the accidental smallholder :: diary archives

Mr Fox again

We've lost two hens this week - an old Light Sussex and my Black Rock broody. I assume it's a fox - I know there are foxes around. I'm afraid this time the ultimate sanctions will have to be applied.

Comedy Carrot

After an absence of probably several weeks, if not months, here I am back to lend some class and gravitas to the website. In the shape of a comedy vegetable.

I know it's puerile, but it made me laugh.

To quote from Blackadder:

Percy: ...we came across a turnip that was exactly the same shape...as a thingy!

Edmund: ...a "thingy."

Baldrick: ...a great big thingy! It was terrific.

Edmund: Size is no guarantee of quality, Baldrick. Most horses are very well endowed, but that does not necessarily make them sensitive lovers.

Baldrick: I found it particularly ironic, my lord, because I've got a thingy that's shaped just like a turnip!

Pigs away!

Well, the pigs went off yesterday without incident. We set up a race from the pen to the trailer - it was a bit Heath Robinson, comprising sheep hurdles, bits of shed, a patio table and a couple of hen houses - but it worked.

The three pigs loaded like a dream - followed the bucket then got the scent of the sliced apples hidden in the straw in the trailer and in they popped.When I left for work, they were asleep in the trailer. Dan said they were a bit reluctant to come out at the other end but all went pretty well. We'll get them back from the butcher on 4th October, jointed, cured and minced.

If it stays dryish, we'll get the pig pens resown at the weekend, fences repaired, hut cleaned out and maybe painted - ready for next year. I've cleaned the snak-a-ball already.

Don't get cross!

It has been the most lovely day here today - blue sky, warm, calm. Naturally, we've been taking advantage of this; Dan's lifted the potatoes, I've cleaned out the small patio bed and the containers on it. I've tidied the garage a bit and cleaned out the hen houses. It has been most pleasant.

However, I should learn not to get cross. Meg's a lovely dog in many respects but she can be intensely irritating. If you are busy, she wuffs to get your attention and the wuff gets higher and higher in pitch if you don't respond. I was emptying containers today and she was wuffing; I told her crossly to "be quiet" (or similar) as I banged a pot empty; I banged it so hard it bounced back and hit me squarely on the nose; then the leg of my spectacles fell off.

Fortunately, I managed to find the little screw and my nose is only bruised, but that's a lesson in keeping one's temper!

Cheeky Chick

Yesterday was lovely - warm, still, sunny, but autumnal. You know how the light changes and there's just something in the air? The trees are starting to change to gold and red now - and I get the urge to prepare for winter. I think in a previous life, I must have lived somewhere where battening down the hatches was truly required.

Anyway, yesterday, I decided to rationalise the hens i.e. let Cheeky Chick, the Cuckoo Maran and his / her mommy out of their run. I was confident that mommy would look after Cheeky - but no! She set Cheeky to scratch around the base of one of the trees and then legged it with her pals! Cheeky had a great time - I kept checking on him / her - I'll use the feminine so that she'll be a girl! - but come bedtime, she went all alone into her big empty coop. Mommy had gone off with the big girls.

So Cheeky is now in with the Chip and his Legbars. They're all in a new situation so there's no bullying - and Cheeky is almost as big as the smallest Legbar. I'm happy that she's safe and has company her own age! Chip gets along fine with all of them, so we'll see how they go on.

Oh, and we have 14 baby Black Rocks - a stowaway! Now where are they going to live...

Popcorn and the pygmy goat

I hoped to meet Popcorn today, but due to Blue Tongue restrictions, she wasn't able to come to Carlisle. Curious?

Popcorn is a three year old Irish Moiled x Jersey cow, well handled, nicely marked, used to being hand milked and in calf to an Irish Moiled bull. The perfect smallholder's cow. She was included in the catalogue for today's rare breed sale at Carlisle, but because of BT restrictions - she's in Scotland outside the BT protection zone and Carlisle is in it, she wasn't brought down. If she hadn't been sold, she couldn't have been taken home and she couldn't have been bought by anyone in Scotalnd or Ireland unless she was vaccinated - at least that's my understanding. So we only had photos of Popcorn - which is maybe just as well...

I had to hide my buyer number from Claire in case she bought Tottie, a castrated male pygmy goat. He was about the size of our dogs and very cute, and Claire did say he could sit on her knee on the way home but I made sure she didn't do anything rash! I do hope he went to a good home.

Clackmannanshire Horticultural Society Show 2008

It was the Show today. As usual, I wasn't as prepared in reality as I was in my head. I rushed home form work yesterday to make pancakes - which were not show quality so we ate them - and chocolate brownie, which Dan said was nice but not up to my usual standard. I had baked a fruit tea loaf using chai tea earlier in the week, to let it mature for today. After that, it was a quick run round the garden before it got dark, ending up with runner beans and mini tomatoes. A few jars of jam, marmalade and a chutney completed the entry.

Claire was entering three classes in the photography section - she takes some lovely photos. Have a look at her blog to see more.

We took the entries up last night, after culling the cockerels, moving hens and turning out the horse, knowing that we would be away to Carlisle early this morning.

It was the busiest I've ever seen the show. The Society has a new committee and they really are working very hard to make it a success.

