the accidental smallholder :: diary archives

Yippee, a tray of mud!

Our French Copper Black Marans, successfully hatched from eBay eggs, are now nearly a month old. They've been living outside for a week now, and have settled in well.

We just wish they would learn to go to bed - they come down their ladder in the morning, and can often be found upstairs having a siesta in the afternoon, but when night falls they all huddle together downstairs shivering! They're very tame and queue up to be lifted into the top of their ark, but it's a pain in the backside.

Last weekend R gave them a dust bath - a seed tray full of earth - and this is how they reacted:

Chicks dust bathing from asmallholder on Vimeo.

They love it! It's amazing what an instinct they have for dust-bathing and scratching and how quickly they display it when even only a few weeks old.

Cream Legbars

There was a time when the best present Dan could buy me was a chocolate bar but no more! (Actually, chocolate is also welcome anytime).

Today, 6 Cream Legbar eggs arrived in the post. They are the most lovely colour and if Dan hadn't taken the camera to London (again), I'd have taken a photograph of them. They have now been "resting" for about 12 hours so I'm just going to pop them in the incubator.

Fingers crossed!

Copper Black Marans

Of our six cheeps, I'm pretty sure we've got two cockerels and four hens. Two of the cheeps are bigger than the other four and have real coppertops. I've had alook at some photos of adult birds, and the hens are black, with the cockerels having the copper head and collar.

I think we'll keep two hens and one cockerel and sell a trio, once they get (much) bigger.

Another poultry update

We had our first egg from the new Black Rocks we bought last Saturday. There were two but one was squished. The eight new girls are now free-ranging, but don't really mix with the existing hens except at corn time. The new girls don't quite recognise the "call to corn" yet, but they are learning fast. One of the "old" BR may defect to the new flock, I think - birds of a feather and all that.

The six cheeps seem to be doing fine. I've now turned off the incubator and discarded the seventh egg. The six are very small and very, very cute - two have copper tops! They seem to be finding the water and food fine, so we'll see how they go on.

Hatching eggs update

Seven hours later, the first two chicks are in the brooder, a further three have hatched successfully and are drying off in the incubator and one is pipping. Only one is showing no activity yet.

I'd take some photos but Dan's taken the camera to London. Now what can there be in London that justifies a camera more than my cheeps?

Just off to move the three to the brooder!

New hens

Well, the new Black Rocks seem to have survived the trauma of the poultry sale. We cobbled together a temporary run for them today round about their house - the fixed run is way too small and is difficult to move. One BR flew over the fence but we caught her and put her back - to be hinest, it's not a big deal and they will be free-ranging in a few days anyway, once I'm sure they know where home is. Our other hens seem completely unimpressed - even when the escapee joined them.

Seven of the BR are, well, black but No. 8 is quite different - either she's not a BR or she's a throwback to one of the parent breeds. She is quite lovely, with gold barred plumage round her neck; she's also a wee bit bigger than the others. Tess is obsessing about them - they are so much more exciting than the Hubbards.

Which takes me on to them - now they are three. We despatched another one this morning, plucked him and have left him to hang until tomorrow. We also killed him first thing, so that, hopefully, the crop and the gut are emptier than the one yesterday. Things were certainly better today armed with sharp tools and a bit more confidence.

The amount of poo these Hubbards produce is incredible - actually, given the amount they eat, it isn't really. But anyway, if /when we get them again, if the timing is right, we're going to keep them on the vegetable beds, so they can fertilise them as they move along. Need to check the size of the run and house so they fit on the beds first though.

Poultry Sale

Caledonian Marts in Stirling hosted the Central Scotland Poultry Sale today. I went along, armed with cheque book, puppy cage and cat basket (just in case). There seemed to be a good turnout, but the first person I saw was Jo Lennon, who's a founder member of the FV&WF Smallholders' Association! I had arranged to meet Andrew and Janis Sharpe, who were "just there for a look". Hold that thought! There were about 200 lots, including hens, cockereles in singles, pairs and trios; ducks, geese, a few turkeys and two pea fowl.

I was really glad Andrew was there - as a former butcher, he knew his was around the mart and the system. I got my catalogue at the office - number 59 - and headed off to view. I was trying to be very organised, marking the lots I was interested in, but after the first pass, I had so many marked, I had to go back and edit some out. There were a few nice cockerels, but I think I'll just retain one of the Copper Black Marans I've got in the incubator (assuming some hatch and one's a cockerel!).

In the end, I bought two lots of 4 Black Rock POL pullets. Andrew and Janis bought 4 Black Rock POL and two Silkies - one white and one buff, 14 weeks old. The 12 BR went in the puppy cage and the Silkies in the cat basket for the journey home to ours. Once there, we put eight of the BR in a run and the remaining 4 BR and the Silkies in the puppy cage, with food and water, for the onward journey to their new home. While the BRs looked shell-shocked, the Silkies (which are about half the size) were straight into the grub and the drink. I think they will prove to be real characters - Andrew and Janis are well smitten by them, but I've offered to rehome them should they decide they DON'T really like them. From the picture, you can guess how much chance there is of that!

Once back at ours, we despatched the first of the Hubbards. Andrew gave us a demo of cleaning and preparing the bird. First thing was to show us how to sharpen knives properly using a steel - what a difference a good technique makes! Dan's had a happy half hour sharpening all our knives! Once prepared, the Hubbard weighed just short of 5.5lbs. He wasn't the biggest, just the slowest! He was much easier to pluck than the cockerels we've killed before - don't know whether that is a breed factor or an age one. Next time (tomorrow), we will pluck the bird then hang it for 24 hours before cleaning it.

I did a rough calculation on how much it was cost us to produce the five birds (assuming all killed out today at 5.5lb) - £48 give or take a few pence, so to break even, we'd have to sell them at £1.75 per pound. Organic chickens in Tesco are about £2.50 per pound, so we're not going to retire on these birds. However, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and that's tomorrow, so I'll feedback following the taste test!

Poultry update

Our Hubbard meat chicks are now 7 weeks old and will be changing from chick crumbs to grower / finisher pellets over the next week or so. They are all growing well and have (finally) got the hang of the ladder up to the roosting area. This saves us the job at night of putting them to bed! Of course, now they've got the hang of it, they disappear at the first hint of inclement weather - which deprives Tess of her hen TV. They don't seem as active as the chicks we bred and raised ourselves last year, but maybe they're bred not to burn off energy tearing around. They are certainly very docile.

