Taking Stock on Midsummer's Day

Thursday 21st June 2018
Midsummer

It's midsummer. Most of the sowing is done. Most of the baby animals and birds are born. A few crops are starting to yield, but by and large this is a period of growing and rearing in readiness for harvest.

The Year's Weather So Far
Winter bites late then hangs around like a bad smell
The weather has been testing this year. Winter was not too bad until it turned round and bit us with The Beast From The East which was followed by a good few weeks of winter stubbornly putting its foot in the door and barring any entrance by Spring.
The cold snap was really challenging, especially for the pregnant ewes. We almost lost one, but in the end three ewes gave birth to seven lambs. We lost one and two ended up being bottle fed.
The runt third triplet, who we named Flash, continues to be very runtish. In contrast the other bottle fed lamb, Rambutan, is huge. All six lambs have just moved down into the further paddocks where the grass is now taller than they are.
The ewes are recovering well now too. We may give one or two of them a break from breeding next year.

The fruit and vegetables were left floundering too, maybe as much as a month behind usual. This was reflected in nature, with many migrant birds, including our swallows, arriving back very late. In fact many don't seem to have bothered at all.

A Warm and Wet Spring Finally Arrives
When Spring did arrive, it was pretty warm but came with plenty of rain. The water table sat just below the surface of the land so every time it rained we had puddles. The muddy conditions didn't last too long though and we have had much stickier in the past.

Early Summer And The Rain Dries Up
And so on into May and early summer. It has actually been very warm allowing many of the crops to catch up to close to where they should be by now. But it has been dry. Ridiculously dry. The water butts are all empty and I have had to water very selectively. We have only had five minutes of rain in the past month and the ground has gone from waterlogged to gaping cracks opening up. There is still water enough under the surface for most of the outdoor crops, but the carrots have completely failed. This happened two years ago too when we had similar conditions - a cold damp early start to the season followed by dry conditions and a hard crust on the soil.
At least I can still get a good crop in the polytunnel where they are more easily nurtured.
I am not sure how much the early potatoes will swell up. They should just about be ready for harvest soon, so I gave them a good drink last night. This should help them along.

And I am a little worried about the sheep paddocks. At the moment they are still ok, but if we don't get rain soon there will not be enough lush grass to fatten our lambs well.
People have already cut their hay and are baling it at the moment. I like to collect it straight off the field, but my first line of supply was short this year as the grass yield is down. Hopefully the second will come good.

On the positive side though, the sweetcorn, pumpkins and tomatoes are loving the Mediterranean climate.
It seems to be a good year for most of the fruit too. Apples and pears look like they will give us our first really decent harvest now that the orchard is maturing nicely. The blackthorns are absolutely smothered in sloes.

The strawberries are doing very well, free of strawberry seed beetle which devastated the crop last year, though a little rain might help them to swell up a bit more. The sunshine is making them taste like little buttons of sweet deliciousness.
The raspberries are just beginning to ripen and should produce bucket loads and the gooseberries are almost ready. Last year was disappointing for these but this year looks like a good crop of large berries.
The currants are not faring so well this year. It may be time to replace some of the bushes. They seem to prefer cooler, wetter years.
Finally, the cherries are ripening so hopefully we can get at least some of them before the birds do.

Poultry
The turkeys have enjoyed the dry weather too. In fact it was the day the poults hatched that it stopped raining. The nine poults we have kept for fattening up are doing extremely well, so well indeed that the two hens have left them and are both now sitting on new clutches of eggs.

If these hatch it will be a big bonus for us as the sale of the young turkeys will more than pay for the food to rise them and to support the adult birds through the year.

