High levels of Ractivity

I do my very, very best to work hand  in hand with nature, but just sometimes our human activities tip the scales and create an imbalance.

There is an all too common belief amongst a vast majority of Britain's landowners - by which I mean primarily farmers, but also gamekeepers and, to be fair, smallholders and gardeners - that anything which comes onto our land without being invited is to be killed.

Be it rare birds on grouse moorland, foxes, hares, moles or deer, birds or beetles, there seems to be an uncontrollable urge to get rid.

I am no idealist. I realise that the countryside is managed for our needs. But there is a balance to be struck, for Britain's wonderful wildlife was in most cases here before we were and deserves a place to live and thrive.

But some creatures are, in certain circumstances, without a doubt intolerable and have to be treated as pests.
Slugs for one! They are an important part of our British fauna, but in the context of a vegetable plot, a manufactured environment, their population can cascade out of control. I don't use slug pellets but rely on night time forays and the day time duck squad to control numbers.

The pest I want to focus on today is RATS.

I did once sit and watch a colony of rats in a woodland setting and they were quite charming, but in the context of a smallholding they are not quite so desirable.
They are not helped by their long, bare skin tails and their protruding incisors which make them look, well, ratty.

When we moved onto the farm there was a huge rodent problem. The previous incumbents had done just about everything they could to make the place as welcoming to rats as possible.
It didn't take us long to get the situation under control. For most of the problem can be sorted by limiting food sources, clearing debris so rats have to cross open spaces and casuing lots of disturbance as rats are neophobic (they hate anything new).

But living amongst arable fields which are usually wheat and keeping poultry, we are always going to have to be on our guard against rats moving in. Why don't we want them?
For starters, they carry some very nasty diseases. They are destructive too, gnawing their way through anything if there is food on the other side. Worse than this, they will take young poultry and will actually eat young birds alive as they roost at night. We lost several ducklings this year which were in an enclosed stable as a rat managed to squeeze under the gap in the door.
The rats can be a pest in the veg garden too. If they get to the sweetcorn before it ripens they can take out the whole crop in a couple of nights. This happened this year.

For quite a few years we relied on the targeted use of poisons. Whenever we saw evidence of rat activity (I call it ractivity) we would fill up bait boxes and within a week the problem would usually disappear.

This year we had an excellent talk on pest control at the Fenland Smallholders Club. What struck me most was the move away from a reliance on poisons to a more traditional approach of trapping alongside good practice as discussed above.
So I invested in five Fenn traps and made boxes to house them to protect against catching non-target species such as hedgehogs.

The fen traps do their job very well. 

I don't like killing any animals, but this is necessary.

Unfortunately our switch in approach has coincided with an unusually bad year for rats. It's not because of the change in approach though, for this increase in the rat population is being reported by all the other smallhodlers I know. It is far more likely down to an exceptionally mild winter last year.

The traps are working, but the rats are clever.
They were avoiding passing through the wooden tunnels (with trap hidden inside) when I placed them in their runs, so now I am placing bait on the traps too. I am just using the same food I feed the chickens, a mix of grains and pulses. I make sure there is no chicken food left at night, which forces the rats to risk that which is in the traps.

As you can see the rats often manage to get the food without treading on the traps!

But we are catching enough.

I am catching on average one rat every day or so, but they have learnt to get at the food without treading on the trap. Instead they burrow underneath so that the food drops through. Clever little rascals.

A couple of dead rats placed out for 

the crows and owls

When I do catch a rat, I leave it on a gate post and it mysteriously vanishes.  I think the crows and the barn owls take them.
This is the good thing about not using poisons, I don't have to worry about harming other wildlife.

I think the current very, very wet ground will cut the population down and a nice cold winter would not go amiss. In the meantime, we are keeping abreast of the problem and I am sure we will see a return to lower levels of ractivity soon enough.

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.