Our Brown Leghorn hen died recently - we assume the fox got her, which is surprising since she was the most alert and flighty of all our hens. She was also the oldest hen we had - we got her in March 2003 so she'd had a decent innings. She was Dan's Dad's favourite, so he has a few of her feathers in the band of his hat!

The eleven remaining hens are laying six or seven eggs a day, but we think one is eating eggs. We just haven't identified which one yet. I think it's mainly the Light Sussex and the Black Rocks that are laying - the three RIR are a bit older than these.

We haven't got another cockerel yet and might not bother just now.

A friend of mine has recently taken delivery of three Black Rock pullets - now called Madge, Annie and something I can't spell but which Margaret's wee grandson can say. Her husband has built a superior enclosure in their back garden, so when I visit, I will bring back some photos.

The Hubbards are on the move

The Hubbards, our five chicks, are moving out of the guest room into the garage tomorrow. I think we pamper them a bit and keep the lamp on too long, specially since the room is centrally heated. We've had the window open today, so it's been quite cool and they weren't huddling for warmth. They are quite well feathered now and sh*t for Britain.

So Dan's outside converting one of the portable runs for a hen house into a home for the chicks. within the garage. We will leave the lamp in - they can have it on at night still - but we can open the garage doors to toughen them up, then soon they can go REALLY outside.

I'm hoping that future broods will be outside almost from the word go.

Meet the Hubbards

Courtesy of the TAS forums, we're now the owners of five Hubbard chicks. The Hubbard a meat strain of chicken - so I'm thinking of them as five Sunday lunches, but it's quite hard because they're awful cute.

As usual, they are in the guest room, in the puppy cage. They seem to eat and drink a lot more than our homebred chicks did - they also seem to gro fast. I got them on Wednesday and I think they are noticably bigger already. I might try and weigh them, in my attempts to be more scientific!

I'll try and get a few photos up at the weekend - by which time they will be eagle sized!

The killing of cockerel #2

Back in September we killed a cockerel for the table for the first time. It wasn't exactly textbook (at least not according to Seymour) but we got there in the end.

This morning we were up early again to despatch another. We had been planning to kill all three of the surplus cockerels we had, but with the loss of Hobbes a few weeks ago and a friend wanting a cockerel to give as a Christmas present we were left with only one to spare.

Things went more smoothly this time and lots of new lessons were learned. I used an air rifle to kill the bird - we weren't totally comfortable with using the despatcher last time and had read that used properly the rifle guarantees an instant death: it certainly did this morning. Our knives still weren't sharp enough although we found good kitchen scissors to be a better option for most of the jobs.

The plucking was made much easier by dunking the dead bird in very hot water, but made much more uncomfortable by the sub-zero temperature outside!

We roasted the chicken for our dinner tonight, and he was a little on the tough side: unlike the cockerel back in September, which lived its life in an enclosed run, this boy had been free range for almost all his life - he had huge legs and little breasts, and almost no fat. Very tasty though, and what's left will go into a cream of chicken soup tomorrow made with stock from the carcass. The pets had a good feed too, and not a scrap was wasted.

We're never going to get this killing, plucking, cleaning and dressing lark down to a fine art doing it once every 3 months, but in the spring we'll be hatching a lot more chicks and inevitably having a lot more cockerels to spare. If we get competent enough we might even video the process...

The King (of the dunghill) is dead.

When I went out to let the hens down this morning, there was a pile of feathers under the ark. All the hens were present but no Hobbes. I assume a fox must have got him as he went to bed last night. Reynard must have fancied a change to rabbit.

The three young cockerels are fine, so one of them will get a reprieve from the roasting tin either as our stock cockerel or as a swap for an unrelated one. It's an ill wind...

Free range cockerels

We're learning all the time here - sometimes by accident rather than design.

When I fed the animals this morning, I failed to secure the door on the pen holding the three young cockerels properly. As luck (good as it turned out, but bad at first discovery) would have it, the pen is on a slope so that the door swung open. When I went out about 10am, I thought Hobbes had shrunk then realised that Hobbes' "boys" were out.

Now, I was concerned about this on two counts (well, three if being considered a dope was a concern for me); firstly, I was worried that Hobbes would harm them - he intimidates them dreadfully by strutting round the pen and crowing at them and secondly, I was worried that they wouldn't find their way back at night. I shouldn't have.

Hobbes. after an initial flurry, ignored them so long as they stayed away from his harem (which they did). I actually managed to catch them in the afternoon and put them back in the pen. These were the chicks that I spent quite a lot of time handling when they were young. As soon as I did, Hobbes was back terrorising them. All three were piled on top of one another in the corner of the pen. So I decided to let them out and hope they would have the sense to go back to bed there. As soon as they came out the pen, Hobbes ignored them and they, him.

Tonight, all three were in the correct accommodation - their batchelor pad. So tomorrow, they can get out again. They'll not be around for much longer, so it's good to see them free ranging in the meantime.

So, lessons in poultry behaviour today! Wonder what we'll learn tomorrow.

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.

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...

Mixed up cheeps

Due to our impending holidays and poultry accommodation shortage, we decided to put the little cheeps in with the big cheeps. We moved them two nights ago and this morning, I was all ready to despatch Dan on a poultry house search, so that I could take my four "babies" away from those evil big cheeps. I can't say that I have every felt much for our hens but I have become rather attached to the four little cheeps - they are quite tame. Dan reminded me this morning that I'll probably be eating at least some of them.

The little cheeps are obviously feeling a little intimidated by their larger half-siblings and do over react a bit when a big cheep comes close - by hiding under the feeder, for example. However, I spent a wee bit time this morning watching them all and there doesn't seem to be any systematic bullying - a big cheep will have a peck at a wee cheep if it comes close but they aren't being kept away from food and water and the big cheeps don't go looking for them.

I'll keep an eye on them - but I haven't ruled out sending Dan on a house hunting expedition just yet.

Second Airborne Division

The second batch of cheeps are growing up fast. They're now out all day, but come in at night. They don't have the lamp on now - but our spare room is quite warm!

They are quite obliging at getting into the cat basket to come in at night - and they zoom out of the box into their "bedroom", which has lead to them being called the "Second Airborne Division". You can see them here in action.

They're much tamer than the big cheeps. I think I might have handed them more, though. We think the big cheeps might be two female and one male - one of them is certainly bigger, with much thicker legs and more comb.

