Mild October

Yet another warm, dry and sunny day. The weather has been exceptionally mild this month and with it comes advantages and disadvantages. Everything in the garden is still growing. On Tuesday I cut the grass, including the hens run, I thought the previous cut was the last. Of course the fact the grass is still growing is good for the geese and sheep and having to cut the 'lawn' is only mildly inconvenient. The newly sown grass seeds are shooting nicely and as long as we don't get a frost too soon should be fine through the winter.
On Tuesday I also pulled up the runner beans, they would have probably gone on a bit longer but to be honest we are all 'beaned out', we have cooked, frozen and pickled so many that we can no longer face them.
The flower garden has gone a little haywire, with flowers blooming out of season. The spirea is flowering for the second time, the lemon verbena which failed to flower throughout the summer is now in bloom, the small blue iris have been flowering for a couple of weeks and there are also new flowers on the strawberry plants.
The bees are still as busy as they were in the summer collecting pollen for their winter stores.
Unfortunately the warm, mild weather is perfect for flystrike and I do worry about my ewes, as the friend whose holding they are on isn't quite as vigiliant as I feel necessary.
The hens are enjoying the warm days. The pullets are gradually coming into lay one by one, increasing the egg number. Both Dorkings are laying daily but the Cream Legbars are in moult and have stopped completely. The turkeys are growing fine, if a little too quickly and as for the pigs, well they are enjoying their last few days in the sun.

Planning visit

We spent most of Saturday sorting through the remaining household items in MIL's house. Yet more boxes to the charity shop and tip. We decided to take a few boxes to the auction house this weekend. I'm sure there is nothing of great value just a few things we don't know what to do with. So I have spent most of this morning, sorting, washing and wrapping. There is still the odd item of furniture in the house ( not to mention all the boxes in our house ) but we really do need to clear it all now so the renovation of the house can progress...... and I always thought my husband's parents never had many possessions!

Today the planning officer came out to the house. The back extension for a fourth bedroom is a non started, much as we expected. She seems to think the front porch and sun room should go through and also the pitch roof, although she didn't seem too enthusiastic by any of the ideas. It appears we will also need planning to use hung slate on the side wall. At least now she has visited, the architect can draw up and submit the plans. I think it is going to be a long drawn out affair.

In the meantime what can be done is getting done. The electrician has been out and worked on the third floor and the bathroom on the second floor and now instead of plaster coming off the walls and the walls coming down, walls are being rebuilt and re plastered.

As for work on our house.......one day !!

Pig keeping - one week to go

The two gilts are booked in for next Monday. They are ready to go. They are certainly big enough...maybe a little too big. Using the length x girth method they weigh in over 100kg !! and with the change in the weather it's time. Their run is getting muddy and we are getting through quite a lot of straw, not to mention feed. Unfortunately they will miss most of the apple waste from the cider making, although we are doing our best to clear the veg. patch before they depart.
Over the next week we need to decide upon and draw up a cutting plan for the butcher. Both of the pigs were originally to be processed for gammon, sausages and bacon but the expense involved has cause us to rethink. We can either choose to have some of the meat back as pork joints, and maybe process them at a later date ourselves or try selling some of the meat to friends and redeem a proportion of the money spent that way.
Whatever we decide by this time next week we will no longer be pig keepers.. until then I will worry....will they escape from the trailer, will the trailer tip over ( impossible my husband reckons, pigs have a low center of gravity - whatever that means! ) will they be too fat or a real possibility too big for the scraping machine, which means they will have to be skinned (extra cost) will they be condemned...enough, enough all will be fine!!

Next year we will have forgotten the expense, the worry and the work and just remember what fun they were and how lovely the pork and bacon was and we will start looking for weaners again.

Crowing hen

'A whistling woman and a crowing hen are neither fit for God nor men' or so the saying goes.

For the past few days a strange noise has been heard coming from the layers pen. My initial thought was the young Australorp was in fact a 'he' and was trying out his newly found voice. However this morning whilst tidying up the run I noticed Peggy, one of the geriatric gang, stretching her neck and flapping her wings and attempting to crow!