The meat chickens which we purchased as day old chicks about ten weeks ago have put on a sudden spurt of growth, so much so that they are pretty much ready to go in the freezer. It is a short life for them but they have had it infinitely better than any commercially produced birds, even the so-called free-range ones. I wasn't expecting them to make weight quite so soon, so need a couple of weeks to change their diet to finish them properly. But their early departure will free up accommodation and give the chance to rest the ground a bit.
It is actually quite good to be able to buy in, raise and dispatch in a relatively short period. Having lots of birds in different pens with different feed requirements can be quite demanding and quite a tie.

We decided not to breed any geese this year, but to sell the eggs instead. But one of the geese had different ideas as we found her sat on five eggs in a tyre outside. Sadly, the day after we found her the next was abandoned and the eggs gone. At least the goose was still alive.

And lastly, the Muscovy ducklings are growing well. They are still living in with the three silkie hens but will move out when they are old enough for they need  lot of space.



So that's it for the year so far.
Where it goes from here very much depends on the weather. If we return to normal levels of rain as we head into the second part of the year then it could turn out to be a very good year. If not... well.

Ducknapped by Priscilla

Monday 11th June 2018
The Cutest Hatchlings
Right on cue six little ducklings appeared under our Partridge Silkie today.
We put nine eggs under her exactly 35 days ago, not sure if she would manage such a difficult brood.
For chicken eggs only take 18 to 21 days to hatch. It takes a dedicated broody to stay put for an extra two weeks.
But Partridge Silkie only appeared outside her house once a day to do her ablutions. Other than that she stayed stubbornly tight on the eggs. Today is her reward. She won't mind that they have funny beaks and like to go paddling. A broody hen's maternal instinct is quite enchanting.

The other three eggs were left in the nest. I removed them and any empty shell so they don't attract flies or predators. Unfortunately they all contained fully grown ducklings which did not make it out of the shell. This is sad but nature has a way of weeding out the weakest.



I spent quite a while rearranging the pen for the new ducklings. They needed a tray for their food, a special duck crumb, and enough water to drink and paddle in without drowning. For this I use a strong plastic tray. I just needed to make sure they would be able to jump back out once they were in. This of course necessitated just sitting and watching them for an hour or so.
They might eventually be bound for the table but they are still very cute right now.



Happy that they were safe, I moved onto the sheep. The grass is growing well this year, though I have fears that we are in a mini-drought situation having had virtually no rain for almost a month now. I wanted to put the adult sheep into the lushest section of pasture a couple of weeks ago but realised this may not help the ewes to dry up, for I had just separated them from their lambs. Instead they had to eke it out on short grass for a while until their udders subsided.
I have been giving them treats too, throwing the branches from pruning the stone fruits, as well as some willow and hawthorn from trimming overhanging hedges. They devour unbelievable amounts of leaves and strip the bark too. For a Shetland sheep this is all much more preferable to lush grass.

But today they finally were allowed onto the other side of the fence where they quickly set about tidying the paddock up for me.
I want them to grow quickly now as last year's ram lambs need to go off in late July before their testosterone starts to rise too much.

Wednesday 13th June 2018
Ducknapped!
One extra Muscovy duckling today. One of our hens moved up into the stables over a year ago and she has lived there ever since. She has been joined by Priscilla, Elvis's daughter and the Cream Legbar hens often make their way up from the chicken pen to the stables for the day, but they return to roost with the rest of the flock.
Anyway, our stable hen decided to construct a nest behind the goose stable door so we gave her two of the Muscovy eggs to sit on. Today I entered the stables to find a tiny little duckling wandering around under the close stewardship of... Priscilla! Yes. Prescilla has avoided all the hassle of sitting for 35 days and just somehow misappropriated the duckling when it has hatched. It is firmly imprinted on her so we have moved the pair to their own accommodation in the chicken pen. The other egg was another failed hatch so poor stable hen has done all the work and ended up with nothing.

Meanwhile I have started letting the meat chickens out of their pen during the day They don't wander too far but appreciate the opportunity to peck at greenery and to stretch their legs a little more. They have already been put in their place by one of the guinea fowl as evidenced by a smattering of white feathers all over the place!