What has surprised me is how disinterested the cats have been in the cheeps. The dogs are obsessed - especially Tess, who has been confined to the kitchen this afternoon after making a good attempt to dig into the wee cheeps' run. Both cats have been completely disinterested - even when the cheeps are in the puppy cage in the spare room with the room door open. I expected Cass, at least, to haunt to room, working on ways to get a quick snack. But no. Mind you, one of the Rhodies chased him last weekend so maybe he's off chicken!

Accommodation crisis looming

I think I have an accommodation crisis looming. No, Dan hasn't given me my marching orders!

We have two poultry arks - a big one and a little one - and an extension run. The nine layers and Hobbes are in the big ark and the three big cheeps (now nearly six weeks old) live in the little ark with the extension run. This is all fine and dandy but the little cheeps, now almost two weeks old, are going outside, so the big cheeps only have the ark, while the little cheeps have the extension run and the cat carry case. The wee cheeps come in at night and stay in the puppy cage. Hope you're following all this - the wee cheeps don't know if they are chickens, cats or puppies!

Anyway, very soon, the little cheeps will be able to go outside day and night. Three groups of poultry - two arks. So, do I put the big cheeps in with the laying hens at say 8 weeks old OR do I put the wee cheeps in with the big cheeps at 4 and 8 weeks respectively? Answers on a postcard, please.

I should have thought this through but I was so carried away with the hatching mularkey that I didn't.

Mynah chicks

Please no-one tell her that they don't need to be taught to cheep!

More new arrivals

We had more new arrivals last night in the shape of four Light Sussex chicks. When I went to bed last night, they were all pipped - had been since lunchtime. I confess I was dying to "help" them, but they weren't actually due until today, so I took myself off to bed, woke at 4am (labour pains, I think) and all four were out and in the incubator.

They were duly transferred to the brooder before I went to work and, so far, all look fine and are eating and drinking. One looked a bit poor this morning but I think it might have been the last to hatch. It looks fine now - at least I can't pick it out from the others!

There's one egg left in the incubator - there seemed to be a live chick in it on Saturday, when we candled it, so I'll give it a couple of days befroe I turn the incubator off.

The older three are WILD! How do you get them tame? Catching them to bring them in at night is an extremely anxious time! One escaped tonight - fortunately, it headed back to the other two, who were in the box. I could see Cassius sitting on the path, sizing them up.

They seem to be quite well feathered, so if the weather stays fine, they should be out in a couple of weeks. Now that they have got the idea of going up the ladder when the weather is bad, they seem to be well on the way. They're dirty little stopouts, though. They were still bobbing about at 9pm tonight, long after the hens had gone to bed. I thought it would be easier to catch them when they went to roost (as I did last night) but tonight they seemed to be up for a late one.

It's only seeing these wee ones, that I realise how much the cheeps have grown. The new ones are sound asleep. They're in the study, because we're having the spare room painted, so I can keep an eye on them. Do you ever get over the "cute" effect? I think not!

Backyard poultry keeping course

After much shillyshallying, I have finally got round to organising our first backyard poultry keeping course. We're keen to encourage folk to try producing their own food and hens are such fun. Much more exciting than, say, a marrow, Although marrows are, of course, extremely worthy.

This is all happening on Saturday 30th June, here at TAS. Starting at 10am, we'll cover all the essential aspects of keeping poultry at home. Lunch will, of course, be provided. Full details on the courses page.

And then there were nine. And Hobbes.

Mrs Purple died in the night. She was one of our oldest hens, except for the Brown Leghorn, and a Rhode Island Red. She hadn't been in top form for a while - her comb was a bit purple (not the reason for her name - she had a purple leg ring), so she probably had some kind of heart / circulatory problems. She was OK yesterday i.e. chooking around for corn and pecking greenfly off the gooseberries, but was a stiff as a board this morning.

So now there are nine. And Hobbes. And however many of the cheeps turn out to be female...

Cheeps' progress

I didn't put the cheeps outside today - it has been bucketing rain all day here, and even thought there is shelter, I was worried that they woudl get wet.

They were out all day yesterday and it's forecast dry tomorrow, so they can get out tomorrow. And weekends are OK, because I can ring them in if the weather gets nasty. Like the washing!

Dan's been away this week, so hopefully he'll see a difference in them tomorrow when he gets home.

The Cheeps' first day out

It's been nice here today, so it was time for the cheeps' first day out. We used the extension run as a playpen. They were out for about half an hour (maybe longer); Hobbes and the hens had a good look. As did Cassius!

At first, they just stood stock still - I was a bit worried that they would die of stress or something. However, within 10 minutes, they were pecking around, had found their food and water and were investigating grass and dandelions (of which there are many in our lawn! I shall now say that I cultivate them for the cheeps.)

Chicks' first day out on Vimeo.

So they will be out for increasing lengths of time now, so long as the weather is OK.

Chicks

The three cheeps seem to be doing fine - eating loads and scurrying around.

Tomorrow, we're going to isolate the three Light Sussex hens for a couple of days and collect the eggs from them for incubation. At least then we'll know that it's pure Light Sussex we're hatching this time. The three cheeps look identical but I don't know if that's because they are all the same cross or if all chicks look much the same at hatching.

Hobbes seems to like the Light Sussex hens best anyway, so hopefully the fertility rate will be high and the hens are only about 18 months old, so should be in good nick. The RIR are probably a bit past it.

When should we think about getting them outside? They're in the spare room, so they don't hog the heat lamp. I imagine that a hen would have them outside pretty soon after hatching...

Hot cute young chicks

They're hot (well, they've got a heat lamp), cute, young chicks. Here they are, our first successful hatchlings, just over a day old:

Hot cute young chicks on Vimeo

They are great entertainment, and seem to be doing swimmingly. Rosemary's praying that they are all girls so we can keep them, while I'm hoping one's a boy so we can finally try a home-grown table bird. It's a little early to tell what the breeding is - there's a good chance they will be pure light sussex, but we'll need to see.

Chick No3

Sorry, but you might get bored with the minute by minute updates but bear with me until the novelty wears off. Once you see the pics, you'll be as hooked as me.

Chick 3 is now completely detached from the egg, has perked up and is now in the brooder with his /her two half-siblings. Unlike humans, I know who the father is but not the mothers! All three look exactly the same. I hope they're girls, so they can join the flock

Nothing from 4 and 5 yet, but my book says to give them three days past the 21st day, so there's time yet.

Guess what?

We've got two chicks. They hatched this morning. A third one is working on it but doesn't look to chipper at the moment; eggs four and five aren't doing anything yet.