A hen crowing is a result of hormonal changes, due either to an infection of, or a tumour on, the ovaries. Due to Peggy's age the cause is most likely the latter. The geriatric gang were due to be dispatched a while ago, but as two of them came back into lay after their moult, they were given a reprieve. Now they really must go.

Today we took Annie the Zwartbles ewe and Freda the Shropshire/Jacob shearling to our friend's smallholding to run with the ram. They will actually go in with him on Thursday, meaning they will lamb, hopefully the last week of March 2010. It is a different ram this year, by the name of Stanley. Sadly not as handsome as Johnny, the ram of the previous two years, but as long as he produces well, looks aren't too important as any lambs will be for meat not breeding. Both Johnny and Stanley are Suffolk rams and the cross produces lambs with a good carcass. There is talk next year of putting the ewes to a Zwartbles ram, which is good as any ewe lambs born to Annie could be potential replacement ewes.

With the ewes gone until Christmas and the gilts and lamb ready to be booked in for slaughter, the yard is soon going to become very quite !

Welsummer pullets

Three of the six Welsummer pullets that hatched on 19th April this year have come into lay. Becky, one of the three I have chosen to join the laying flock laid first - on 2nd October at 24 weeks. She has laid every day since, bar one. However the day after she missed she laid two eggs, a normal one and a soft shelled one. She appears to have the makings of a good layer, already the eggs are a good size. She is also very friendly.
On the 17th October a pullet from the birds I rejected and am rearing for the pot laid. Typically her eggs are the most gorgeous dark brown. Even though I am tempted to keep her I can't, she has severely bent outer toes on both feet. A result I understand from the brooder floor being too hot, this could well be the case as she was the first to hatch and stayed the longest in the incubator. A lesson learnt for next year !
Today a second pullet from the chosen layers laid her first egg - 3 weeks after Becky, hopefully she will be as reliable a layer as Becky.
A Speckled Sussex from the same hatch has also come into lay, but in 7 days has only laid 2 eggs. She was one I was going to keep as a breeding bird for the meat flock, hopefully by the Spring she will be a little more productive.

Winter mornings

For the first time this year I really didn't want to get up when the alarm went off. Normally I am a morning person, often up well before the alarm, but today it was dark, my bed was cosy and I could hear it was very windy and wet outside. Also the house was cold. So far this year we have only lit the wood burners a couple of times on the coldest of evenings. Later on we will light them both and keep them in continuously. Wood is free, we collect it throughout the year from various building jobs and have quite a stash. It does mean that there are numerous nails, screws and door hinges amongst the ashes, but we can live with that. We also have a small pile of 'proper' logs from hedging done the previous winter. These we keep for the Christmas holidays, when we tend to sit around more with an open fire. Keeping the wood burners lit the whole time, warms the whole house as the chimney and walls retain the heat, making the house warm to get up to.
However I did have to get up. We need to leave the house by 7 0 clock, this gives me an hour to see to all the animals before work, and before we do leave I like to let out the laying flock, feed and water them and clean their houses. This morning, it was just too dark. I opened their doors much to their surprise and alarm, put out food and fresh water but had to leave the cleaning and moving of houses until I returned.
Actually once up, it was nice to be out, I came home fresh and windblown, if a little wet.

Fruit trees planted

We spent the weekend planting the fruit trees and finishing the front garden ...well almost !

We still have the soft fruit i.e raspberries, strawberries, fig and kiwi to plant against the south facing wall and also a fence and gate to erect along the path edge, to keep the dog off the garden. For now we have a length of orange fencing wire tied across the gap. When he was a puppy our dog misjudged the height of an electric fence, since then he only needs to see a piece of orange wire and stays clear - live or not !!

Back to the garden... all the fruit trees are in, 3 apple, 2 pear and 1 apricot. Also a blackcurrant bush, a jostaberry, a red currant and a gooseberry. We have also transplanted the cranberry, from the back garden to the edge of the bog garden, as they like the soil to be moist.


Before sowing the grass seeds we planted groups of 'tete- a- tete' daffodil bulbs and crocus bulbs.


On the slope, by the steps we have planted a Star of Jasmine, against the wall, a Daphne odora bush and 3 winter boxes. All are scented and flower at different times of the year.