When we got home from Carlisle about 3pm, we set off to see how we had done. We were delighted that Claire won a first and a second for her photographs; I got a second for the tea loaf, the brownie (Dan was right!) and the mini tomatoes and third for blackcurrant jam. Apparently I would have got first for the mini tomatoes if I had shown them on the right sized plate and set in sand - if the judge had tasted them, I'd have got first even if I'd shown them in a jam jar,' cos they are just yummy.

It was great to see the hall so busy, with lots of lovely entries in all categories. This year new classes for kids have been introduced and one fro scrapbooking, which had a few entries. It was a credit to all the folk that organise it, raise money for it and take part.

First egg from the Copper Black Marans

We got our first egg from the Copper Black Marans today - it is without doubt, the smallest hen's egg I have ever seen. It's like a Cadbury Mini Egg! Still, they are only 21 weeks old.

I think we might have scared it out of them. We culled two of the three CB Maran cockerels last night, keeping the biggest and best looking as our new stock cockerel. He has been named Hector (and he has a house! Children of the 60s will understand this).

Chip's new girls

You will recall that Chip is a Crested Cream Legbar cockerel, who was the sole survivor of a very poor hatch. Although we bought 6 day old Black Rocks as company for him, I don't really think they bonded and now that they are free-ranging, he's quite often on his own. Aawww...

With that in mind, Claire and I were up at 6am this morning to get to the rare breed sale at Carlisle in good time for the poultry sale at 10.30am - with a view to getting Chip a new harem!

And we were successful! We came home this afternoon with 2 lots of three Crested Cream Legbar pullets; one lot was a May hatch and the other a bit later. They look nice and healthy and have already mastered the ladders in the small ark. They are leg ringed and recorded on my poultry register!

Tonight, after dark, we moved Chip back into the small ark (that he vacated last night) to be with his new girls, so we'll see how they are in the morning.

Baby Black Rocks

Dan tootled off yesterday to pick up 13 x day old Black Rocks. They are in the garage - usually, I have them in the spare room to start but Dan has it earmarked as a training room / home cinema, so chicks are banned.

So far they look well - much stronger today than yesterday. Tomorrow, I'll let them out of the box into the run. I did buy these ones with the intention of selling some of them at POL. They are such good hens. The Marans are so flighty - they were all perched on the fence today. Hopefully, they will start laying soon.

One of the 15-week-old Black Rocks was a bit poorly on Sunday. I shut her in and gave her some herbal wormer; I also gave her a second leg ring so I'd be able to recognise her but she seems fine now. I wouldn't normally let then out this early but they are well grown and I want to put the broody and the chick in the small ark soon, so that the chick learns to use the ladder.

I am toying with the idea of converting the shed for the layers. That would let me keep the arks for young stock, especially if I get more meat chickens next year. Hey ho - plans! You can tell the nights are drawing in!

Off to work on the vegetable planting plan now...

Sheepish spending spree!

A colleague at work was telling me recently about how much she loves shopping for shoes. I didn't feel able to share with her my excitement when my wee box arrived through the post from Mole Valley Farmers.

In it was my ram harness and crayons. Now, you might think this is a bit of overkill since I've only got three sheep, but I'm not around to supervise and I want to be sure that there is at least "activity", when the time comes. The time to find out the boy has spent the winter eating his head off is not April!

I also indulged in a wee spend for my lambing "bottom drawer". Also packed in the box was iodine, lubricant ( Dan's eyebrows were raised at this - he really hopes we won't have to use it!), castrator (that made Dan's eyebrows go even higher) and rubber rings, two lambing ropes, two feed bottles, a tin of marker spray and a colostrum feeder. Now, I hope I won't have to use most of them, but best to be prepared, I think. Now I need to get a handy box to keep it all in!

Jinx's sore foot

We noticed this week that Jinx was a bit lame on her near hind leg. We sprayed the foot with a "kill everything" footspray and waited. By Wednesday, she was a bit better but not fully recovered so I got the vet out. I wanted to be sure I was trimming their feet properly anyway. The vet said it wasn't anything specific - like footrot - but her foot had an infection brought on by the wet weather. He trimmed off the damaged bit, gave her an antibiotic injection and sprayed on the same "kill everything" stuff that we had. That was Wednesday; Thursday morning I trimmed a bit more off her foot, washed it with antiseptic disinfectant and sprayed on the spray. Today, we did the same and I think she's a bit better. The foot certainly was less hot today. We'll keep this up for a few more days and see how she gets on.

On a similar note, Dan and I took Meg for a walk tonight through the fields of the farm where I keep Smokey. The yard owner doesn't keep any livestock but rents the fields as grazing. The fields we were walking through were full of ewes and lambs. In the field of ewes, 50% of those I saw move were lame. Two were crippled and falling over. I was in tears. I spoke to our YO who told me he had already reported it to the SSPCA. We did the same when we came home.

A while back, a senior officer in the NFU suggested that hobby farmers and smallholders were putting livestock welfare at risk. Really?

When our YO returned from holiday, he took nine dead sheep out of the fields and reported it to the SSPCA. Another local farmer has a number of the ewes at her farm, where they are recovering from fly strike. She has also reported this. A local dog walker has reported the cases after his wife spent days feeding and watering a sheep that was unable to move, until it was humanely destroyed. The SSPCA are, apparently, trying to build a case...