The two that have hatched are lovely - cream with pale brown stripes on their heads. They are in their new brooder.

I know we've a long way to go yet but this is further than we've ever got before, so fingers crossed.

I can't tell you how excited I am. Pics to follow.

Don't count your chickens...

You'll remember a couple of weeks ago we put eight eggs in our new Brinsea incubator; shortly after that we had a fuse trip, turning the incubator off for a short while. We decided to leave the eggs and see what happened.

Last night, we decided we should really candle them - I suppose I was working on ignorance being bliss, but if any were likely to hatch on Wednesday, I really had to think about building some sort of brooder. So we found the candling lamp, and five out of the eight seem to be full of feathery chicks.

This morning, when I woke, I lay in bed metally building a brooder. Then Dan noticed the alarm hadn't gone off - the power had tripped again. The incubator had cooled but wasn't anywhere near cold (at least not by our standards). I could have wept. Indeed I did - and swore a bit too.

Anyway, we turned it back on, told the chicks to that Mum had gone for a BIG feed but was back now so to hang on in there and are now hoping like mad that all will be well on Wednesday. Honestly, expecting a baby wasn't as bad as this.

We're investigating UPS systems and a good electrician!

I'll keep you posted.

The incubator suffers a power cut

I feel like Private Fraser - "we're doomed" never to raise any chicks. This morning we had a power cut - we don't know how long the power was off - not long, we think, but of course the incubator lost power. We sorted the problem (tripped fuse) and the incubator was up to temperature in literally minutes. We've left the eggs in mainly because we can't decide what to do for the best. My heart says give it a go, my head says cut the losses and start again. I thought we could leave it for a few days, then candle the eggs and see if there is any development. Advice welcome.

Brinsea Octagon 10

Now, I'm definitely NOT counting my chicks but I have, at least, finally got some in an incubator. We took delivery of our new Brinsea Octagon 10 incubator yesterday, so I've set it up with eight eggs. They weighted 550g in total. I'm trying not to mess with the set-up but it's so tempting to fiddle.

Naturally, I'll keep you posted.

Hobbes goes missing again

This boy is doing my head in! I went to throw some corn to the chooks this afternoon - all the hens were there but no Hobbes. Now, I could HEAR him, but he was nowhere to be seen and he doesn't miss a meal. I checked the nest box, just in case he hadn't learned his lesson, the compost bins (!) and finally found him stuck under the comfrey barrel.

The barrel is aginst the wall and propped up on two brise blocks - Hobbes was underneath. I couldn't move the barrel so he had to come out backwards with a lot of ruffled feathers and dignity. I hope he's OK. I don't know how long he'd been there - he was bit lame but headed off to the corn, so I'll keep an eye on him (I hope).

The hole is now blocked up. What next?

Where's Hobbes?

For a short time today, we thought our plans to raise our own chickens had been thwarted yet again. You will recall our trials with the incubator than let us down everytime we used it; you will recall the demise of Henry, our first cockerel.

Now, we have Hobbes and a new Brinsea incubator on order. I was in the garden this afternoon and I didn't see Hobbes. I was moving some manure so all the hens were "helping" by moving it back on to the path. No Hobbes.

Dan was duly despatched to find him - he wasn't with the hens, he wasn't in the ark and there was quite a lot of white feathers around. Oh, dear - had Mr Fox been to call?

No, Hobbes was stuck in the nest box. It was the last place Dan thought to look - after all, why would a cockerel be in a nest box? But there he was. Dan said he was like a Jack-in-the box - popped up when Dan lifted the lid, and hopped out. The nest box has two offset doors at each end - easy for a wee hen. Not so easy for a big (dim) cockerel.

Glad he's OK, though.

"I don't believe it"

The incubator packed in again - this is the third time this has happened - and the third time we've used it. That is, it has happenend EVERY time we have used it. It has been repaired twice before. This time it goes back forever.

One of the two eggs we opened was fertile. I couldn't bear to open the rest. I am absolutely disgusted / cross / frustrated. The incubator is a Covatutto, in case anyone is thinking of buying one.

Anyone in Central Scotland got a broody hen?

Third time lucky?

We've just started our third attempt at hatching eggs in the incubator. First two times, the damned machine broke down. We've got nine eggs in - temperature is fine, but I'm having a problem keeping the humidity up, so I've resorted to misting twice a day.

Keep everything crossed!!

Hen swap

The things that go on in suburbia on a weekend!

Our friends, Carol and Graham, have our Hobbes' brother and are keen to breed some pure Light Sussex chickens. A deal was struck whereby we would give them two of our Light Sussex hens, as mates for Hobbes' brother, and we would get two Black Rocks in return.

As agreed, Carol and Graham delivered the two Black Rocks on Saturday. Carol dropped by after work tonight to pick up the two Light Sussex - so Miss Green and Miss Purple have gone to a new home in the hills.

The two Black Rocks are laying away - I hope the two Misses don't let us down!! The Black Rocks have been in the wee ark until tonight when they will be added to the main flock. Hopefully, they will integrate without a problem.

Cock-a-doodle-doo!

Hobbes (and Mrs. Leghorn) in a short film about a brash young cockerel making his way in the world.

Chickens and sardines

A very short clip of our hens and Hobbes getting their weekly sardines. Expertly shot by Claire.

Hobbes and his girls

Looks like the fella has settled in. Just needs to earn his spurs now.

Hobbes update

Well, the bold boy (ha!) has mastered the ladders and can now get himself to bed. We let them out yesterday and the girls, particularly Miss Yellow and Mrs Red, were giving him a bit of a hard time but they did let him have some corn and they did let him go to bed. He'll soon learn that the call "chook, chook, chook" means something to eat.

In fact, he likes his bed. I had to "encourage" him down this morning and he was first upstairs tonight (by a long way). It's been a pretty miserable day here, weatherwise, so maybe he's smarter than the others, who were huddled under the hedge.

I don't know how used he is to being outside - will find out next week. Wind and rain might be a whole new experience for him. Roll on spring!!

Say "hello" to Hobbes

Say "hello" to Hobbes, our new cockerel, who arrived last night. As you can see he's a Light Sussex and he was bred by friends of ours, Mhairi and Tim. He's still a youngster, but he's a big boy already.

This was taken last night before he was put in with the girls for the night. The hope is that, by morning, they will think he's part of the flock...

