the accidental smallholder :: diary archives

Unwelcome visitor

We had an unwelcome visitor today that killed 13 of our hens - 7 Hubbards, 5 Black Rocks and one Light Sussex. Our postman, John, phoned me at work at 12 noon to say that some of our hens were dead. My father-in-law came round, as Dan was in Edinburgh, to help me collect the bodies and round up the survivors.

We know who the culprit is but we can't prove it; the evidence is circumstantial. I have informed the police, who are making enquiries but they won't be able to do anything about it either. The dog concerned is kept at a local yard about 200 yards from our land; we know that this morning it had slipped its chain and gone missing (the owner actually asked my mother-in-law if she had seen it) and it has attacked our hens before. I asked the owners at the time to ensure that he was properly secured but he's been seen running loose since then. He's a Staffie and is just "jaws on legs".

Thank goodness our new lamb and his mum were still shut in as he's no bigger than a hen or he would be dead too. I don't blame the dog and I don't want him destroyed but if his owners don't keep him under control, then what's the choice?

First ever TAS lamb!

Jinx produced her lamb today at about 5pm. I must have missed it by a few minutes. It's a tup lamb; grey and black at the moment. He seems quite healthy - he's been up and had a feed. I helped Jinx with the rubbing down (don't think she really needed help, but I had to do something). She's had a feed and a drink and the lamb was sleeping when I went out at 8pm. His tummy felt quite full and he was nice and warm. I'll leave them in peace until morning. I'm planning to leave them in for three or four days, to be sure all is well.

My worry now is that Jinx cleansed properly. I couldn't see anything but they sometimes eat it, so now I've got that to worry about.

First Ryeland Lamb from asmallholder on Vimeo.

The racket on the video is Juno and Jura, who are hugely (literally, in Juno's case - she resembles a brown wooly elephant) excited by the new arrival. When I got home this afternoon, Jura was sniffing him all over then she had a hop, skip and a jump to celebrate. I've told her she'll curdle her lamb if she carries on like that!

I'm just glad it went OK but I know things can go wrong yet, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I hope Juno goes soon, because it's a good weather forecast for this week.

Clearing the field

When we bought our house, there was a "hump" in the field. It was made of rubble and was the remains of what had been used to reclaim some land down to the river. Over the years, it has been used as a viewpoint for Dan and I, the dogs, the chickens and latterly the sheep. Since it was slightly horseshoe shaped, we also used it as a fire pit. At one time, we had plans to make it into some kind of garden feature.

However, the advent of the sheep and the need to make the most of what grazing we have sounded the death knell for the "hump". As part of the fencing and sheep shed erection exercise, the "hump" was relocated to the riverbank and planted with willow.

That left a big, stony bare patch in the middle of the field. And a big stony bare patch at the gate, caused by the JCB that moved the "hump". So today, we (Dan, his mum and dad and I) had a work party to clear them and prepare it for reseeding. Now, we could have used machinery, but we went for muscle power. It was slightly medieval - the four of us toiling in the field, with only hand tools and a wheelbarrow with a flat tyre (I know they didn't have wheelbarrows in the Middle Ages, at least not ones with rubber tyres). Why don't you find the flat until the barrow is full of stones?

Hector: Copper Black Maran Cockerel from asmallholder on Vimeo.

By 4pm, when the rain started to drizzle, we had finished the area at the gate and were probably a third of the way across the other area. We're going to hire a petrol scarifier to attack the mossy bits next weekend, but we will sow seed on the bare bits this week if the wind drops - if we'd sown it today, we'd have sent it to the four winds.

I've bought a mix for free range poultry from the Grass Seed Store; it has a herb content and should be quite hardwearing. If we can get it away now, the sheep can get on it later in the year.

So fingers crossed for a shower of rain and no wind!

Meg

Words commonly used to describe Meg in this household include pest, menace, irritating, annoying, demanding, and nuts.

When I'm not shut in my office working she's my constant companion, always there by my side or under my feet, doing all she can to help. Tess of course is nowhere to be seen, with her head down some rabbit hole or other. But Meg is always there. Like a piece of shrapnel.

