Woolly Bears, Dog and House Martins

 We are renewing some of our hen equipment with two new houses and new feeders, There are a plethora of feeders on the market, we have bought one of these Emperor feeders which so far seem robust and despite having constantly open feeders they seem to produce very little waste. Another advantage is that the feed constantly visible the chickens are more interested and take in more feed.

 The Tomatoes are out of the tunnels now ready for planting Spinach, Spring green and Salads.

 While clearing the tunnel we noticed an infestation of these woolly bear caterpillars they have been around for a couple of years in the tunnels but only this year have they been causing appreciable damage. They seen to live off anything from Nettles, Tomatoes to brassica and Nasturtium. We picked up these above from about 1m2 after the Tomatoes were removed. I have no idea what species they are but do know they develop into a small moth with red wings.

 Tomatoes picked for ripening in the greenhouse before sale on the market.

 Following the loss of my dog Millie we have bought an older trained dog to do the work. This picture is when she first arrived looking very nervous. She is much brighter now and is working sheep well. More on her later.

An image from August of the House Martins getting ready for their trip to Africa. in years gone by there would have been ten times this number but we have seen a steady decline over the past ten years. I fear the time is not long away when there may be none at all arriving in spring.

Good, bad and lessons learned

This is the strangest season I've known  we are by my reckoning four weeks behind what we have come to regard as normal. By far the most demanding of years as almost everything has been negatively affected.
The vegetables such as carrots parsnips leeks and beetroot have been slowed down but should hopefully produce a crop they require relativity low growing temperatures. All the most marginal crops however have effectively lost a month of their growing season. While we may get some tomatoes, courgettes, fine beans and squash the shorter growing season will  dramatically reduce the harvest.

The bees have had it rough I've not lost any colonies but have had to feed once in June. The swarming this year has been phenomenal. In one apiary I had all 14 colonies swarming in July and even had a swarm issue in the last week of July.      

The sheep have enjoyed the good grass growth and we have one the best crop of lambs. The hay though still has not been cut as our contractor was away during our only (so far) good week. We're sweating on three or four consecutive rain free days, none in sight so far.

So what have we learned this year?
We have an urgent need to build diversity into our systems. the climate now can produce drought or flood, poor light levels or searing heat. To produce economic crops in these variable conditions there has to be a range of crops able to cope with these extremes.
The poor growing conditions have highlighted a fertility problem here. When there are low temperatures and poor light, fertility needs to be high in order to take advantage of  what warmth there is. Our green manure system will be incorporated with the animals (hens and sheep) to boost nitrogen and phosphate levels.   

Keeping the bees with young queens is vital in poor years, to loose half your bees and the stores to a swarm can spell disaster for the honey crop. This year has been the worst for swarming by an order of magnitude Next year we will be raising queens for all the colonies from the earliest possible date regardless of the
 age of the queen. We are aiming for each colony to have a queen of the current year and a partner nucleus hive with a young queen.

The sheep this year have done well, lambs are looking good with no signs of the fly and worm problem of last year. We have developed a comprehensive health plan with the vet and so far it seems to have produced the desired results.

We may have to look into our own hay making equipment this year, the opportunity to make good hay can have a  tiny window that small hay producers like us need to be able to respond quickly before the chance is gone. 

Rearing Laying Hens

 We have long since raised our laying hens from day old chicks, there is a scarcity of point of lay organic hens and when they are available the cost can be prohibitive. 

One of of main problems when bringing laying hens into the flock was their susceptibility to predators such as Goshawk and Carrion Crows. They seem to be relatively safe after about 20 weeks. So to take the chicks from the small pens they share with their surrogate mothers to the open paddock we have bought at great expense this fancy new house and run. 

Once settled the broody will be returned to the flock and these 6week old pullets will fend for themselves in the front garden. Initially locked in the pen then roaming free in the garden using the pen as a night shelter.

Summer weather

Just finished laying the last bio film ready for planting, late finish as rain is closing in. This is a late year our onions and leeks not planted yet, courgettes, Marrows and squash are all in but have hardly moved in the last two weeks. We have only had two days of over 20 C during June but unlike last year we have had plenty of rain.
The weather forecast shows no hot weather for a couple of weeks and we need at least two weeks of good sunshine and plus 22 C if we are to get any reasonable honey harvest. I've bought in a number of Nucleus hives from a commercial beekeeper to see if they will produce more under these difficult conditions, time will tell.