We've kept the girls and Hobbes enclosed today so they can get used to each other. When we got Henry, we let him out on the first day with the girls but they kept running away and leaving him alone, so he didn't go to bed but roosted outside the french windows, resulting in a long chase and eventual capture behind Dan's bike in the garage and the loss of a few of Henry's tail feathers..

Hobbes didn't seem to understand the concept of ladders so had to be "encouraged" down this morning with a sharp push to his rump. However, he does seem to understand sunflower seeds and sardines!

He also now understands when Mrs Leghorn says "move", she means it. He's getting a wee bit of a hard time, but it will soon be time to go back to roost so, hopefully, he'll find his way to bed and they'll be a bit more settled tomorrow.

Henry, no more

Unfortunately, epecially for him, our cockerel, Henry, has been killed by a fox (we think). He was there at 10am when I left the house and, by the time Dan came home at noon, he was gone. All that was left was a pile of feathers. Dan followed the trail of feathers along the hedge and found the body under the brambles, headless.

It was a short life but, I think, a happy one - corn three times a day and unlimited sex. What more could a boy ask for!

So we'll have to think about a replacement, but not just yet.

Hatching eggs

For those of you waiting with bated breath for an update on our second attempt to hatch eggs, I can confirm that it was not a success. Once again, the incubator broke down. It really is most disappointing. It was working fine, apparently, then the heating element packed in, same as last time.

We are now waiting for Parcelforce to pick it up to return it to Ascott to be repard again.

Four out of the six eggs were fertile, too.

Ah, well. Third time lucky, maybe.

Try, try again

Well, the incubator is on again, with nine eggs this time.

Our last attempt ended in failure. None of the twelve eggs hatched. The six Maran eggs from our friend, Carol, were infertile. Four of our six were fertile but failed to hatch.

At least Henry is doing what we got him for, so the soup pot can be put away for a bit longer.

We think the temperature might have been abit high - the thermometer is really hard to read. However, we think we've sorted it this time.

Watch this space in three weeks or so.

Incubator in full swing

Last autumn we bought an incubator, in anticipation of getting a cockerel, or failing that buying fertlised eggs and hatching chicks from then. In the end of course we got Henry, and now that we're confident he's doing his best to fertilise some eggs we've fired up the incubator and stuck half a dozen of our Rhode Island Red eggs in there. We've also put half a dozen eggs in there for some friends whose Marin cockerel pegged it last week, but hopefully his line will continue if the incubator does its job.

This is day 1, so on or around Monday 29th May we might have a few more dependents, and we can start looking forward to our first home-reared table birds. For the next 18 days all we need to do is keep the humidity at the right level, and make sure the motorised egg-turner is doing its job.

Weeny eggs

Our Light Sussex pullets have started to lay - and they lay the weeniest eggs. They're popping them out like there's no tomorrow. We can't sell them so we're using them ourselves; they're fine for scrambling and Dan used some for custard today but you'd never manage to cut a soldier thin enough to have them as boiled eggs. Anyway, we've decided to pickle them - they are a perfect size for lunchboxes.

Oh, and Henry seems to have realised that we didn't just buy him for his plumage and his cock-a-doodle - he has been seen "dallying" with his wives, so hopefully we'll be able to hatch a few chicks soon.

Bird Flu

Some of you will be aware that a swan in Fife has been found to have died of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza (bird flu). We're about 50 miles away from Cellardyke, the small coastal village where the swan was found, dead on the beach, about 2 weeks ago. At the moment this has had no effect on us - there are restrictions on the transportation of poultry and eggs in the area, and poulty keepers around Cellardyke are now required to keep their flocks contained - but so far we're outside any restriction zones. Apparently pigs can carry the virus too, so if it does come to sunny Clackmannanshire our boys might have a stay of execution!

It's a relief that the response from the authorities has so far been measured and reasonable. I'm sure that if certain parts of the media had their way there would already be smouldering pyres of thousands of birds in a foot and mouth stylee - it would make great TV and front page splashes. Fortunately it's well understood by those who need to make the decisions that there are no practical means of containing the spread of bird flu, and that the swan in Fife is very unlikely to be the first bird in Britain to die from H5N1 - it just happens to be the first that was reported and found to have the virus.

Vaccination is one option we'd consider - our hens are young and only one step removed from our pets. It's said to cost about £2-3 per bird, and we'd be more than happy to pay that. Time will tell whether that's an option made available to us.

The measures put in place for poultry flocks do make sense, but it's inevitable that domestic fowl somewhere at sometime in the coming months will contract the virus, and entire flocks will have to be killed. There's a chance our hens and cockerel will have to be killed since we live about 100 metres from an island which is home to thousands of migrating wild fowl, and our birds are totally free-range - they would probably be considered as high risk. We'll be very sad if it comes to that, so we're preparing for the worst but hoping for the best.

Mallards in the garden

We seem to have been adopted by three Mallard ducks; two drakes and a duck. I've seem them in the field a couple of times recently, but today they were "sleeping" just outside the kitchen window.

Felix was stalking them yesterday but that obviously wasn't enough to scare them off (no surprise there, then). We've though about getting a few ducks, but we reckoned they would just decamp to the Inch. Maybe we could just tempt a few wild ones to come and eat slugs...

Cheeps

When we got our six Light Sussex pullets 10 weeks ago, we named then the Cheeps, because cheeping was what they did. Now that they are twenty weeks old, roughly, they are now clucking and should be coming to lay pretty soon.

Unfortunately, one committed suicide a few weeks ago by getting her head stuck between the ark and the frame of the extension run, but the other five look great. If we were going to name them, which we're not, I suppose names like Persil, Omo, Daz, Bold and Fairy would be appropriate as they are sparkling white.

As soon as they start to lay, we'll move them in with the old girls and Henry. Actually, Henry's quite interested in the Cheeps. In fact, I think his sap might be rising, so to speak. He seems interested in the hens now and has been observed getting quite amorous. He's also much more vocal and seems to keep the hens with him now. I wonder if this is a sign of him maturing?

We've been giving both groups their corn together for a few weeks now, so that, hopefully, when we do mix them, there will be only minor trauma. As we've done before, we'll put the Cheeps in with the others as soon as they go to roost in the hope that, by morning, they'll think they've always been one flock.

The old girls aren't laying particularly well. We lost one last week - Dan found her dead in the ark when he let them down one morning. She was fine going to bed so don't know what was the cause of death. The Leghorn is laying best, I think. She barely laid last year - well, we hardly got any eggs from her, but she may have been laying elsewhere. That's happened before.

