the accidental smallholder :: diary archives

The circle of poultry life

It's been a big weekend for our first ever batch of chicks (two hens and one cockerel) which were hatched back in April.

We were up at the crack of dawn, despatcher in hand, to kill the cockerel, who had the dubious honour of being our first table chicken. The actual despatch went very smoothly - Rosemary holding him upside-down and me dealing with the neck end. It was very calm, with no tears - afterwards Rosemary rightly said that his fate had been sealed the day he had hatched. As a Light Sussex/Rhode Island Red cross he had little enough prospects, but we had always planned to eat any males we hatched.

Once he had bled for about 30 minutes Rosemary started the plucking, then we got good old Seymour out and tackled the cleaning. Let's just say we didn't find it quite as easy as it's portrayed in the book! The biggest problem was a lack of decent implements - our knives and scissors are blunt and the one sharp piece of kit we have, a cleaver, is too big to do anything except chop bits off. But we got there in the end without too much bother, and we'll be a lot quicker and more confident next time (which will be in a few weeks, since we hatched three more cockerels in our second batch of chicks).

So tonight he was the guest of honour at dinner - one of those satisfying meals where everything on the table was home produced - and very tasty he was too, roasted with no embellishments. He weighed in at just under 4 pounds cleaned. The carcass is now simmering in the stock pot for soup tomorrow, there's a good-sized bowl of trimmings for the dogs and cats, and all-in-all we're very satisfied with the results.

And yesterday one of the hens started laying, and the other laid her first egg today. Just in time to close down for winter!

22 weeks on and our first successful foray into rearing livestock has finally borne fruit - a roast and a toast day.

Apple harvest

We planted our modest orchard 5 years ago now, and this year we've really started to reap the benefits. We got our first ever pears (all three of them!) and the plums are beginning to crop well, but it's the apple trees that are most gratifying.

Our Peasgood Nonsuch and Claygate Pearmain are long gone (bark ravaged by bunnies) but the Sunset, Egremont Russett and Dumelows Seedling are all now well established, and yesterday we harvested their fruit and put them into storage.

We don't have any ddedicated storage for apples, so we begged boxes and trays from the local Sainsbury's, and they very kindly put some aside for us. The unblemished fruit went into the boxes, stacked on shelving in the garage, the small damaged fruit went to the pigs, and the larger damaged fruit into a big "eat-now" bucket. It's eve's pudding tonight and some form of apple dessert every night for a month until they're gone!

I love russett appless, but the flavour of the Sunsets is to die for. They are entirely organic - no spray, no pesticides, no chemical fertilisers - which makes it even more frustrating that at this time of year the supermarkets (at least Tesco where we shop locally) only ever carry one variety of British apple (normally Cox) and a dozen from overseas.

Poor Tess!

One of our collies,Tess, has ruptured the cruciate ligament in her off hind leg. She injured a back leg when she was pup (I think it was that one) and she has been stiff on and off for a while. I've been giving her a food supplement and she's been on a diet!

She was a bit lame last weekend, so she was on "lead rest", but on Tuesday night, she got out an shot up the road after some small furry thing. I heard her yelp and when she came back, she couldn't put her paw down. She saw the vet on Wednesday, went in for more tests on Thursday and the vet confirmed his initial diagnosis - that she had ruptured the cruciate ligament.

She's on anti-inflammatory drugs (her happy pills) and she goes back to see the consultant on Wednesday. It's likely that she will need surgery to repair the damage.

Since she's only allowed out to the toilet, she's on reduced rations - I think that's bothering her more than the leg. She's pretty nifty on three legs!

Warm work

It's a lovely day here so we've been working outside. At thsi time of year, it seems that tidying and cleaning are the order of the day - and that suits me fine. While Dan was painting the window frames, I spent a happy hour scrubbing the rubber mats out of Smokey's stable.

Since we moved him home in February, the mats have been stacked behind the wood store - for seven months, I've been going to clean them since February but today turned out to be the day. It was so warm, working in the sun - it never seems so much like work, though.

