11

Poultry & Waterfowl / Re: Duck Wax

« Last post by sludge7 on April 24, 2025, 10:09:03 am »

Found a supplier so putting this here in case anybody else is looking for the same thing and searches this forum -- it's https://www.storeypoultrysupplies.co.uk/ -- very helpful friendly staff.

12

Wildlife / Re: Swallows'25

« Last post by sabrina on April 23, 2025, 04:21:36 pm »

No sign yet in the North East of Scotland, well not here near Banff.

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Wildlife / Re: Swallows'25

« Last post by Possum on April 22, 2025, 12:59:09 pm »

Ours are late this year. Have just see the first one the morning. Still gives me a thrill every year!

14

Poultry & Waterfowl / Re: Duck Wax

« Last post by SallyintNorth on April 22, 2025, 12:53:49 pm »

maybe find the nearest processing plant and see if they'll sell you a bit?

15

Poultry & Waterfowl / Re: Duck Wax

« Last post by sludge7 on April 22, 2025, 10:17:10 am »

REALLY small numbers -- half a dozen birds a year or so, for home consumption. 

I have tried scalding -- it's okay, but I'm not 100% sold.  Still want to try waxing to see if I like that better but can't find the **** wax! 

16

Wildlife / Re: Mast year for Birch?

« Last post by Fleecewife on April 22, 2025, 12:14:09 am »

We always have lots of baby birch trees appearing all over the garden, especially anywhere with a gravel mulch. Total pain!  We have dug up lots to transplant into our tree areas, but there is a limit and it looks as if we'll reach it next year 


A mast year, presumably named after beech mast ie seeds, happens for different tree types in different years as I understand it.  It's when that tree species produces an overabundance of seeds in an apparent effort to swamp the ground with their seeds, presumably to increase the chance of more of their species taking root.
It was either last year or the year before that Sycamores had a mast year and social media was full of people asking for ID of seedlings found throughout their gardens.  Just as I'll be finding next year.


Your dogs helping with removing the seedlings is brilliant  It reminded me of the year our Heinz 57 wonderful dog Calli helped us to remove the old stalks of brassicas such as Purple Sprouting Broccoli and brussels Sprouts.  She was really good at it, but of course the following year she was found joyously ripping out our new crop   How to explain?

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Poultry & Waterfowl / Re: Duck Wax

« Last post by Richmond on April 21, 2025, 08:16:24 am »

What sort of numbers of ducks are you dealing with? Have you tried scalding them?

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Announcements / New diary post: Seeds / Sheep / A hole

« Last post by TAS Bot on April 20, 2025, 07:28:26 pm »

A new TAS diary entry has been posted: Seeds / Sheep / A hole

19

Poultry & Waterfowl / Duck Wax

« Last post by sludge7 on April 20, 2025, 11:18:05 am »

Fed up with dry hand plucking and wanted to give wax plucking a try, but can't for the life of me find anywhere selling wax for plucking in smallholder-friendly quantities -- I don't really want to buy 25kg until I know it's working for me -- and even then, that could be more than I will go through in a reasonable length of time....

Can anybody point me in the direction of somewhere online in the UK to buy duck plucking paraffin wax?

20

Wildlife / Re: Mast year for Birch?

« Last post by doganjo on April 20, 2025, 10:10:21 am »

I had that last year - no idea what causes it but it's a damn pest.     I was pulling seedlings up all summer - in the rain mostly! Even Tom and Missy had got the hang of it and were pulling them out with their front teeth 
What is a mast year?