Laying Hen problems

Unsuspecting hens

What do you get when you mix the above with the below? In our case it is 2 dead chicks and an ongoing headache. These beauties are pure killing machines and could present a serious threat to our Laying Hens enterprise.
They are also protected so even if we wanted to we can do nothing to interfere with them,  Not sure how we deal with this one, we can't allow the hawk to establish a pattern of hunting our birds but we cannot take any direct action on the  bird itself.

                                   Image from: http://savewesternwildlife.org/wordpress/183/




I think the way forward is to provide low shelter in which to feed the birds and put up a scarecrow and have human and canine presence until the killing stops. We shall have to see..........

Seasonal update

Been a long time since my. last post, so a bit of an update on where we are, the photos are from a visit by a friend in Shrewsbury who offered to do a poster design and print that can be used in the market hall.

The vegetable crops have been acceptable this year, poor growth rates due to the dry and cool conditions we've had this year but they have just about bulked up in time for harvest. That is apart from the Cucurbits, we sowed all the squash, marrow and courgette left them in the tunnel to harden off..../every last one was bitten off just above the soil level, a complete write off. You have to accept some failures every year.

Chickens so far progressing well, we raised all our replacements from day old's again this year and have so far had no repeat of the sheep dog attack of the past two years. Egg sales are also keeping up but feed costs at over £500 per tonne stop us making too much profit from the birds.

The sheep are progressing as planned we put 8 Radnors and 7 Lleyns to the Radnor tup and got 22 lambs, the Lleyn cross have been a bit disappointing with poor growth rates but we have been very happy with the pure Hill Radnors. As a result we will convert the flock to all Hill Radnor's this year.

No Bee related pictures but the bees have been struggling this year without any sustained period of plus 25c temps so the harvest has been mediocre, somewhat down on last year. On a bright point we have acquired three extra colonies as swarms who helped themselves to out empyu boxes, one gave a crop of over 60lbs welcome in a poor year.

we will set to work soon preparing them for winter and topping up their winter stores.

Friday, market day

Up at 6.00am, harvesting lettuce, spring greens and rhubarb, Then off to the market and carry the produce from parking spot to market about 1mile. Seriously underestimated the weight of rhubarb. Spent the day on the stall not a bad days takings, then delivered three peoples shopping on the way home.

The other half picked up 25 day old chicks from Cyril Basons', they will be placed under a broody hen when it gets dark. Then had to take Millie to the vets with conjunctivitis, she came back with green eyes

Thursday Sheep bees market

First thing John came round our part time help and he started planting the last of the onions, that job all finished now except that there is a serious patch of Couch Grass invading the allium beds which will have to be hand pulled. Millie helped move some sheep who had escaped into the wrong field.
After organising a visit to check Mum in laws new chair I picked the spinach for Fridays market and set off to pick up the vegetables to supplement our own on the market. On route Millie and I checked the sheep we have in Hereford and took the opportunity to do a little training.
Next stop was to check the third of my apiary sites which had taken a big hit,loosing 75% of the colonies. Six now are left two of which are Nucleus hives still needing feeding. I sorted out all the now spare boxes and stacked them out of the way and checked through the remnant colonies. They seem in reasonable nick and will be checked for brood disease next Monday.
Then off to pick are additional produce from our wholesaler and back home to add our home produced stuff. The market is the next stop where I set up the stall ready for Friday morning. Then back where my day ends after putting chickens away and seperating a broody hen ready to take the chicks we are due to collect tomorrow.

Fox Attack

We have just had our first fox attack for 3 years, he killed 17 birds and left 16 laying in the field which resembled the day after the chicken war. He chased and killed birds all over the field in broad daylight and must have been in and out in 20 mins.

Our main hope now is that the remaining flock don't go off lay as a result of stress
The game keepers have been less active recently presumably as a result of the downturn. I,m not sorry that mass slaughter of pheasants is being reduced on these huge shoots but it does mean that we will have to be more professional with our protection of the hens.

New batch of layers, Day Old

We have just taken delivery of our first batch o day old chicks, these are Black Rocks which we hope will be in lay before november 09 . That means they will lay through the winter , another 4 weeks later and we risk not getting any eggs until after the nights draw out after December 21st.We put 25 chicks under each broody, they seem to be able to cope fine and produce healthy laying hens.

