steal too.

A simple basketwork angel and a willow Yuletide tree decorated with greenery

Winding down for winter

Monday 13th November 2017
A birdy day
The gorgeous, crisp weather continues.
I spent the day cleaning the chicken houses and liberally applying diatomaceous earth to keep spider mite and lice at bay.
After that I topped up the bird feeders. They've been empty for a while as I didn't want to be feeding the rats, but now that the annual incursion seems to be under control I can revert to feeding the needy birds.

Tuesday 14th November 2017
Thank god for Kevlar gloves!
Most of my day was spent pruning gooseberry bushes and I didn't even get the job finished. I was on my hands and knees clearing under the bushes and clearing the lower branches, many of which had drooped and started to root in the ground.
Last year we got very few gooseberries. Let's hope my efforts are rewarded this coming year. The rather messy looking cardboard you see on the ground is how I keep the grass down between the soft fruit bushes. It doesn't look too pretty but it is very effective and the soil underneath is kept in excellent condition. I mulch on top of the cardboard and it just disappears.
I had plenty of help from the chickens who enjoyed scratching about in the newly disturbed earth and litter. They do an important job clearing away bug eggs and larvae from under the bushes.

Rambo goes into action
For the first time today I actually saw Rambo getting it on with one of the ewes. Number 3 it was. We should really use a raddle, which I swear is a made up word from ram and saddle. It is basically a coloured marker so you can see when the ram has done his job. We don't bother with this as we are fairly laissez faire about it, but I have to admit it would be nice to know more precisely what to expect in 145 days time. Note for next year.

Welcome return of the Tree Sparrow

With the recent cold weather, winter bird numbers are starting to build up on the smallholding. There were 6 Reed Buntings today and 14 Meadow Pipits.

I was delighted to see a Tree Sparrow back and a Greenfinch (both sadly scarce birds now). Presumable they have already been lured by the freshly topped up feeders.

Wednesday 15th November 2017

Fog

Not much to see.

This was about as good as visibility got today.

Friday 17th November 2017

Fire in the sky

These days I have to dash home from work to take the dogs for a walk and give the chickens their afternoon feed. Today there was an amazing sunset, gone as quickly as it came. Unfortunately the phone battery went dead just as it was developing, but you get the idea.

Saturday 18th November
A New Dust BathHere's the special dust bath which I built the chickens. The paddling pool is full of dry sand with diatomaceous earth mixed in, so that when the poultry decide to use it for dust bathing it will kill any lice and creepy crawlies hiding in their feathers. Unfortunately the chickens don't quite know how to use it yet. In fact, Arthur is showing more interest.

Sheep moving day
Main job for the day was sheep worming which went very smoothly. After this we separated the ram lambs from the ewe lambs as the paddock up here is not large enough to keep five sheep going in winter time.

Maybe some good news for the turkeys

With this completed so easily, there was time to move the chicken pen. I thought this would be a four person job, but it was surprisingly easy (once I'd removed the ground pegs!).

This gives the Ixworth chicken trio some new ground to go on, but more importantly makes space for a new turkey enclosure. The turkeys will appreciate the nettle growth. They are about the only livestock which effectively deals with these.

My hope is that I might be able to let a couple outside the cage each day and that they will hang about because the other birds are still there. I can't do this at the moment as their housing is too close to the boundary fence and next door's dogs. It would be lovely to let them free-range again, at least in a limited manner.

First Frost of Winter

Monday 6th November 2017
First proper frost
The first proper frost of the year. I got up early to see the sunrise. These clear, crisp winter mornings are one of my favourite times of the year.

A Silkie Swap
One of the Silkie hens which we purchased a few weeks back has started crowing good and proper. It can be hard to tell what sex birds are until they start either crowing and jumping on the girls or, alternatively, cooing and laying eggs

No problems though. The people we bought from were happy to swap for another and with them being a bit older now it was actually just possible to be sure what we were getting. When I saw the hens, I could indeed tell which was which - they had no wattle whatsoever and the cockerel had longer, shinier feathering in his tail.

The couple I was picking up from were incredibly chatty and I ended up staying over an hour. They had poultry everywhere - it is surprisingly easy to breed lots of animals or birds when you first start out, but you need an end plan.