Hey Pesto!

I grow one basil plant under each tomato in the polytunnel. They make good companions for both growing and eating together.

This year's basil plants have reached about a foot tall and it was time to chop off the tops to encourage them to bush out. They will keep growing until late in the year when they eventually die off so we will have a plentiful supply. I don't bother to bring them into the house for winter, preferring to sow new seed each year. Basil is easy to grow.

A basketful of basil tops

I didn't want to waste the cuttings so decided to turn this first basil harvest of the year into pesto for freezing and using later. I prefer my pesto with walnuts rather than pine nuts - I have them in stock for starters.
There were many recipes on the interweb, all with slight variations. In the end I went for one which included lemon juice to add a little zing. It is just a question of whizzing everything together.
As it was to be frozen, I left out the Parmesan cheese, which can be added later if desired.

So I just blitzed everything up then spooned it into silicone muffin cases.
Here's the final result.
I made 8 times the original recipe and there were still basil leaves left over for the chickens.

While the Turkey-Keeper's Away (in Turkey), the Turkeys will Lay

So I have been in Turkey for a little holiday. Birdwatching of course. A beautiful country. A massive thank you to Sue for looking after everything while I was away.

I was quick to check up on everything on my return. The lambs and sheep are doing well (apart from Rambutan losing a horn). The chickens and ducks are good. The vegetable garden is all under control, though I am having difficulty getting beans and carrots to germinate. We have had no more rain since I went away.

But it's the turkeys I want to talk about. The nine surviving poults are doing very well indeed. I am sure the warm, dry weather has helped greatly. They are now able to fly up onto the top of the shelter I made for them.


But yesterday I could not see the two hens. It didn't take long to find them together in one of the little houses. One of them laid an egg as I watched! This was a surprise, but no more than finding that this was the eighth egg they had stored up in the house.

As with last year, the hens have gone back into lay. It is still early, but if they are both laying then I wouldn't be surprised to see one of them start to sit in the near future.
We could certainly accommodate a second batch of turkeys. They are easy to sell at any age. In fact I would probably sell some of the first batch so that we end up with more of a progression of turkeys for the table.
Maybe I am getting ahead of myself though. I shouldn't count my chickens before they hatch!

River Cottage has come to the Lincolnshire Fens

Sunday 27th May 2018

With Sue's rapidly expanding apiary, I spent some of the morning knocking up some new brood frames and a new brood box. Meanwhile Sue was inspecting her bees.
While I was in a DIY sort of mood and with Sue annoying the bees (actually they seem very calm and peaceful this year) I spent some time in the garage cleaning and sharpening my tools.

Bee city

I got to work hoeing some of the veg beds. What a difference a sharp hoe makes.
But it wasn't long before bees took over my day again, for a giant swarm appeared on one of the willow arches. I've already posted about this so won't go into too much detail. But I can't resist posting the picture up again.

Today's outdoor work was intermittent, for I was having a bit of a lazy day. You can't work solidly every day. At my age the body needs a rest every now and then, even if the mind doesn't want it to!
Fortunately one of our Freeview channels was showing old episodes of River Cottage all day long.
I had seen most of these before, but before I was a smallholder, and it is only watching them again that I quite realise how much they affected my life. The first time round, Hugh F-W planted a dream in my head.
The second time around was more of a nostalgic experience. We've done that... and that... we tried that... that happened to us too.
Very notable is that the rules have changed. No kitchen scraps for the chooks and pigs any more. No burying fallen stock. No blood back from the abattoir for black pudding. Apart from these details though, it was inspiring to watch all the shows again. I wonder what seeds have been inadvertently planted in my mind this time.