To illustrate. We had a few glorious spring days here last week, when the sun beamed and the wind was little more than a gentle breeze. We don't get many days like that at any time of year, let alone in March, so I grabbed a chair from the shed and took some time out to enjoy the weather.

Meg came and lay down beside me, I closed my eyes, but it lasted about 3 minutes before I knew I was being watched:

Meg, border collie from asmallholder on Vimeo.

On most of our videos you can either see Meg under my feet or hear her yipping in the background. She's always on the move when we're outside, helping with a stick, playing with a ball or just making sure we're okay. And although we complain about it we really wouldn't have it any other way.

New sheep shelter

Our new sheep shelter is almost finished. I think it looks great - it certainly won't blow away, for sure.

I'll bring my stable mats back this week and we'll get some straw for the pens. We also need to put up some tie rings, to secure the hurdles that we're using to make pens. No curtains, though.

The hens think it's great. The sheep, so far, have boycotted it and actually run past the entrance. However, if I put the trough in there, I'm sure they'll like it better!

From next week, I'm going to shut them in the shed at night so they'll be easier to keep an eye on. I don't really want to be scouring the field in the middle of the night for a lambing sheep!

Candling eggs

I set 20 Cream Crested Legbar eggs a week past Thursday; eight from eBay and 12 of my own. We candled them tonight and 15 look as though they are developing. But not counting until they're hatched!

Hubbard update

The Hubbards are now 6 and a half weeks old. Dan has built them a bigger run as they are really active - much more so than the ones we had last year. They're now on grower pellets, which they'll get until they are at killing weight / age, in four to five weeks.

Lame Jinx

Jinx is lame again. She has a slightly deformed right hind hoof and it occasionally gets infected. I trimmed it on Friday, but we'll give her a week of intensive attention and wash it with disinfectant every day. If there's still heat in it tomorrow, I'll ask the vet for a general antibiotic, which will be handy with lambing just around the corner.

Prolapsed hen

One of our Cream Crested Legbars suffered a prolapse yesterday. Typically, she wasa small, young hen laying large eggs. We isolated her immediately, so the other hens wouldn't damage it. I cleaned it up and put it back where it should be twice last night but it was out again this morning and looking very bloody and swollen.

So we took the decision to kill her before she really started to suffer. I was quite upset - she was a really bonny wee thing and happy to be handled, even though she couldn't have been very comfortable.

We've only had this happen once before, so it's not that common, thank goodness.

After Cassius

Tuesday morning, our first day sans Cassius, and Tess was like a wee lost soul. It was her habit to follow Cass around, sometimes closer than was advisable; if you found one, you found the other. If Cass was asleep on the footstool, Tess would be asleep right next to it. If Cass was under the table, Tess was right there. If she got too close and Cass turned round to warn her off, she'd look away as if to say "I'm not looking at you, so you can't see me."

She now seems much better and is following Felix around - except Felix doesn't whack her, so she's not getting a proper adrenaline rush.

Or is it Felix? We suspect that, on Monday, someone took away the old Felix and brought us a new one. The new one is identical in appearance to the old one but has a significantly different personality. The new Felix is more playful, braver and more adventurous. He's been out with Dan today all round the field, up on to the wild area, in the car, out the car. He slept in the kitchen with the dogs last night rather than on my pillow. In many ways I'm not sorry about this. If my head gets cold, I'll get a hat but I don't miss having to hide under the duvet to avoid getting cat sneeze in my hair.

I think Cassius may have repressed Felix - we're now seeing the real thing! Or, as Dan suggested, has Cassius possessed Felix...

Hubbards

Our Hubbard meat chicks are now nearly four weeks old and are outside. They have lost all their down and have grown tremendously - we don't notice it so much but dan's parents hadn't seen them for a week and couldn't believe how much they had grown.

They are in the "batchelor pad" with a run and are on adlib chick crumbs. They are very active - more active than I remember the ones last year being. I didn't intend them to be off the lamp as quickly as this - I was going to bring them into the garage at night and put the lamp in but it's been quite mild, so they've been out 24/7. The box is quite sturdy, they have good bedding and they huddle for warmth.