Eventually I returned with not one, but two replacement silkies. Both black to go with the 'partridge' one we picked up last time. Hopefully they will settle in quickly and be going broody early next year.

The buzz of a brambling
On the wildlife front, 4 Whooper Swans were in with the swan flock this morning and another 7 flew over the farm. A brambling was buzzing from the birches, the first of the winter and a clear cold weather arrival.






Tuesday 7th November 2017
Medlar time
Rain promised. Never quite materialised.

The adult Shetland sheep in the furthest paddock.

I have left this paddock ungrazed for a yeat to give it a rest, so there's plenty for them to munch.

The medlars are just about ready now. They are an odd looking fruit, with the nickname of 'dog's arse' in French! They are inedible until they have bletted, which means that you need to wait until the flesh is bitten by the frost or softens until it resembles mushy apples.

Not really selling them, am I?

The tree is a good-looking orchard tree, quickly acquiring the look of an old tree and bearing wonderful white blooms in springtime.

When the medlar fruits hang on amongst the yellowing leaves, nothing could be more autumnal. But the chickens and ducks have started jumping up to get at the lowest fruits now. They are ready for picking. The medlar jelly that Sue makes is wonderful.

Wednesday 8th November 2017

Grey Wagtail!!!

Only the second ever that I've seen on the farm. Even better, it was darting around the drinking pool and new pond which I recently constructed, its tail lifting up and down as if on a pulley with an overenthusiastic campanologist on the other end. What a great start to the day. 

The end of the day wasn't bad either.

Saturday 11th November 2017
Romanesco

Look what I've grown. A brassica which has made it through to harvest and actually tastes nice! It has taken me several years, but I think I have finally narrowed my brassica list down to what usually grows successfully and what I actually like eating.

Next year I shall be growing: Red Cabbage; Scarlet Kale; Cavolo Nero; Calabrese; Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Romanesco. I shall not be growing sprouts, green cabbages or cauliflowers, which is pretty much the traditional list of brassicas grown by gardeners.

Carrots hanging on
I dug up more carrots today. They should really be out of the ground by now, but the freezers are full so they can take their chances. Covering with fleece has prevented 99% of the carrotfly carnage which destroyed previous crops. The voles haven't found them this year (it seems to be a poor vole year) and the slugs have only taken the occasional munch.


Other than that, it was just general tidying up of spent veg beds today. The ground is now wetter and colder and compacts easily so it's best to keep off the soil as much as possible.

Chicken Fried Lice

Sunday 22nd October 2017

Rounding up the meat birds

***Warning*** This post concerns itself with the slaughter and processing of chickens for meat. It's up to you if you choose to read on.

While we were in animal moving mood, some of the Ixworth chickens have now passed 24 weeks old. Time to move up to the stables ready for...

24 weeks may not sound like a long life, but commercial chickens are kept for as little as 7 weeks.

In fact Sue was talking to a chicken farmer recently who rears meat birds for Aldi and Morrisons. They are reared inside and they are used for 'processing'. They go off at 4 weeks old!

That's why we choose to rear our own birds.

Whilst the economics of this are clear, the ethics are much less so. It's not how long the chicken lives that gets me, for I am not sentimental about it. But it is the quality of their life. As little exercise as possible, as much food as possible and bred to produce so much breast meat that they can hardly waddle around, many succumbing to lameness.

In order for our birds at Swallow Farm to have a longer life we have to sacrifice the large breast. Ixworths produce much more leg meat instead. We could keep them longer, but the danger is that the meat turns tough and the skin goes rubbery. Besides, we do have to take feed costs into account and as the birds grow larger they take up more and more housing space too.

Anyway, back to moving the birds. Catching them during the day would be a nightmare. Ixworths are naturally quite a wary bird, especially once they have seen one or two of their mates being caught and carried away. So instead I pick them out of the chicken house once they have gone to bed. They are much more docile then although they still manage to shuffle to the impossible to reach corners. I managed to catch ten this way. The other two I caught by surprise the next morning.

While I was doing this, Sue was cooking up and straining crab apples ready to make crab apple jelly and toffee apple jelly.
There's always something to do here on the smallholding.

Monday 23rd October 2017
A day of disgustingness
We rear our chickens thinking ahead to killing day, for killing and plucking, gutting and butchering takes quite a while.
So the eggs go in an incubator about 7 months before a school holiday.