With the new bees in the brood box (the new one which I constructed this morning), I spent a very pleasant hour weeding the strawberries with Sue. They are looking good this year and fingers crossed there is no sign of a return of the Strawberry Seed Beetle, a plague of which devastated our crop this year.
There was still plenty of the day left, enough time to mow and edge the paths in the veg plot (overgrown edges are where the slugs like to hide) and ridge up the potatoes.
Sue made another batch of asparagus soup which smells absolutely delicious. We have a few weeks of asparagus left now before we let the plants grow and gather the sun's energy to store in the crowns ready for next year. The spears are coming thick and fast and are hard to keep up with.
At the moment every meal is accompanied by fresh asparagus, new potatoes and mangetout. The potatoes will continue for a long, long while with different varieties coming along nicely, but the asparagus and mangetout will soon be replaced by broad beans, the next vegetable to come into crop.

I leave you with a few images from the smallholding today.

The yellow flowers of Scorzonera in its second year.

Behind, the beautiful blue flowers of its cousin, Salsify

 

Left: Honesty which I have left.to flower and go to seed.
Right: The lambs enjoying a few freshly cut willow branches.

A Wasp Fly I found while planting bee seedlings.

A Scorpion Fly which got stuck in the polytunnel for a while.

Everything A Little Lamb Could Want For... Except A Mum... And Milk

26th May 2018
Bleating Hell
Last year we let the lambs wean naturally, which means just leaving them with their mums until they decide that grass is enough for them or until the ewe decides that enough is enough.
But with the lambing problems this year, far from unique to us, I decided to be on the safe side and take the lambs off the ewes on the early side rather than late so the ewe could build up their strength again.
Shetland lambs start nibbling at everything in sight within a day of being born, mimicking their mums. The four lambs who have been in with the sheep flock are already getting a large part of their nutrition from grass.

It is a different story for Flash and Rambutan though. Rambutan especially has never really enjoyed the taste of grass and has been very reliant on the bottle. Flash, though younger, has a more rounded diet.
But I am pretty sure that neither of them realised when they were fed this morning that it would be their last ever feed. From now on the lambs must be self-sufficient.

All penned up ready for worming and separation

While we were moving everything, we took the opportunity to worm all the sheep and to check them over. Then we carried the lambs up to the paddock by the farmhouse where they met Flash and Rambutan, who they have not seen in a long while.
We then moved the ten adult sheep (Rambo, four ewes and last years lambs) as far up the land as possible. The lambs can still hear the ewes calling and the ewes can still hear the lambs bleating, but the greater the distance apart the better.
Besides I don't like putting young lambs in the furthest paddock for this is where the sheep have previously been chased by dogs.

At the moment it seems that all is working out well. Flash and Rambutan are already eating creep feed and grazing, learning from their new friends. And the fact that these two are more settled down this end and not calling to their mums is helping the other four to settle in.

Settling in well and looking good

Cuddles still required for Flash and Rambutan

Flash tucking into his creep feed

edit This post got stuck in the unpublished pile for a while, so here's an update:
The lambs stopped bleating after a couple of days. Before that there was a constant bleating from the nearest paddock and a deep baaing from the sheep field. Even next door's sheep joined in.
Rambutan quickly learned to eat grass when he saw the others and realised that milk would no longer be on offer. All the lambs took to the creep feed too, a specially formulated pellet to help them make the transition from milk to grass.
The ewes' udders swelled to gargantuan and uncomfortable proportions - I was glad I changed my mind about moving them onto the lushest pasture. This is when mastitis can set in, but they have now subsided again so hopefully all is ok.

Flash and Rambutan have not been without their mishaps though. Little Flash picked up a nasty limp in his back leg. I was away for six days and when I left we were just hoping it would sort itself out - lameness usually does with sheep. And indeed upon my return Flash was walking about right as rain. But Rambutan had been in the wars.
He had got his horn caught up and then managed to rip it off. I wasn't there, but Sue said there was blood everywhere. Anyway, by the time I came back from my little trip everything had healed up nicely.