It's funny how certain smells bring back memories. I was using Jeyes fluid to clean the mats - and it took me right back to when I worked on a farm in Northumberland. We used Jeyes fluid to clean calf buckets and equipment.

I'm glad I kept the mats. When I moved Smokey, I could have sold them to the folk taking his box and I've almost sold them twice since. But I think they will make excellent bases for a brooder and for a sheep shelter. They are non-slip, non-porous, easy to clean and well insulated. I've got three full size mats about 6ft x 4ft (which will do the sheep shelter), three probably half that size (for the brooder) and a couple of "bits", so should have plenty.

I'm planning the sheep shelter now - I think we can probably build something simple if we rope Dan's Dad in to help.

Dan's just brought me a G&T, so I'm off to sit in the late afternoon sun and put my feet up!

Seed catalogues

Oh, what terrible time wasters these are! And they're starting to arrive already. I dreamed about tomatoes last night, because I was browsing the Thomson and Morgan catalogue in bed. And how they suck you in - during the summer, Dan and I agreed that we woudl be more selective in the species we grew and reduce the number of varieties. We agreed two varieties of potatoes - Red Duke of York and Desiree. Then the catalogues arrive and tempt you with the tastiest, highest yielding, disease resistant varieties, and it's awful hard to resist!

I did grow a variety called "Cara" this year and we had two baked last night. It was a delicious potato, so "Cara"'s back on the list again.

It's a nice day, so I'm going to get out in the garden. Dan's already been out and pruned the cherry and plum trees - and it's only just after 9am. He has a list - if he finishes it, he can watch the football this afternoon. If he's been really good, he can have a beer, too.

First frost

We experienced our first frost of the winter this morning. My goodness, it was cold. We've had a reasonably good spell of weather for the last three weeks or so, but it was cold yesterday and colder today. By 7.30am, the clear skies had clouder over and it was cold, windy and damp. Looks like summer is over for thsi year.

Mind you, I think this is my favourite time of year, if the weather isn't too awful. It's time to tidy the garden, admire the trees, light the fire and start planning next year's crop. And there's Christmas to look forward to, as well, with pies and cake and pudding to make and eat!

Interesting facts about horse poo

As you know, Smokey shares a field with three (or sometimes four) other horses. You may also have read my rant about ragwort and other injurious weeds. Well, I decided I should learn a bit about managing grass for horses. I have, therefore, bought a book called "Managing Grass for Horses" by Elizabeth O'Beirne-Ranelagh. Over the course of the next few weeks, I intend to amaze you with interesting facts.

Today's interesting fact: horses create latrine areas in their field. They will go to these areas to wee and poo. However, horses won't graze near poo (can't blame them for that, can you?) so the latrine areas become full of long grass and weeds. You will have seen this in horse fields - areas of long, rank grass (the ungrazed latrines) interspersed with areas of very short grass, where the horses DO graze. Now, those of you who have horses will already know this, so what's interesting about this? Well, did you know that stallions reverse into the latrine areas to dung, since this marks territory. Mares and gelding face INTO the latrine areas, so make the latrines ever bigger?

Certainly, one of the keys to managing the grass seems to be lifting the dung. Most of us don't have / make time to do it though. Most folk who have horses work full-time - otherwise you can't afford the horse, and if time is restricted and the choice is riding or picking poo, most folk would rather ride. If you have a field of your own or with one or two others, you might be able to get an agreement about clearing the field, but at my last livery, no-one bothered. One or two of us tried but it's thankless (and time-consuming) when you're the only one doing it and you're picking for seven or eight horses.

With this in mind, I was out in the field today picking poo. I have to confess, I haven't done it for some time. And it was clear where the latrines were and also that they were getting wider spread. So I'm working from the outside in to restrict the spread. It's fine just now - there is plenty grass but we'll need the whole field in the winter, unless we have a sacrifice area.

I'm off to bed now to read a bit more... Watch this space for more interesting facts about horse poo.