We have become very efficient at this process now. We don't relish it but it has to be done if we want to eat chicken.
I do the killing. dislocating their neck using the broomstick method. This is quick and humane and pretty much fool-proof.

One of the meat birds ready to be plucked

The bigger birds which we will have as a whole roast chicken we dry pluck, but this is fiddly and not practical for all of the birds.
The rest we dunk into a huge pan of water. Temperature and dunking time are important. We dunk for 40 seconds at 61 degrees Celsius. After this, the feathers virtually fall off. The reason we don't do this for the best birds is that it does slightly spoil the appearance of the skin.
Any birds not being kept for roasting are jointed (Sue's job), vacuum packed and frozen.

To do ten birds took us a long morning. (Two got lucky and went back to the chicken pen to grow on a bit more)

As I often say, smallholding is not always glamorous.
As if killing and processing chickens is not unglamorous enough, we had two extra irritations to cope with today. Sometimes the chickens have a few lice on them. They don't seem to show any distress, but obviously it's better if they don't have them. The dunk and pluck method kills them all quickly, but when we dry pluck some of the lice choose to crawl off the chicken and onto the plucker! Sitting down in the living room when the job is done and feeling lice crawling over your skin is not nice, not nice at all.

Obviously the welfare of our birds is important to us, so I have now built a covered dust bathing area for the chickens, with a plastic paddling pool filled with sand and diatomaceous earth, which is the best product for killing all manner of creepy-crawlies.

There's more disgustingness though.
For the Muscovy ducks which are inhabiting one of the stables (because they are persistent wing peckers) had a guest to dinner today. When I opened up the stable door, there was a rat brazenly feeding on their grain. We expect the odd rodent or two after harvest time but I don't like to see then in with the poultry during the day. This is one of the reasons why I don't like to keep the poultry indoors.

So the Muscovies have been moved out. How we cope with the wing-pecking I haven't worked out, but separation is not really an option any more.

FREEDOM!!!!! The trials and tribulations of poultry keeping.

Avian Flu Restrictions Lifted
The poultry are free! Restrictions are lifted. They can stretch their wings, explore, scratch around wherever they want (but NOT in my veg plot!)

The chickens helping me clean up the land, fertilising as they go.

Goslings
The geese hatched their eggs with impeccable timing to tie in with the end of the avian flu restrictions. So yesterday they took their four goslings out on their first ever excursion from the stables. Four goslings from four nests is not the greatest of returns, but is completely typical of geese. They sit tight for weeks on end, only to abandon their nests as soon as the first goslings emerge, whichever nest that might be from.

Focus not sharp, but I was risking my life approaching this close!

Unfortunately two goslings were lost before they left the nest - just sad little bundles of yellow feathers left in the nest. Sadder still, one of the four which was waddling around yesterday was presumable squashed in the nest last night, so we are down to three.

And then there were three

Life expectancy for goslings is not good. In past years we have lost them to crows, in water buckets, behind piles of wood. Even with seven adults looking after three youngsters, their chances are still not good. If they can, they will find a way to expire! The strongest and luckiest survive.

The alternative would be to keep them in the stables. This would be safer for them but the practicalities of food and water would be very messy, even if it were possible for us to get into the stable without being set upon!
The only other option would be to remove them from the parents and set up an enclosure with a heat lamp in the same way that we rear the meat chickens which we hatch in the incubator.

Anyway, any geese that do make it through will be considered a bonus. In previous years we didn't really mind, but now that we have tasted one of them we are keen that some survive! I know that sounds a little harsh, but that is an inherent part of smallholding for self-sufficiency.
The geese have to earn their keep. They achieve this partly by mowing the lawns, though they do get a little messy at times, and in part with their bounty of eggs which feed us handsomely for a couple of months with quite a few left over to sell.
If we fail to rear any goslings to adulthood, I think we will buy in some geese later in the year specifically for meat.

A Disappointing Hatch
Since I've already mentioned the meat chickens, I should mention that our last incubator hatching was disastrous. Three out of sixteen eggs hatched successfully, which is a woeful percentage. Next time we'll go back to the recommended humidity level. We had upped it on the advice of others and it didn't work.
Humidity levels in the incubator are very important as it affects evaporation through the shell and the size of the air sac which develops at one end of the egg. From memory, if the air sac is too small then there won't be enough air for the chick to breathe before it can break free. Too little humidity and the shell and inner membrane can be too tough to break out of.