Hedgehog Poo

28th August 2016
Little chicks set loose into big wide world
The little chickens, destined for the table, were let out of their pen today to take their chances with the rest of the poultry. We were not too worried about them, for the chicken enclosure is very large and there is plenty of space for everyone. With there being eleven of them, it was unlikely any one individual would get picked on.

As we expected, they made themselves at home very quickly. They are confident little things.

The reason for them losing their protective barrier is that the Muscovy ducks (also destined for the table, maybe sooner rather than later if they don't start behaving) have been a real pain to put to bed for a few nights. So we have moved their house to a corner and set up the barriers to funnel them toward the door.

A Reed Warbler stops off for a visit
Fresh easterly winds today were accompanied by sporadic showers, so it wasn't a surprise to spot a couple of migrant birds on the farm. Best was a smart Reed Warbler hopping around the herb patch. A close encounter with a Barn Owl at chicken bedtime was a welcome surprise too.

29th August
Run Rabbit, Run Rabbit...
I've been attempting to catch rabbits for ages but, despite me trying to get into the rabbit's mind, they are never tempted by what I put in the traps. In fact, I'd given up baiting the traps and shut all the doors, hoping that maybe they would become familiar with the traps and no longer be so wary of them.
But yesterday I decided to set up a couple of traps right next to one of the rabbit burrows under the hollow ash tree.
This morning, bingo! I've not handled wild rabbits much and it kicked more strongly than I thought and managed to escape. Sorry, but I'm not sentimental about rabbits.

My six monthly hospital check is coming up soon and it's always a bit of a worry. This one is a bigger three yearly 'investigation' so I've been wandering around not getting much done for the last couple of days.
At least it's been a chance to step back and spend some time appreciating our achievements here on the smallholding. I've been carrying the camera around too.

One of our honey bees deep inside a pumpkin flower

One of the sunflowers that made it, much appreciated by the bumble bees

The pumpkin patch is coming

along nicely

I think this is a Lesser Stag Beetle,

accidentally disturbed when I moved a large log

30th August
Vermin!
Another rabbit caught, or the same one again. This time it didn't get so lucky as I managed to quickly dispatch it. Arthur may be a sweet little dog, but the terrier in him appreciates a bit of wild food. Whereas Boris just wanted to play with his new rather macabre furry toy, Arthur soon claimed it for himself and set about tucking in.
Other rodents have been busy on the farm too. It's a shame they can be so destructive. They are very welcome to live in the young woodland or the long grass areas, the dykes or the sheep field, if they could only stay away from the farmhouse end of the smallholding. I have been trapping plenty of field mice and voles in the polytunnel. There must be thousands of them around for me to catch so many.
I topped up the rat bait stations yesterday too and the bait was all gone today. It is important to hit them hard when they move out of the fields so they don't start breeding and get established.
I have some excellent bait stations where you can monitor the amount of bait taken without having to disturb anything.


Welcome wildlife
Other wildlife is much, much more welcome though, even the hobby which had a successful raid today snatching one of the young swallows from the air. The swallows in the chicken feed shed have a very late brood, but it shouldn't be too long before they fledge. There were five eggs but I don't think there are five chicks in there now.
It is amazing that they will be flying to Africa so soon after they have taken to the wing for the first time.



Hedgehog poo!
Down in the young woodland I came across a rather unfamiliar dropping today. About 4cm long, all shiny and black and blue. It was obviously mostly composed of beetle wing cases. Back in the house I consulted a book which confirmed what I thought, HEDGEHOG POO! Fantastic!





31st August
An early start and an unwelcome drive down to London for my hospital check-up. It is not the most comfortable of procedures but it has to be done.

Back on the farm I had to take it easy for the day. The flowers in the veg patch are coming good now.

In the stable, Priscilla is enjoying clucking over her two chicks. Priscilla has always spent most of her time down near the stables and I suspect her two offspring will be the same.

Farewell summer
Tomorrow it is September. Even worse than the demise of summer is the fact that I have to go back to work!