Outdoor reared turkeys

Tuesday 22nd May 2018
The Dry Weather Turkey Chicks
The original plan was to move the young turkeys with one or both of their mums up to a stable once they were born. I don't like keeping birds inside, for I think that fresh air and exploration are key to their upbringing. However crows, cold and getting wet are most definitely not key to their upbringing.
A couple of years ago I made the mistake of putting some poults outside when they appeared strong and fully feathered at about 6 weeks old. They got soaked during a storm and were obviously suffering. I brought them back in, but over the next week we lost about one a day. It was heart-breaking.

This year we ended up with 14 chicks from two hens, ten from the more experienced hen and just four from the other. Very quickly two chicks swapped mums to the older hen. We sold four chicks while they were very young, which should pay for the others' food for a while. After a bit of 'negotiation' the ten remaining chicks are now being shared between both mums.
This year's turkey chicks have brought us good weather. They are ten days old now and have not yet seen a spot of rain. I am veering towards letting them stay outside. To this end I knocked them up a shelter, as much as anything to keep their food dry. While they are small they can all dive under mums protective wings, but they won't all fit forever.

A bigger job was to prevent them wandering through the heras fencing, for the crows have young now and will be on the lookout for any opportunity to grab a tasty treat. The young turkeys are inquisitive and go wandering through the nettles which surround the turkey pen. However the adults can't get through to protect them.
I rummaged around and found a roll of chicken wire and a roll of plastic tree protector. I found a jar of old twist ties which I'd been saving up too. Securing all this to the heras fence was a long and repetitive job and the young turkeys kept finding ways through.
In the end we got there though.

Thursday 24th May 2018
The first rain for a long while, which was desperately needed. The turkey chicks should be ok now. They are 12 days old and Mum knows what she is doing. When the wind turns cold or the air turns damp, she heads into one of the houses and spreads her wings to shield the poults.

Next to the turkey pen, the meat chickens are growing at a staggering rate. I have them separated from the other chickens so I can feed them the appropriate diet for their stage in life. At present they are on what is known as growers pellets, though they go mad for any bit of greenery I throw in the pen. They stay on these pellets until a couple of weeks before their time is up, when they move onto finisher pellets (the clue is in the name).

Growing fast

Finally  a couple of other images from the smallholding. The first is a wonderful wild rose which is brightening up my native hedge at the moment.
The second shows the strawberry rows which we have been weeding ready for the harvest. No sign of the dreaded strawberry beetle which plagued us last year, so fingers crossed for our best ever strawberry year.

A Swarm In May Is Worth A Load Of Hay

A Swarm In May

Is worth a load of hay.

A swarm in June

Is worth a silver spoon

A swarm in July

is worth not a fly.

A lot of a bee-keeper's time is spent trying to prevent colonies from swarming, for when this happens off goes half the hive and honey production for the year will be minimal from that hive while they build back their numbers. Too late in the year and they may even struggle to regain enough strength before heading into winter.

But if they are going to swarm, the earlier the better, for it is a chance to increase the number of colonies you hold, possibly making up for any losses over winter or during the hungry period in early spring. Of course you have to catch and keep hold of the swarm before it disappears over the horizon or up into someone's chimney pot!

There are other options to multiply your bees by deliberately splitting colonies which stimulates the queenless half to produce a new queen.


Of course, the reverse side of all this is that, if you are lucky, you might just be able to catch someone else's escaped swarm. In the world of bee-keeping the rule is finders keepers.

This spring was pretty disastrous for many bee-keepers, for winter kept poking its head back through the door and spring got off to a very slow start. There are tales of many beekeepers losing half or more of their colonies.

For us at Swallow Farm, all three of our hives were at one point in peril. The smallest, which was marginal whether or not to take into winter as a whole colony, almost vanished to nothing. The middle one looked just about ok. And the largest colony, which had been a real monster at the back end of 2017, well the queen started laying drone brood - males - pretty useless beings. 

