This year we have bought 2 hatcheries from Ebay, always liking a good deal we offered the guy £250 for them both and got them £50 off
Each hatchery will hatch 48 chickens and duck eggs and 24 goose eggs, fully automatic thank goodness.
Hubby bought 48 mixed farmyard layer eggs from Ebay and day 21 is today and so far 4 have hatched, Im not holding out much hope for many more.
In the second hatcher is a mix of 25 duck eggs (Alebury and Pekin) and 20 mixed layer chicken eggs (bought from Melton cattle market) and Im really looking forward to having some ducks. I will house them in the hen house at the side of the hens. The hen house is a huge brick built things for those who dont know.
I already have a solid plastic kids paddling pool for the ducks, the geese use the lake on the land but as ducks pooh as they swim and Im planning on trying some trout fry in the lake I dont want the water polluted by the ducks.
Im going out every 2 days to collect the goose eggs from my flock and so far have collected 20, 4 more and 3 days we can reuse the 1st hatchery as the baby chicks come out.
The chicks will go into a box with a heat lamp until they are a little bigger and have bought some chick crumb from a local guy.
This year we are trying some veg crops as I used to have 2 allotments prior to the smallholding and have missed growing stuff.
We have erected a polytunnel (40ft x 12) and have dug some beds for tender crops, ie toms, aubergine and melons plus underplanting with salad crops.
The main stuff is being planted in approx half an acre which we are setting up an electric fence around so some pigs will rotovate it and get out the nettle roots which my land is infested with
So far its cost a bloody fortune so I hope I can get some good crops and may even try selling the excess.
My fruit cage is going to be 24ft by 24ft and have already bought the soft fruit to go in it. Early mid and late raspberries, logan berries, blue berries and gooseberries, my strawbs are planted near my polytunnel.
Id love to grow some grapes for wine making and eating but I think we are too far north, I know we are for peaches
We are also planning an orchard and have bought a few apples pears, cherry and plum trees. I have to make sure that the trees can polinate each other so am learning all I can about which goes with which.
In the next few days we are going to cut the established fruit trees here down to a manageable height and hopefully get a good crop this year as last year was terrible.
Oh and talking about fruit trees, last year someone stole all my greengages, plums and sloes!!!!! I was so dam angry!! I didnt have any sloe gin for Christmas!!!
This year someone has been digging up my bulbs and taking them!! I should just let my sheps out and see how fast the thieves can run eh?
Ive finally stopped the chest infection in my sheep with injections of anti's, so far we've lost 3 sheep. Sheep are expensive business!