Dan's Dad has built us a freestanding nest box. With ten laying (hopefully), we don't think two nest boxes will be enough so we've got this new nest box. It's being painted at the moment, needs some felt on the roof and a couple of ladders but should be ready for action next week. We found the pattern is a wee book that I've forgotten the name of, but when I remember, I'll post it here.

Reservoir Hens

We leg ringed our hens last weekend. We've never bothered before but I thought we should have some means of telling them apart. I envy people who can identify each hen - ours remain a kind of collective. Obviously, I can tell the Brown Leghorn from from the five RIR but the RIR are sufficiently similar that I can't tell them apart easily; likewise the Light Sussex. To be honest, sometimes I confuse Tess and Meg with each other and Cassius and Felix (if they aren't together).

Anyway, our hens now sport nice coloured leg rings in pink, purple, blue, green, yellow and red. They're like Reservoir Hens!!

Egg update

We got our second egg today - or, should I say, the dogs did. Felix rolled the first egg off the worktop on to the floor, so the dogs got that one. Today's was broken, so they got that one too.

It's not fair...

Clever Henry

After spending yesterday enclosed with the girls, Henry and his wives were allowed out to roam today, on the clear understanding that Henry was to go to bed in the ark tonight. Otherwise, the next incarceration would be longer than 24 hours.

He managed a few full blown "cock a doodle do's" this morning, as he strutted his stuff. Just checking out the opposition, I expect.

Good news is that Henry found his way back to the ark and was tucked up with his six wives when we came home from work tonight. The two tins of sardines seem to have convinced him that this is an OK place to live.

The wee pullets are also doing fine. They tootle up and down the ladders and are starting (the braver ones at least) to treat Tess with the same contempt as everyone else. Tess lies by the run and positively trembles at the sight of the pullets. We'll try to get some decent photos of them but if we take photos through the wire, the camera focusses on the wire rather than the pullets. To be honest, they're not very pretty yet - their feathers are still a bit sparse, they're a bit beaky and squeaky. Still, they should get better...

Meet Henry!

Well, we got our new hens today - or to be accurate, our six Light Sussex pullets and Henry, our Buff Sussex cockerel. More of the pullets tomorrow - but Henry is the main man, king of the dunghill, cock on the rock etc etc.

Mr Ogilvie, from whom we bought our new poultry, had very kindly caught both a RIR and a Buff Sussex cockerel. The RIR was a fine bird - but then we saw Henry! He really is quite magnificent. The photo does not do him justice. He moves awful fast and he's not very keen on folk with cameras (or folk in general, see below).

Having brought him home in the cat basket, we decided to be brave and put him in with our girls, who had been confined to the run for the morning. It WAS our intention to keep them confined all day, to "bond" and for Henry to find his way into the ark. We put him in "upstairs" and waited. And waited. The girls were staring expectently up the ladder then Henry, in a whoosh, made his descent. The Leghorn was NOT impressed - boy, did she lay into him. So did a couple of the Rhodies! He must be at least twice their size, but that didn't deter them. It wasn't pretty. I can see why cock-fighting was banned. And Henry barely retaliated - I don't know if this is good or bad. Anyway, we decided that he needed to escape so we let them out.

Eventually, the hens seemed happy to let him stay with them. At first, they seemed to be running off and leaving him to wander about on his own (awww). Then came bed-time. All the girls went to bed. Henry decided to make his own arrangements which involved bunking down beside the french doors. This didn't seem awfully sensible to us, so we decided to "herd" Henry into the ark. Not a chance. He's fast and agile; at one point we thought we had lost him into the scrub beside out field. We had a torch, a sheet to throw over him and a corral of chicken wire. None worked.

Eventually we managed to herd him into the garage and trapped him behind Dan's bike. He has a few fewer feathers than he had this afternoon, but at least he's not a) frozen or b) a fox's breakfast. He made the most frightful noise when we caught him and carried him back to the ark. We put him in beside the roosting hens and waited. All quiet - with all the running he did evading us, he must be exhausted.

Tomorrow, cock fight or no, I think Henry and his six wives will be having a quiet day in.

New Hens

Dan and I were out at the crack of dawn (well, actually before the crack of dawn) today sorting out the accommodation for our new poultry. I was going to say "hens" but of course, there will also be Henry the cockerel. We're not sure what breed Henry will be - depends who the breeder can catch on Saturday morning!

That's the planned collection date, so, all being well, we'll have some photos of our new arrivals on the site over the weekend.

Go Egg Incubator

After our ultimately disastrous first attempt at using our incubator this is just the ticket. (We had one live chick, but just as pipping started the heater in the incubator packed in, resulting in a cold, low humidity environment - just what new-born chicks don't need. Despite our best efforts to rig up a suitable substitute with a heat lamp the poor wee mite only lived an hour or so.)

Presenting the Go Egg Incubator - computer controlled and managed, just add water, electricity and fertilised eggs and 21 days later you've got chicks.

Via Engadget, who have a better photo than the manufacturer's site.

Eggs - Day 10

We candled the four eggs last night. Three of the four are growing something. One was clearly empty and has been removed.

I'm having a problem keeping the humidity high enough, even though the water tray is full.

Moving house

We moved the laying hens into the small ark yesterday. Since there are now only six, the small ark is quite big enough. In fact, coming into winter (although you wouldn't have thought so today - it's been a scorcher here), they are better in a small house to get more benefit from shared body heat. It's also daft to be bedding the big ark, when the small one will do. The only thing I'm a bit worried about is going from two nest boxes to one. However, there's always the carrots and the comfrey to lay in if the nestbox is occupied!!

We moved the hens last night after they had gone to roost. That way, they know to return to the small ark tonight, since that's where they came down from this morning. You may recall our previous difficulties when we moved the ark after the hens had gone out in the morning and they couldn't find their way back at night, spending a very cold night roosting who knows where and having to be herded back to the ark in the morning.

Another reason for moving the hens is that we plan to use the big ark for the young stock from our incubation project. So it has been pretty thoroughly cleaned and will get a dusting of louse and red mite powders and probably a coat of wood preservative before being reinhabited.

I hope we're not counting our chickens before they are even laid!

First eggs

Well, here we go!