The last post I wrote about Sue's bee-keeping saw her deliberately killing the queen and we were left hoping that the queenless colony would make itself a new queen. The other two colonies were looking precarious to say the least.

Sue also set up two empty hives and rubbed lemon balm on the frames inside in the vague hope of attracting any passing swarms, something we had previously completely failed to do.

So it was somewhat surprising when, after just a few days, we noticed there were a lot of bees entering and leaving one of the bait hives. We thought they might just be robbing out the old honey on the frames, but there did seem to be a lot of them. And when they were still there after a week, it did indeed seem as if we might just have gone and caught ourselves a colony of bees. Sue looked into the hive but could see no eggs or queen, so our best guess it that we maybe have a virgin queen who will by now have made her mating flight. Hopefully soon Sue will find new brood in the hive.

Meanwhile, the two smaller hives have made a comeback with the better weather. Patience is definitely a virtue in beekeeping.

And so forwards to last Friday. My peaceful pottering in the polytunnel was accompanied by a louder and louder buzzing of bees, enough to make me go outside and investigate. It was a warm muggy day so no real surprise to see thousands of bees over the central pathway near the stables and hives. I observed from a distance and it became apparent that the focus was inside the near end of the privet hedge I planted a few years back.

This was a swarm. In the past I have suited up and collected these for Sue, but I did not know where my bee suit was and would surely split Sue's if I tried to squeeze into it! Besides, the spare hives had been used as lures.

So Sue popped back in her lunch break. I lopped off all surrounding branches and twigs while Sue held an empty box under the swarm, which had now all settled down. One last snip and the whole swarm was in the box. I took shelter in the house, though swarming bees are in fact remarkably peaceful, while Sue shook the swarm into a quickly improvised spare hive.

In the past, these captured swarms have always quickly disappeared again. I don't know whether it was the lemon balm or not, but this swarm has stayed. We are now up to five hives.

Then a week later - it's Friday, it must be another swarm. I was weeding the onion patch after heavy overnight rain. It was getting quite late and I became aware of a couple of bees quite peacefully buzzing me. I could hear more bees somewhere nearby, though I could not imagine what was attracting them, especially when they would normaly all be heading back into the hive for the night. I looked above my head and there, on one of the willow arches, was a very settled swarm of bees.

I would guess they had been there for some time as swarming normally occurs early afternoon. Besides they looked settled and one or two were starting to act a bit more defensively, as if they had been there a while. Sue donned her suit and I grabbed the loppers, but this time the bees were just a tad too active for me to help out unarmoured. Instead, Sue shook the swarm into a box.

We had to beg and borrow spare hive parts for the last swarm and were supposed to be replacing them soon. Now the replacement parts, which had just arrived in the post, would be needed.

We left them be, but later when we returned to the willow arech there was still a small cluster of bees there. It was possible that the queen was still in this cluster.

Early Saturday morning, while I was still in a slumber Sue shook the remnants of the swarm and transferred them in with the others.

As I write they are still all in there. In a short period of time we have gone from struggling to hold onto three hives to having six hives!
Sue will be kept busy as a bee.

Edit: Sue has just inspected her hives. The ex-monster hive, where Sue killed the queen, is in trouble. Despite making two queen cells, there is no sign of eggs or brood. We may have to let this one go and hope they sort themselves out during the year, either that or kick them all out.
The small swarm we captured on Friday have gone! They obviously didn't like the nucleus box Sue shook them into. But very positively, the other two swarms which we have acquired this year both have eggs inside, so they are up and running.

But the story doesn't end there. For this morning Sue and I were busy making up some more frames and brood boxes for the bees. They must have heard us, for just now while I was hoeing the onions I came across an absolutely monster swarm hanging on one of the willow arches. I assumed it was the departed swarm, but there are far too many bees for that.

I didn't notice this monster swarm until I was hoeing the onions right next to them.

These swarms seem to like my willow arches.

Sue has now captured the swarm. Finders keepers!