Settling in

Well, our three Ryelands seem to have settled in fine. They like the grass covered mound of rubble in the field - gives them a good vantage pont to keep a lookout for anyone who looks like they MIGHT have a bucket with them.

The judicious use of small amounts of sheep mix means that we can now get hands on two of the three - Jinxy is proving a little shyer than Juno and Jura. A friend of mine thinks they look like Ewoks, which is pretty true.

I'm just glad we managed to move them between outbreaks of FMD. Our pigs are due to be slaughtered on 16th October, which should be OK if nothing else changes. If we can't move them to slaughter, it's a bit of a pain and we'll be paying for feed we don't need, but for commercial farmers it must be a nightmare.

Show Day 2007

Well, if Dan was up at dawn fixing the fence, I was up too, collecting entries for the local horticultural show. This is the first year I've shown vegetables, although I've entered preserves and home baking before.

I had planned to enter three jams - strawberry, raspberry and blackcurrant, marmalade, a chutney, a fruit loaf, a traybake, muffins and pancakes. In the end, I didn't enter pancakes (no time to make them this morning) or the traybake (the chocolate brownie stuck to the bottom of the tin, much to Dan's delight). In retrospect, I could probably have salvaged four pieces but it won't go to waste.

I was delighted to get first prize for the fruit loaf, the muffins (although I WAS the only entry) and the blackcurrant jam. I was also pleased to get second for the marmalade and third for the strawberry jam. My chutney was unplaced (although that MIGHT have been because I forgot to name it) as was my raspberry jam, which is never great (tastes OK but odd texture)

I wanted to enter a marrow in the weight class. I've never grown marrows and I thought I had two that were a pretty good size. Dan thought they were too small. In the end, we got third, although Dan reckoned first and second were courgettes not marrows.

Our mini tomatoes picked up a first in quite a big class (well, about 8 entries, maybe). They did look lovely! Our three stalks of rhubarb were second (of two) in the quality class - I didn't prepare them properly, but I'll know next year. Our runner beans and coloured potatoes both took third in their classes. The first and second entries in the potatoes were absolutely beautiful. Next year, I'm going to grow some potatoes in pots and see if I can get them as shiny and perfect.

The flower entries were well down, probably due to the weather. Some of the vegetables were stunning - some folk really out a lot of work into them - but again, I thought the entries were down. The floral art and the handicrafts sections also seemed to have fewer entries this year. However, the Society has a new committee, so maybe they will be able to bring about a resurgence.

The show was held this year in the Devonvale Hall, in Tillicoultry.It was built for the community by the family that owned Devonvale papermill (now Sterling Furniture Warehouse). Although owned by Clackmannanshire Council, the Hall is leased to a community trust. It's a lovely hall and seemed to be well run - if the noticeboard was anything to go by, it's busy, too.

Juno, Jura and Jinx

There was great excitement today as the foundation stock for our pedigree Ryeland sheep flock arrived.

Dan was out at the crack of dawn finishing setting up the new electric fence. To be honest, we've not had good reports about sheep and electric fencing, so we'll try it and see how it goes. At the moment, it's only used to keep them out of the orchard, so if they get through it, it's not a great disaster. The first to get zapped by the fence was a Black Rock hen - no eggs from her today! The second was Meg, who had been through the fence fine but on the return, she stopped half way with the middle strand on her back. What a yelp! I felt so sorry for her, but she's none the worse for it.

Jane and Ian, the breeders, kindly delivered the three ewe lambs this morning. To save them coming right along with the trailer, Dan lifted them over the stile. Two are quite small - the dark brown one is somewhat larger!

I want to spend the next week or so getting them tame - they already recognise a bucket, but don't recognise me yet. The dark brown one, Juno, is the boldest and also the greediest (or maybe the greediest and therefore the boldest). She's also about half as big again as the other two, although she is about a month older and was a single lamb whereas the other two were twins (not with each other - each had a male twin). They are all half-sisters.

These girls are well used to dogs - Tess tried to move them and they lined up and looked her her as if to say "Oh yeah, you and who else?". To be honest, our dogs aren't that interested in sheep any more.