On the edge of the bog garden we have added a dogwood.


A few tweaks and a few years for it to become established and it will start to resemble a garden not a building site.....finally !!! That is if it all grows !!

Autumn sunshine, autumn leaves

The Tamworth gilts enjoying the autumn sunshine and autumn leaves.

Getting ready for the ram

Yesterday we sorted the ewes ready to go to the ram, the week of the 26th October. Firstly we trimmed their feet, actually only Freda the Shropshire/Jacob shearling needed doing. Zwartbles seem to have remarkably good feet, or at least Annie does, which require very little attention.

Next we sponged them. This involves inserting a progesterone sponge into the vagina of the ewe to mimic pregnancy and arrest ovulation. When the sponge is withdrawn the progesterone levels drop and all the ewes treated come into heat at the same time. Synchronizing the mating like this is ideal if you borrow a ram for a limited time. It also, in turn, concentrates the lambing over a short period, which is helful if, as many smallholders do, you work full time. My friend usually likes to time her lambing for the Easter holidays but this year needs to be a couple of weeks earlier. Of course it not 100% fool proof, you always get a couple of ewes lambing early or a couple of stragglers, but on the whole it's helpful. Would I do it if I didn't send my ewes to my friend's ram...probably not.

Whilst at the yard my friend/vet also confirmed what I already knew, but needed someone else to say....Fred has to go.
His undershot jaw is too pronounced and although he is getting enough nutrition to stay alive, he's not getting enough to grow properly and things will only get worse. He has no covering of fat and although he is fine now he will struggle through the winter. We will keep him until I can arrange for Alfie the other lamb to go to slaughter and then I'll call the knackerman. It's an awful shame, Fred, has such a gentle character, unlike many bottle fed lambs, but he has too many things going against him.

Fruit trees delivered

This morning the fruit trees we ordered, late on Sunday afternoon, from Victoriana Nursery Gardens arrived.

They were extremely well packed. I now have enough straw to keep the chickens in nesting material for 6 months or more ! and as far as I can tell are fine. Fruit trees aren't my department but to my eye they look healthy and a good shape, certainly better than any we looked at locally. As soon as the others arrive we can plant them.

Some of the trees are on a root stock for shallow rooting and will need permanent staking. We chose these as they will be planted in a garden that has been created above a supporting wall and a garage that has been dug into the hillside, so has limited soil depth.

The front garden looks as if though it's finally taking shape....just the house left to do now !!!

Planning application

Last Wednesday's meeting with the architect confirmed our doubts on the likelihood of getting all our plans approved.

The erection of a front porch shouldn't prove a problem, as several houses in the street already have one. There will be conditions applied, as the main street of the village is a conservation area but nothing that we are unable to work with.

The extension of a sun room onto the side of the house shouldn't pose any problems at all. It's just the second floor extension at the back that is going to prove the sticking point.
It will mean extending beyond the present boundary, close to the neighbour. So rather than submit a full application straight away, the architect has taken photos and drawn up basic plans and submitted a preliminary application. We are now waiting for a site meeting with the planning officer to see where we stand. The only argument we have in our favour is we will be replacing a flat roof ( a planning officers pet hate) with a pitched roof.

There is still work that can be done to the interior of the house, but it is getting close to the stage where no more can be done until we know how or if we can extend, when we reach that point all we will be able to do is wait for a decision to be made.

Fruit trees

After much deliberation we have finally ordered the fruit trees for the front garden. Unable to find exactly what we wanted locally we bought online from two different nurseries.

From Reads Nursery we have ordered a 2 year old bush Conference pear and a 2 year old bush Apricot Goldcott

From Victoriana Nursery Gardens we have ordered Apples Devonshire Quarrenden , Sunset & Winston

Also a pear Doyenne du Comice

All are container grown so should arrive soon and can go in straight away. Once in, we can plant the bulbs and sow the grass seeds, hopefully in time for it to be established before the winter ( the grass sown in the pig's pen is coming through nicely with the help of the recent rain ).

Next we have to decide on the soft fruits we would like.