We are now collecting Ixworth eggs as quickly as they can lay them to get another batch going in the incubator.
The first batch of eight birds are doing well now. One developed a bad leg and couldn't stand for a while. I thought we would lose it but it seems to have made a good recovery.

Perky Turkeys
In one of the other stables, the two turkey hens still have poults to look after. Unfortunately we have lost two - all part of natural selection - but the remaining five look very strong and healthy. (But so did the other two until they went rapidly downhill).
I am just urging them to grow, for every day they survive their chances get better.

Muscovies
Finally there are the Muscovy duck eggs. One duck has now been sitting for 34 days. Muscovy eggs have an unusually long incubation period - 35 days. So tomorrow is D-day.
We have tried to put Elvis onto another dozen duck eggs but she does not seem so broody this year and I'm not sure she is ready to sit. Maybe she is just getting too old for all the hassle. I would far rather hatch ducklings under a bird than in an incubator as the rearing is taken care of for me and ducklings seem more hardy outside than any of the other young birds.

Egg Thief!
Finally on the subject of poultry, at this time of year our egg production always seems to plummet. I have been in the habit of finding excuses in the weather, but I have slowly come to suspect the crows which, for the last two years, have nested in the ash trees. The drop in eggs seems to be closely correlated to their nesting.
So yesterday I loosely covered the entrances to the chicken houses with grates and hey presto! Seven eggs. Crows are super intelligent and will eventually work out that the new arrangement is not a threat to them, so I will hang some old CDs over the doorways. Apparently this is an effective deterrent and doesn't bother the less intelligent chickens who just blunder straight through the obstruction.

So that's it. Successes and failures. Life and death. Smallholding in a nutshell.

A Springtime Catch-Up

No blog posts for a while. I won't apologise. It's not through laziness but through business.
It really is all go on the smallholding at this time of year. Dawn till dusk working the soil, sowing seeds, mowing lawns. Then there are baby animals imminent and chicks galore waiting to hatch. Plus all the routine work.
So instead of my usual day by day post, here's a catch up across the smallholding.

Firstly, the weather. April has been warm and sunny, a perfect start to the growing season. We could do with one night of rain now though!

The 'Family'

Gerry has caught his first rabbit of the year and is now catching at least one daily. He sometimes brings one back for the dogs, particularly Arthur our young jackadackadoodle. It was just such a gift that caused the first ever brief fight between him and Boris who has finally realised that fresh rabbit is actually quite a tasty treat. They quickly made up.

I'm sorry if anybody reading this is feeling sorry for the cute little bunny-wunnies, but I find it hard to feel sympathy for an animal which takes great delight in digging up my freshly planted garden shrubs and flowers. Besides, it saves on the animal feed bills.

Boris and Arthur have been enjoying the life of Riley lately. I discovered a supplier of knuckle bones who sell a whole sack full for under a tenner. These should keep the dogs busy for quite some time.

Most delightfully, a year and a half into his life, Arthur has finally realised how much fun it is playing with a ball. He bounces around with sheer joy at his new discovery.

Poultry
The farm fowl are all back outside now, albeit with a few restrictions in place. The geese make regular trips back into the stables to lay. They are sharing two nests this year.
We collected the first 60 eggs or so as they are Sue's favourite egg for eating and we managed to sell quite a few of them, which will have gone a long way to offsetting the costs of feeding the geese while they were imprisoned inside.

Caught in the act by The Silver Stag

The turkeys are laying too. Again we collected the first couple of dozen eggs, but the hens quickly started sitting for long periods. Currently two nests are set up next to each other and two birds seem to have settled on them. I will be very happy if they hatch any young. We would like to keep about six for meat, but any more than that should be fairly easy to sell as chicks to fellow smallholders wanting to rear them.
In the same pen, the Muscovy Ducks are creating a sizeable clutch of eggs too. Last year, letting the duck hatch out her own eggs proved unsuccessful whereas Elvis, our broody hen, managed to rear all of her ten successfully. So that is the plan again this year. I would like to get two batches hatched out over the year as the Muscovy Ducks are the tastiest of birds, as well as being rather charming inhabitants of the poultry pen.
Last but not least we have started the cycle of hatching out chicks. These are collected from our trio of Ixworths and will be raised for the table. The first hatching only delivered eight healthy chicks, which was a bit disappointing. We have started collecting the eggs for the second batch in the incubator. Hopefully this lot will do better.