My only concern is their ears. They've just been tagged, so I'll need to watch for flies.

They are terribly cute, as you will see from the photos. Naturally, we will keep the diary updated with progress.

Chicken shuffle

Dan and I did a chicken shuffle tonight. We moved the four cockerels that we hatched over the summer into one run - this will be their home until they are killed - and moved the three pullets in together. They will stay there until they all start to lay and can go into the layer flock.

This empties the small Forsham ark and the extension run, so that we can get it cleaned, repaired and painted. Then there will be another shuffle, so we can do the same with the other Forsham ark.

We've bought two new poultry houses this summer, from other manufacturers but it has only confirmed our opinion that the Forsham arks are the best. They are well-built, well designed and very practical. They aren't cheap but are good value for money.

I hope there's not too much fighting in the morning...

Stressbusters

I would like to recommend two stressbusters to you all.

The first is chamomile tea. Now, I've been a bit sceptical about the claims made for herbal teas and so on, but I will have to revise my opinion. I'm trying to lose a bit of weight so I'm drinking herbal tea, which I can make in my office, instead of "real" tea that I have to go to the canteen for (I have no fridge so milk in the office is yogurt before you know it). If I go to the canteen, I succumb to scones and stuff - like a roll and black pudding with brown sauce... Yesterday, Dan rang me at work and enquired as to how I was. "I'm sooo tired" I said, "which is odd because I had a really good sleep last night." Somehow, the conversation got to the fact that I was drinking chamomile tea. "How much have you had?" asked Dan. "About three cups," I replied. Dan then told me to bring the chamomile home and take peppermint to work, and keep the chamomile for bedtime. I felt much better today! So, chamomile tea to get you so stress free that you are asleep with your head on the desk!

Second thing is a dashel basher (available for Ascott Smallholding Supplies, I think)and a field of thistles. Following my rant about injurious weeds, I decided I'd better do something about the thistles in Smokey's field. So tonight, I set off with my db and beat hell out of about a quarter of the field. It was warm tonight; consequently so was I, and the midges got a good feed. Andy and Bruno "helped" by picking up the cut thistles and throwing them around. I can't tell you whose face was on the thistles, but it sure did me good.

It was also an opportunity to observe some horse behaviour. Andy and Bruno play a lot - tonight Smokey and Johnny were walking fairly purposefully round the field boundary, while Andy and Bruno played in front of them, behind them and between them. They were like two parents out for a walk with two boisterous kids. Johhny's much more tolerant of the youngsters than Smokey, maybe because he's the alpha, whereas Smokey has to defend his position as No2. Or maybe he's just a bad tempered sod. Interesting, huh?

Wanda's parcel 2

For those of you who might have been losing sleep over the fate of Wanda's parcel, with Marmite, IrnBru, the Alloa Advertiser and Wee County News, you will be able to rest tonight knowing that the parcel has arrived safely.

When Wanda has finished doing a "wall of death" around the room ( a common result of indulging in too much IrnBru (made in Scotland from girders and probably the source of some of the best advertising campaigns ever seen)), I'm sure she will give us some feedback on Marmite!!

Beans

I can't believe that I haven't posted anything since 18th August - shocking! The weather's been better since the schools went back on the 20th August - typical. It's kind of autumnal now; some of the trees are changing colour and it's quite cool tonight. Hope it kills the midges. I've always told Dan that I won't live anywhere other than Scotland (Sean Connery take note!) - but the midges are soooo bad just now, I'd be tempted by a midge free zone. Poor Smokey is eaten alive.

Anyway, beans. We have NEVER had a crop of runner beans like we have had this year. The variety is Czar, which has a white flower - whether it is that or the season, but there are loads. It's the Horticultural Society show this weekend, so I'm planning to find six good beans and enter them. And a marrow - in the weight rather than quality class. And rhubarb, in quality class not weight. I don't really know what the criteria are, but we'll give it a go.

My pa-in-law tells me that if I let the beans go, they become butter beans, so I might try that. Inadvertantly, if nothing else.