One Lonely Sister - Disheartened by the Sweetcorn

I have written about the Three Sisters system of growing before.
For those who missed it, here's a quick resume.
Grow sweetcorn, squashes and climbing beans together. They all have different needs for light and nutrients and all help each other. It is a system used by Native American Indians.

Of course, it is very trendy, especially when you select Cherokee Trail of Tears beans to grow, for this makes it sound even more authentic. While Cherokees are, reportedly, a good bean to grow, so are many other French beans. I prefer Cobra, which sounds pretty authentic in a desert context, though it of course inhabits the other India!

But this system of companion growing is designed to use the same land year after year in a completely different climate and soil type to what we experience in Britain. I have tried it and it does not work for me. The beans never do well, or if you plant them too much earlier than the corn then the corn never makes it. So I have been sticking to Two Sisters growing. Small groups of corn with pumpkins and squashes rambling in between. It has worked well, except that in cooler years, or if the sweetcorn gets off to a slow start, the cobs are not ripe before the wheat field next door is harvested.

The result is disheartening to say the least. I'm not sure if it's the rats or the field mice (I suspect a bit of both, and maybe a bit of rabbit thrown in), but they devastate the crop before it is ripe enough to harvest. They even have the nerve to chew through the husk material to see if the corn is ripe. If not, they leave it till later, irrevocably damaged.

Looking on the bright side, at least we've enough sweetcorn in the freezer from last year that we won't run out. Even if we do, we've plenty more vegetables to choose from. That's the nature of growing your own. Every year some things go mad while others disappoint. Just look at my courgette failure this year for a good example.

On the other bright side, Rambo is enjoying the corn leaves and the stem and roots will go back into the soil and give it body.

And on the third bright side, the squashes seem to be coming good and nothing seems to eat them.

But next year the already depleted Two Sisters will be going down to One Lonely Sister. I am going to experiment with a new variety of sweetcorn, allegedly a supersweet, non-hybrid variety which ripens early. But to be on the safe side, I shall again be growing some in the polytunnel and the rest in my mixed vegetable beds outside, away from the field and in the more protected environs of the main veg plot.

Sweetcorn at risk from a plague of rodents?

Every year I give you a photo of a huge combine harvester looming out of the dust and rumbling past the edge of our garden. Well not this year, for the air was still and the combine was for some reason much quieter.
Before I knew it, the wheat field next to us looked like this.

 The very next day it looked like this.

Nowhere to hide

Last year this spelled curtains for my sweetcorn crop. We quickly harvested what was ripe, but the rest got devoured overnight by field mice and/or rats, which flee the openness of the freshly cut field dodging the watchful eyes of kestrels and buzzards, and head straight onto our farm.

A kestrel and a rook captured in the skies above the
newly harvested field. Rooks are uncommon on the farm.

Last year five traps in the polytunnel caught five field mice the morning after the straw was baled up. It's not nice and they are beautiful creatures, but I have to do something to protect my crops. So two days ago had me rushing about setting mouse traps and laying rat poison (if you hit them hard straight away, it saves much bigger problems later on and minimises the amount of poison getting into the ecosystem).
This is not pretty stuff, but it is part of the reality of rural life.

So this morning I rushed out to check the traps and to check my sweetcorn, for it has been slow this year and none of it is yet ready for harvest. Just one vole in the polytunnel, which may explain the nibbled carrot tops I found yesterday and so far no damage to the sweetcorn. We'll see what happens over the next couple of days. Fingers crossed.

Sweetcorn decimated

Just a quick one. Thank goodness we harvested these when we did.



192 sweetcorn cobs in a wheelbarrow

For, although some of them had not had sufficient time to properly ripen, they certainly ended up better than these....

















As predicted, the harvesting of the fields drove the rats across the dyke, with catastrophic results for the sweetcorn. Fortunately, they don't touch any of the other crops. Besides, they've started taking the bait I put down, so the problem should soon be eradicated.


No need for the Pied Piper.