Our friend, Carol, has bravely given us four Maran eggs to incubate for her. She has two Maran hens (in addition to lots of other Black Rocks) and a Maran cockeral called Malcolm. Carol has very kindly offered to let us try out the incubator with her eggs - I hope we're successful. Day 1 was 2nd September, so we'll be all a-quiver towards the end of the month as hatching approaches. We did get a candling lamp with our incubator kit, so I'll try that to check progress.

The incubator is in the guest room. It's quite noisy although you get used to it purring away in the background.

I'm going off to watch the "Tales from the Green Valley" now. And to check on the eggs!

Table birds and replacement laying hens

Well, we've finally bitten the bullet and ordered our incubator, brooder and despatcher. This is the first step towards raising our own layer flock replacements and raising our own table birds. We have ordered a kit from Ascott Smallholding Supplies.

We intend to buy fertilised eggs - the incubator we have bought takes 24 hen eggs but we might start with 12. Once the equipment arrives, we'll spend a few days playing with it (we might even read the instructions) and sussing out what else we need before we start.

We're going to use feed from the Allen and Page Smallholder Range - Baby Chick Crumbs, followed by Poultry Grower Pellets. The chick crumbs come in 5kg bags as well as 20kg bags, so that's quite helpful. The crumbs are coccidiostat free.

The plan is to put the incubator in the guest room (I suppose they are little guests and they won't dirty the ensuite). Once hatched, we plan to move the chicks to a round pen (so they can't get trapped in the corners) in the garage with the brooder light above. Once feathered and ready to go ouside, we will move the layers to the wee ark and the young poultry to the big ark with the extension run. There should be plenty room for them and they will be moved to fresh grass each day.

That's the plan, anyway. We'll keep you posted of developments.

Humboldt Hens

We're just back from a fantastic week in the beautiful island of Madeira (more on that later), but waiting in my mailbox was a note from worm guru Amy Stewart with the great news that she and Scott have become proud parents..... of four hens!

They're charting their progress at Humboldt Hens, well worth keeping an eye on. Careful though guys, they'll decimate your worms if they get the chance!

Learning the hard way

We lost another hen this evening. Two of the retired sheepdogs from the neighbouring farm occasionally come to visit us, and we make them welcome, give them a stroke or a brush and a few dog biscuits. They're good natured souls, and have had a hard life. One of them is Meg's mother, Gyp, who is an especially sweet dog. The other is Lyn.

Lyn sometimes chases the hens, but since Tess does exactly the same we'd never really worried about it. Tonight though she killed our Light Sussex, one of the original 3 hens we bought in 2002. The farm dogs had been down to visit, and had had their usual treats and attention. I was busy in a corner of the field trying (unsuccessfully) to plant some large silver birch trees (another story). Rosemary was in the house getting Lorna ready for bed. The garden gate was open, as it often is. Suddenly all hell broke loose around the bird feeder, about 50 yards from where I was working, and the Brown Leghorn flew along the lawn wings flapping. The Sussex had met a swift but violent end, neck broken.

We are both kicking ourselves for allowing the farm dogs access to the garden unsupervised. Needless to say it won't happen again. She was a lovely tame hen, by far the tamest of all, with quite a distinct character, and we'll miss her.

Eglu

A nice article on the BBC about the Eglu - a hen run designed for urban settings, sold complete with 2 hens. The correspondent is quite positive about the eglu and her experience with it. It looks ideal for anyone with a bit of grass and the curiousity to try hen keeping for themselves.

Then there were ten

Well, our poorly hen didn't make it through last night. We think it was a physical defect that did for her rather than sickness or disease - she had no symptoms of illness, no discharge, no visible parasites.

It's always a bit sad when one of our animals dies, and even more so when it's one we planned on having into its old age (unlike the pigs for example).

Poorly chook

One of our hens is a bit under the weather at the moment. Rosemary noticed it was a bit listless yesterday lunchtime, and said she'd be surprised if it lasted the night - it was a bit huddled and not terribly active so she isolated it in the old ark. When I got home from work it was still alive, and quite bright-eyed. Later in the evening she (the hen) produced a very large egg, and seemed to perk up, but we kept her by herself overnight.

This morning I found that she had laid a soft-shelled egg, and again seemed reasonably chipper. So we've marked her, and have left the end off of the ark so that she can rejoin the flock if she wants to. Fingers crossed she'll be okay and that it was a temporary egg problem, but if it persists we'll consider the common advice in these cases which is to cull the bird.

Pig & Hen in perfect harmony

The pigs are doing just fine. They sleep a lot more than last year's, but make up for lost time when they're awake. The pen is already well-turned, and by July should be pretty clean, ready for sowing a green manure and maybe some spuds. The main worry when planting potatoes on newly cultivated grassland is usually wire worm, but we should be okay - the hens, canny creatures that they are - have taken to following the ploughs that are the pigs, snatching any beasties that are unfortunate enough to be exposed by those powerful snouts. It's inevitable that some beneficial worms and insects will also suffer this fate, but many will also survive, and from what I've seen the brightly coloured wire worms are more attractive to the hens' eyes than the less conspicuous night crawlers.

Tonight while watering the vegetable beds, in the biting easterly wind, I noticed that the early peas are just starting to show through the soil. The tomatoes, aubergines and peppers are coming along in the greenhouse, as are the herbs Rosemary sowed about 10 days ago - thyme, sweet basil, chives and parsley. The established comfrey plants seem to swell daily, and might be large enough for a few leaves to be had to line the trench for the early spuds next weekend, and the dozen or so offshoots I planted weekend before last are showing signs of rooting strongly already.

Trampolining hens

On Sunday afternoon I planted about 400 Sturon onion sets in the big bed beside our garage. Since onions form a part of just about every meal we eat these will keep us going for about 10 months after harvest.

One of the downsides of keeping hens is the need to protect everything in the garden which can be damaged by the hens pecking, and scratching. With many vegetables, especially those sown direct or planted as small sets or tubers, that means netting. You can probably see where this is going.

I spent a good deal of time before planting the sets making supports and pegs out of old fencing wire and unravelling a large (4mx5m) net to cover the bed. After planting I stretched the net across the fence and supports, and pegged firmly into the ground. It's just high enough to stay in situ until harvest, and easy enough to take down a couple of times during the growing season to weed (onions hate competition).

Yesterday I arrived home from work with the aim of blocking on the tomato and pepper seedlings which have already germinated. The onion netting was still in place, but there was a large hen dropping right in the middle which indicated that all was not quite right. Regardless I proceeded to make some soil block mixture in the shed. When I came out I was greeted by the sight of 4 hens bouncing on the netting pecking at the sets on their way down, and balancing themselves with open wings on the way up. It was extraordinary, and I watched for a few minutes before coming to my senses and shooing them off. I've erected a temporary barrier from various bits of wood, large pots and the wheelbarrow to try to stop them getting close again, but I suspect they had far too much fun to give up easily...