Hubbard chicks at 3 weeks from asmallholder on Vimeo.

One chick had a ball of poo on one foot, which was interferring with its movement, so we removed that today. It was stuck solid and in removing it, the foot bled a wee bit. I've given it a spray with the ubiquitous "blue spray" so hopefully it will be OK. Once it stops nipping, it should be able to walk properly.

Willow hedge

We planted some willow behind the garage a few years ago. Since then, it's just been left to grow. The hens like it.

When we had the new fence put in along the river bank, I was quite keen to put a willow bank behind it to help stabilise the bank, to provide some shelter and to provide firewood, eventually.

Dan's dad got to work yesterday and cut and planted dozens of willow whips. If only half of them take, we'll be fine. In any case, they didn't cost us any money and we like feeding the bunnies...

Cassius

Our cat, Cassius, was put to sleep today. I have written his obituary in my head a hundred times since he was diagnosed with cancer almost two years ago, but it doesn't make the real thing any easier.

Cassius was a special cat. Before writing this, I searched the diary for previous entries. It was lovely to see him and to read about him at various times since he came to stay in March 2001.

He was between 6 and 10 when we got him as a rescue cat from the SSPCA. He had been an unneutered tom and, I suspect, was pretty good at looking after himself. He was a great hunter and an even greater scavenger. His taste in food was wideranging. Rabbits and small rodents were easy prey - and Cassius never played with his food. Of food he wasn't required to catch, prawns were his favourite; but also chicken, corned beef, crisps, curry, chilli, chips (the wee crispy bits especially - he's steal them off your plate if he could), anything dairy were all on his menu. He loved cream - preferable organic and double.

Cassius ruled the roost. He wasn't just top cat, he was top animal. He was the iron fist in the velvet glove and thought nothing of lying in wait for the dogs and giving them a good whack - I think he worked on the premise that they were either coming from mischief or going to it. Dan nicknamed him Beelzebub or the Prince of Darkness.

We bought a "play tower" which sat at the end of the living room, Cassius claimed it for his own, and would sit on the platfrom surveying the room. Dan said he was like the Eye of Sauron and the tower was christened Barad-dur.

Cassius had a chequered health record. Even in the credit crunch, Petplan will deliver increased profits following Cass's demise. Generally, things went wrong at Christmas, and Dan spent a fair bit of various festive seasons in the vet's surgery. Cassius was such an exceptional nature that the vets and the nurses took him to their hearts. When he saw the cardiologist about his heart murmur, Ruth had to hold him by a running water tap to get him to stop purring long enough to hear his heart. If he was caged, he would stick out a paw to stop the nurses passing so they would talk to him.

Cassius was diagnosed with cancer nearly two years ago. Until about three weeks ago, he was essentially fine. Regular anti-inflamatorry drugs and antibiotics kept the problem at bay. Then the cancer in his upper jaw and face started to grow quite rapidly, disfiguring his face. Over the weekend, it became clear that he was struggling to eat and when the vet was unable to offer any hope this morning, we decided to let him go before he started to suffer. His death was peaceful and we brought him home, so that the dogs and Felix could say "goodbye".

Cassius is buried in the garden, next to Homer and Copper. His death will leave a big gap in our lives - he was a big cat in every sense of the word. We count ourselves fortunate to have had him share his life with us and we'll never forget him.

The Hay Path

Our sheep are getting ad lib hay at the moment. We're feeding it from an old brazier, being too tight to buy, and too incompetent to make, a hay rack. They do waste a bit - helped by the hens who pull the hay out of the brazier / hay rack as well. So what to do with the wasted hay?

Well, you can't put it back in the brazier - the girls just look at you as if to say "we've walked on that. You can't expect us to EAT it."

So we're putting it in the currently- vacant pig pen. The sheep are using the pig pen as a through-way from teh lawn to the field, so the hay will protect the soil and help to reseed it. It will either disappear into the soil OR the pigs will rootle around in it when they come alng in April / May.

Meantime, the sheep are happy to nibble a strand or two as they pass throughand the hens just love scratching it, so it seems like an alround win.