The chickens were absolutely delighted to go back outside. I herded them down the land to their pen and they instantly set about dust bathing and scratching around. Their egg production has gone right up again too and it is lovely to have them attending to my every move as I dig in the veg garden.

Last years ram lambs tucking into a nice piece of willow

Just going by their tummies,

it's looking like a 3-2-1-0 again this year.

Sheep
We have brought the four Shetland ewes down to the stables in readiness for lambing, which was due anytime from Friday onwards. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long.
Rambo has settled in with the three wethers (last year's male lambs, no longer 'intact') but he likes to show them who is boss occasionally. There are enough of them to share the hassle and they have enough space to escape it.


Yesterday we went to a sheep day run by Mick at CSSG. We had a fantastic day and it was great to finally be properly shown some of the techniques which we have so far just been using common sense to achieve. We haven't been doing anything dreadfully wrong, but I know I will be more confident from now onwards.

Bees
Sue's department. She is very happy with how the two colonies are faring at the moment. They have come through the winter strongly and the queens are laying well. One hive already has a super over the brood box where the bees can make honey for us. The second hive should have enough brood in to extend upwards this week.
All around us the rape is in flower. There seems to be more this year than ever. Probably something to do with subsidies and not a lot to do with need. This means that the bees will be well fed but their honey will need taking off and processing quickly before it sets like concrete.
At least we now have the tools to cream the honey which stops it setting solid.

Fruit and Veg
Fruit
Pruning is finished, moved, new bushes and canes are planted and mulched, blackberries are tied in to new supports and the raspberry beds have had an overhaul. Mr Rotavator has done a brilliant job tidying up the strawberry beds. Leaves are unfurling and buds are bursting. We should get bumper crops of everything this year.
The fruit trees are coming into blossom and the weather has been good for pollination.
We have already harvested mountains of rhubarb and we managed to sell a fair amount which made a small contribution to the coffers. We don't charge much, but I would rather people enjoyed it than it went to waste every year. Rhubarb plants are dead easy to grow, even easier to propagate and they shade out all weeds. The perfect crop!

We have had both mowers out and they are both still working. The veg patch starts to reveal its plan once the top is taken off the winter grass growth and the beds are cleared and worked.













Veg plot
The soil is warming up and drying rapidly. Working it is a delight at the moment and I have been working hard to get all the weeds out and prepare the beds for planting. Broad beans, early potatoes, parsnip seeds, garlic and onion sets are in the ground already. In the next week there'll be a lot more crops being sown.

The garlic is doing well.

I have now sown parsnips down the rows.

These two crops always do very well together and

the garlic is out before the parsnips take over the space

If we don't get any rain very soon I'll have to consider watering just so that the young seedlings don't wither and die before they can get their roots deep enough.

Polytunnel
The early potatoes in the polytunnel will be ready soon and the mangetout are rapidly growing. I am anticipating the first flowers and pods very soon. My second sowing of carrots has germinated well, unlike the first and my turnip rows are already shading out the weeds.
The polytunnel is full of seed trays at this time of year, young plants being raised either to go in the tunnel beds or to go outside later.
Today I start making my rosemary oil which I am hoping will be my chief weapon of destruction when it comes to spider mites this year.

Birdlife on the farm
Our winter visitors have all but moved on now and we are still awaiting the arrival of most of our summer visitors. Every evening I anticipate the chattering of swallows in the skies above the veg patch but as yet they are still not back.
Our resident birds are taking full advantage of the early start that braving the English winter gives them. The Little Owls are back in the hollow Ash tree again and the Pied Wagtails are back under the pallets. Crows, Woodpigeons, Blue and Great Tits are all nesting in the Ash trees while Blackbirds, Stock Doves, Song Thrushes and Robins hide away in the ivy which clambers up the trees.
A pair of Linnets has appeared and I am very pleased to see Greenfinches occasionally visiting the feeders, though the Tree Sparrows are not around so far this year.
It's been a good spring for Reed Buntings and Yellowhammers which continue to frequent the feeders, both near the house and the feeding station I have set up down in the young woodland.