Keeping pigs

In the morning, time is limited, so to ensure all the aniamls at the yard are fed, watered, checked and tidied we spilt the chores. This year the care of the pigs appears to have fallen almost entirely to my husband. Looking through some old photos this weekend it seems he is just following in the family tradition.

Photo: My husband as a small boy, helping to feed the pigs.


Photo: His father with two of many piglets they reared over the years.( I have to admit we don't dress quite so well for work )


Photo: His grandfather- on the right, slaughtering and butchering a pig.

Bee movies Varroa & Propolis

(Mum Dad to play the videos click on the arrow on the bottom left corner, once it starts click again, leave for a couple of minutes. This will allows the video to upload, press again and the video should play straight through, without buffering/stopping & starting. Hope it works ! )


Varroa mite walking along the entrance of the hive from left to right, before apiguard treatment



Bee collecting propolis from an eke removed from the hive




Busy bees on a warm October morning, bringing in plenty of ivy pollen

Cold days - Warm eggs

I had forgotten, until today or since last winter, how nice it feels on a cold miserable day to have a warm, freshly laid egg in your hand whilst doing the out door chores.

Today Sylvia the broody Dorking came back into lay. Her chicks are now 12 weeks old, take the 3 weeks she was sitting and the previous week broody, she has been out of lay for 4 months!

Next year, when using broodies I shall take the chicks away from the hen at 5/6 weeks of age. By then they should be well feathered and more than able to take care of themselves. Sylvia was left with hers for longer as she only had the two, it was the end of the breeding season and it was easier to let them run with the flock. To be honest I was surprised Sylvia came back into lay at all this year.

Three of the growers at the yard are looking close to lay, as are the two Welsummer pullets in with the layers, which means I will soon be able to start selling eggs again.

Hospital job

When my mother in law died, the undertaker, a family friend, asked what we planned to do with her house. We said we intended to do it up and rent it out. He commented that it would make a good hospital job. Not an expression I had heard before but apparently in the trade it is the term used for a job that can be picked up and put down as suits and the renovation of the house has turned out to be just that.

My husband runs a small family building company. He is the third generation under the present company's name, although masonry as a trade goes back to the early 1800s. In early summer when work was quiet they worked on gutting the house - removing the bathrooms and kitchen and taking some of the old walls back to the stonework, shifting others. Since then it has been left, until this week when the weather turned wet and there were no indoor jobs on the books.

Work on the house has now started again. Work on the top floor can go ahead without waiting for the architect ( coming tomorrow) to draw up the plans and planning permission to be given (or not ) . So today we bought the shower tray and disagreed over the style of the remaining suite and the floor and wall tiling. There's an awful long way to go before completion, maybe the term hospital job is appropriate !!


( Photo: Of my husband's Great Grandfather ( standing by the cart in the bowler hat), Grandfather(sitting in the cart) and Great Uncle ( on the scaffolding, he was killed in the first world war) rebuilding the cottages destroyed by fire at the end of the terrace to the house we are now renovating )

Truly Autumn

Autumn has arrived .... it has been creeping up on us for a while, but for me at least Autumn officially starts when the Canadian geese arrive on mass. There has been the odd few arriving over the past couple of weeks, but today their cries could be heard most of the morning as they flew over head in formation heading for the farmer's pond and paddock. Their calls were once described as sounding like an excited crowd of people all talking at once. There is something very special about them, no matter how many times I have seen them, when they fly overhead I find myself stopping what I am doing and looking skyward.

The Sweet Chestnut has also started to drop it leaves, covering the path to the back door with a layer of soggy or crunchy leaves, depending on the weather, with the odd prickly fruit hidden amongst them. The hedge along the paddock is also beginning to loose its leaves, which will need clearing so as not to spoil the grass. They make wonderful leave mould when left to rot in a heap under the hedge.

The bird feeder in the garden is getting busy again and there have been mixed flocks of finches passing through. The grey and pied wagtail have returned and the jay calls from the holly tree.

In the evenings the smell of wood smoke hangs in the air as people light their fires ready to settle for the evening and the hens are in bed by 7 o clock!

Auction day and Welsummer change of plan .. .again!