Weekend past

Well, another glorious but cold weekend passes, and we're a little closer to being ready for our new pigs which we collect in 3 weeks. On Saturday we finished the fencing, stapling sheep netting to the rails, and on Sunday gave the pig ark and the old chook ark a coat of water-based preservative. They'll get at least one more coat in the next few weeks, and if we have the time and will another before the autumn.

Although the ground remains too hard to sow direct, meaning the parsnips still aren't in, the aubergines (Long Purple) were sown yesterday in soil blocks in the greenhouse. This morning the temperature in the greenhouse was -3.5 degrees C, the lowest it's been this winter, so everythign tender is on a heated pad, which doesn't really effect the ambient temperature but does provide sufficient bottom heat to prevent damage to seedlings.

Finally we detected a few common poultry louse on a couple of hens, so all were treated with powder on Saturday, to be repeated every week for the next month. We had a similar problem last year, which we're certain was imported on 3 new hens we bought, but it's not serious and does mean the hens get used to being handled, which is no bad thing.

New hens

Yesterday evening we made the short trip to Drum to collect our new hens - 8 Rhode Island Reds in fabulous condition, just coming into lay. Due to Forsham's abysmal customer service (I won't say more) we didn't have the fixings for constructing the new ark, so they spent their first night here in the shed before being moved into the old ark this morning once it was vacated by the old hens (keeping up?).

This afternoon we got the new ark built, just in time for one of our old Rhodies who was clearly needing some private time and liked the look of the new nest boxes - she went straight in as soon as the last screw was affixed and did her stuff. The new hens are a little freaked by Tess, who treats the arks like Hen TV, and who is mesmerised by the new arrivals, but they'll soon treat her with the same disdain as every other animal we own. We'll tackle the integration of the old and new in a week or so, but for now everyone has a safe, comfortable home and somewhere private to lay.

Poultry articles

This afternoon the snow stopped me doing much more outside after finishing the fence posts for the new pig pens so I spent a couple of hours completing the poultry articles. This will at least be good news to David, who will now be able to demonstrate to Hilary that keeping hens means a little effort, a great deal of enjoyment and some fantastic products.

It's not a 6ft hutch, is it?

It was so disappointing. We had arranged to pick up our new hens, 8 Rhode Island Reds, this coming Sunday. The new ark was sitting in shrink-wrapped glory waiting to be assembled. We were all set.

So imagine our disappointment on opening said ark this afternoon (we'd both finished at 4pm specially to tackle the task) to find that the instructions and fixings were not for our Boughton 904 but instead a 6ft Proper Hutch. A phone call to Forsham secured an assurance that the correct instructions and fixings will be with us on Monday, but it leaves us with the imminent arrival of 8 hens and nowhere for them to live.

We have formulated a contingency plan involving the shed, but hopefully the kind chap we're buying the hens from will be happy for us to pick them up a few days later than originally planned.

New bedding

We're, well I'm, lucky enough to have a horse. For those interested, Smokey, or Munro of Millfield, is a 15.1hh grey Highland gelding. He'll be seven in May and I've owned him since August 2002. Owning Smokey has been the fulfillment of a lifetime's dream and I could bore for Britain on his positive attributes (many) and shortcomings (few).

Anyway, last winter (2002/03), Smokey worked very hard to provide us with copious amounts of dung. Every morning when I mucked out his box, I would put on my "Marigolds" and fill a large skip with the "hard stuff", shaking off excess shavings, and bring it home in the boot of the car.

We were, at that time, bringing into cultivation an area of rough grass behind the garage. So each morning, about a square yard of ground was covered by a thick layer of dung. A black polythene sheet was rolled forward over the dung and weighted down. Come spring, the polythhne was removed, the soil lightly worked and potatoes planted. What a crop! And barely a weed showing.

Over the summer of 2003, I invested in rubber mats for Smokey's stable. A thin layer of shavings goes on the mats each day to soak up excess moisture. The mats are great, but the dung seems to get very broken down into the shavings and it's very difficult to remove it without loads of shavings attached.

So, we're investigating using hemp as bedding. It's a wee bit more expensive per bale than shavings but it is, according to the bumf, four times more absorbent. But the real plus is that we can get organic hemp, it's sustainable and best of all, it rots down into quality compost in eight weeks.

The main problem is sourcing it. To get it at a reasonable price, you have to buy it by the pallet load. So, we're going to buy a few bales locally next weekend, to try it. If we like it, we might have to bite the bullet and buy a pallet load.

We're going to try it as bedding for the hens as well. We use shavings currently so when I do the weekly clean of the chook ark, I remove all the dung into the compost bin, as free of shavings as possible, then remove the shavings. Using hemp should let me remove everything into the compost bin.

We'll keep you posted of developments.

Planned expansion

At the moment we only have 4 hens - one of our original 6 died of natural causes in the summer, and another was taken (we think) by a fox in the autumn. This spring we plan to get another 8 to give us an even dozen - there is plenty of demand for the extra eggs, besides which we like having them around.

So we need a bigger house for them. We've got a Forsham Boughton 902A at the moment, and have been extremely pleased with it. Most importantly it's practical and easy to manage - with wheels on one end we move it every day or so to fresh grass. It's also very well built of good quality materials and will last a good number of years. Given all this it's no surprise we're going to get a 904 - basically a bigger version of the 902A. It's more expensive than some of the offerings out there, but at 399 UKP inclusive (we'll get the VAT back too) it's not bad value, and will pay for itself in a year or so with egg money.

All we need to do now is decide which breeds we're going for and then find a local source (if possible).

When moving house

Yesterday R mentioned to me how exposed the hen's ark was, positioned as it was down by the river. So in the morning I dutifully wheeled it across to the orchard, thinking that the chooks would be able to find it without problem, since they do cover a fair bit of ground most days.

I was wrong. They spent the coldest night we've had for a long time (-6 degrees) out in the garden somewhere away from their snug roost. They seemed none the worse for wear for it this morning, and we even had our first egg for a couple of weeks. To prevent a repeat I made sure that they knew where their hoose was today by cajoling them over with some corn and demonstrably pointing it out to them (a couple of passers-by were most amused, and I've learned my lesson).