Chickens clearing out after cabbages and green manures

We are getting ready to sow the green manures so have removed all the covers and detritus from last years Brassica crop. The chickens have immediately moved in to complete the clear up job. There is a build up of short tailed voles under the covers, these cause havoc with any transplanted crop and will damage roots of green manures. we will leave the area uncovered for a few days so that owls and chickens can help reduce the vole population.The green manure we will use this year will be a bit different after the problems with re-growth of chicory pushing up our starch mulch. The new mix will be a mix of red clover, white clover and perennial ryegrass.
The red clover should provide nitrogen up to 300kg/Ha, white clover adds some nitrogen but also improves soil structure while the ryegrass will soak up the nitrogen which will be released when we incorporate next season.

Hens have started laying, at last

We didn't replace our two year old birds this year and paid the price. The cold snap in October stopped all the older birds from laying . Added to this , the young birds were brought in as day olds too late to start laying before the winter started. Generally if pullets don't start laying before October they will not lay until after the shortest day.

The result is that we had virtually no eggs before Christmas , (our biggest market) but we staill had large feed bills as the birds ate to either put on weight or in the case of older birds to replace feathers.

Now that the nights are shortening the hens are coming into lay. If you look at the picture some hens have bright red comb, in lay others have lighter pink colour, will lay in a week or two.

Hopesay Glebe Farm in the frost

We had a heavy frost last night so I went out with the camera.
North facing bank, this bank of trees stops the worst of the South Westerly gales but does mean that the western part of the holding is shaded 20hrs a day during winter. The trees (not owned by us) are now getting so large that even in summer large parts of this area are unsiutable for growing vegetables.
Looking east to wards Hopesay Hill, the frost here will stay all day.
The western corner of our holding where the sun doesn't shine much in winter. The hens are still out on the range but are now even more enthusiastic about their hot mash feed.

Second Masterclass

Our second Poultry and Beekeeping class was held last Sunday, another great group, lots of questions that really make you think about what we're doing .Seen here the group disrobing after looking through some of our bees.

Chicks at Nine weeks

We've moved the chicks into a full sized ark with a small run at the moment to get them used to moving in and out without being bothered by the older birds. They are 9 weeks old now and could survive happily without their foster mums. But until we release them to range they will stay with the chicks. After they have access to range some mums stay with the chicks all the time and some leave straight away and move into another ark.

Having older birds and chicks together can give rise to bullying by the older birds but we have found that the cockerels will step in and stop any hen pecking. You can see here the adult hen next to the 9 week old chicks. They are developing well and are on course to start laying at around 26 weeks.

Late night chicken move

We have to move the hens housing regularly to comply with organic standards and to prevent disease and parasite build up. The houses are moved at night when the hens are roosting and will (hopefully) orientate to their new position when they are let out in the morning.

First check hens are roosting..


Next we place our efficient killing machine to catch any rodents hiding out under the house

"I'm too old for this game"

"What time is tea?"

Then we pull the ark with tractor, all the hens are inside holding on to their perches

Last of all we move the lighter extension to the laying ark which gives shelter for the birds in inclement weather and complies with the organic standards for housing space per bird. Because it is much lighter than the main ark we can move this on the rear forks on the tractor.

The Houses in their positions on new grazing for the next few weeks.

Chicks at 24 days

We have had the chicks for 24 days now, every day they are outside in small runs with their broody. They have doubled in size, adult feathers are forming on the back and wings and the comb is developing also you can see the start of the tail feathers.

They are becoming much more active and are exercising their muscles with mini flights., they take a run up and flutter their wings till they take off 6'' and land in a heap.

Chicks twelve days on

The chicks have settled well with their adoptive mothers and are growing well. They have already developed their wing feathers and have increased 50% or more in size. They will be with their mothers for at least another 8 weeks.

Chicks getting used to their new home

The chicks have been outside for two days now. All seem quite happy with their adoptive mother and are feeding well.

Additions to our flock

Today (Sat) I collected from Cyril Bason the latest batch of chicks. They are Rhode Island Blacks, which I assume have similar breeding to Black Rocks namely a Rhode Island Red / Barred Plymouth Rock hybrid.
There were 25 day olds in the batch which arrived in a cardboard transport box all chirping their heads off. We raise our chicks under broody hens, but have to wait till dark before we can introduce these chicks to their new mums. So to keep them warm we put them in a plant propagator with a temp set at about 20c. As soon as they were inside the propagator the chirping stopped.








They have now been introduced to their surrogate mothers and been accepted, the first day under a broody hen the chicks are kept close to mum, she often stops them feeding. So it is important to make sure that they have food and water before introducing to the broody hen