This was the view from the bedroom window when we woke up on Tuesday morning. For on Monday they came to harvest the wheat field next door. Fortunately the wind was coming from the north-west (very rare here) which meant that the dust cloud kicked up by the combine harvester swept away from the house and over the fields.
Dare I say it, but it's beginning to feel a bit like autumn! I've heard more chiffchaffs and willow warblers calling on the farm than ever, They are obviously heading south through the country on their autumn migration. Most of the local fields have been harvested and our efforts here on the smallholding are dedicated to gathering in the crops. But the fields being harvested has another consequence for us. Last week I began catching field mice in the polytunnel traps. It's usually voles. This may sound cruel, but otherwise I'd lose half my crops in there. They love to climb the corn stems and nibble on the cobs and have even been known to clamber up the tomato vines and eat those. But it's their bigger cousins who are less savoury, for the combines drive the rats out of the fields. For the last couple of days, you can't drive a country road without seeing them squashed on the tarmac or scurrying along the verges. A couple of buzzards have been unusually vocal, perching atop our ash trees waiting to take advantage of the chaos created in the rodent world below.
Inevitably signs of the rats' presence will appear on the farm, tunnels under fences, runs through the grass. But I am countryfolk now. They are firmly under control and I know to bait heavily at this time of year. It's far better to hit them hard at the critical time. By doing this, in the long term I use the minimum amount of poison that I can get away with.

In fact, although I make it sound as if we live in a vermin-ridden landscape, we now very rarely see rats on the farm and even at this time of year there will only be a tiny number. Probably far fewer than scurry secretively around your average urban garden.

Rodent Wars

 

After the fields are harvested, we certainly notice more rodent activity on the farm. Usually Gerry catches plenty of voles (short-tailed field voles) and just occasionally he finds a shrew's nest.

But just a day after the next field was harvested this year, he appeared with a field mouse in his jaws.

And the humane trap inside the polytunnel, which has never trapped a thing, suddenly contained four field mice.
As the weather gets cooler, so the rodents creep closer and closer. Polytunnel crops get nibbled, little furry critters scurry away as I walk the meadow or work in the veg plot, the walls of the farmhouse echo with scratching and scurrying, always sounding unfeasibly loud.
There may even be the odd bit of burrowing under the chicken houses - much bigger holes these ones. For yes. The voles, the field mice and even the occasional rat are seeking food and shelter.



A bad day at the office
for this young rat!


If you can't work out what's happened,
it tried to go through a hole in the fence
which was too small for it.


I had to put it out of its misery.


But then, it had been nibbling
at my mangel wurzels!

Now, the occasional vole scurrying through the grass, or a field mouse running up the wall of the chicken food shed, these seem cute and I could maybe tolerate them. But I once thought the same about some of the prettier 'weeds', perhaps I could just leave a few.
But no, things don't work like that. Any sign of weakness and before you know it you have a plague. And just a few mice can do a lot of damage. They don't just nibble what you expect them too.

So, regrettably, I have had to get the poison out. I try to use this as little as possible and it is best to hit them hard for a short period. Last year I did a post on the wonder that is Eradibait, approved by the Barn Owl Trust and apparently only harmful to small rodents.
See here - Oh Rats! However, having purchased a large and expensive tub of this panacea, I have found that unfortunately the rodents don't actually seem to like the taste of it! They do say to ensure that no other food sources are available. The problem with this is, surely, that if no other food were available there wouldn't be any rodents in the first place. And they clearly prefer whatever they're already eating compared to the Eradibait pellets. Shame.

Of course, cleanliness and hygiene are important. We are careful not to put meat on the compost, we don't top up the birdtables at this time of year and we keep all our grain in rodent-proof containers.
In the house, all the most attractive foods are kept in plastic tubs with secure lids, though the cats tend to ensure that scurrying little creatures stay in the roof spaces and the walls.

This little critter scurried out
 from underneath my laptop in the front room.
Presumably brought in by Gerry to 'play' with later.

 

But, just for the moment, there is a bit of chemical warfare going on.

And this field mouse has taken up residence
in the food shed down by the chickens.
It is brazenly bold, but I can't afford to feel sorry for it.