Why is it that a day off leaves you feeling more exhausted than a hard days work ? Yesterday we went, as arranged, to the poultry auction and afterwards to several garden centres looking for fruit trees, arriving home, after collecting the dog in time to do the evening livestock rounds. We were both shattered !!

The auction was, as always fascinating and fun with a good atmosphere but there were fewer people than expected, many commented on how quiet it was. Although over 200 lots, the variety of birds was small and the standard not that good. Several pens were marked as sub standard, although this also referred to utility birds ( as it was a rare and minority breed auction ) there were very few top quality or premium quality birds, most only managing standard. Most prices were realistic, some low with some birds not reaching their reserve. All the turkeys failed to make their price. It was interesting to notice how fashion for different breeds change. In March Buff Orpingtons were making silly money, yesterday the Buff and Speckled Sussex sold well as did the Welsummer.
I didn't buy anything. There were two pens of Indian Game, one a trio, one a pair. Neither were that special and as I don't 'need' them until the Spring I shall take my time to look around.

However we have had a change of plan. Mr Voice of Reason, yes his idea, not mine, suggested that I ought to keep the Welsummer cockerel and the three good pullets to breed from next year, as mine do seem to compare very favourably (she says modestly) to yesterdays birds that managed to reach a good standard. So the cockerel is no longer for dinner and a new breeding house and pen needs to be organised.


(Photo: The cockerel- 24 weeks - does have slight feathering/stubble on his legs which is a fault, but hopefully one that will breed out.
Middle: Light Sussex cockerel 19 weeks
Below: Light Sussex trio with Brahma Cross? )

Poultry auction and first egg !

As anticipated the Welsummer pullet - 24 weeks tomorrow - has laid her first egg. I have called her Becky, the hen not the egg, as she is the one with the overgrown beak and Becky sounds kinder than Beaky. She laid in the small ark rather than the nest box, but as there was a queue this morning for the nestbox, she is forgiven. Yes there are plenty of nest boxes for the number of hens, it's just they all prefer the right hand corner space, especially if it is already occupied !

(photo: colour range of eggs, small welsummer pullet egg bottom center)



It is quite apt that Becky laid today as tomorrow is the 'rare and minority breed' poultry auction at Newton Abbott and it was there in March that I bought the hatching eggs from which she came.
The auction is held twice a year, March and October. The March one was the first we had been to and we are hoping to go tomorrow. It will mean getting the livestock fed and watered early, we usually give everything a thorough clean and tidy on a Saturday morning but that will have to wait until the afternoon or Sunday. We will take the dog to a friends for the day and can then set off. ( can you tell I don't get out much and am quite excited ? ) Newton Abbott does hold a fortnightly poultry auction throughout most of the year but the rare breeds one is good as all the birds are inspected and judged. The cages are marked as good quality, standard or faulty so you have some idea what you are buying. Faulty can often mean something as trivial as the bird having lice or maybe the wrong colouring for the breed standard. Unlike the fortnightly auction where you bid price per bird at tomorrow's auction the price is per pen and no pen will sell below £10. There are expected to be at least 450 birds. I am hoping to buy some Cornish/Indian game but when I rang the auctioneers this morning they weren't sure if any had been entered, which will please Mr.Voice of Reason who was/is under the impression that we are just going to look!

I shall take a couple of carrying boxes all the same ... just in case.

The waiting game - First egg

The Welsummer pullets are now 24 weeks old and are very close to laying. Of the three I brought back to the layers run 2 are reddening up nicely and one ( the one whose beak needs trimming ) has been in and out of the nest box for several days now - a sure sign that it is only a matter of days before we get the first egg.



The 3 remaining Welsummer pullets in the growers pen are also beginning to redden and the cockerel is showing an interest in one of them and also one of the Speckled Sussex from the same hatch, so they too are close to laying.

It will be interesting to see who lays first. The 3 in the layers run have been fed layers pellets for the last few weeks, the birds in the growers pen have been on rearer pellets until a couple of weeks ago, recently they have been fed mixed corn and barley.

The Speckled Sussex, who in fact is promising to be a lovely bird, is the one I took a bet on, waging a dozen eggs for a tray bake that 'she' was a cockerel. I guess her first dozen eggs are spoken for !

( Photo: some of the laying hens enjoying the shade.)