chickens

What happened to November?

I’m not sure how it has happened but after a quick check of the calendar I found that it’s been around 6 weeks since the last blog update. I know that in general not much is growing at this time of year and so there wouldn’t be much progress to report but even by my (generally low) standards this is a bit poor!

I think it must be time to address that deficiency with a general update…

Garden

It’s nice to note that almost everything that has died down in the garden has not done so as a result of my amateur efforts!

After a promising start the runner beans faded out but I like to think that was mostly a consequence of the very wet weather we had about that time. The leeks which had looked so promising have just not lived up to my optimistic expectations. There is no danger of them winning any competitions but they are still perfectly edible of course (except where the chickens have had a go at them)

On the whole the potatoes, carrots and garlic were fairly successful but the broccoli seedlings I was given ended up mostly being chicken food – at least they seemed to enjoy it!

Perhaps the main disappointment has been the onions which were grown using sets I ordered from Marshalls. Although they did grow a little the final results don’t look anything like I had expected. I’ve not grown onions before so perhaps I was being unrealistic and maybe next time I’ll try growing them from seed but use another supplier like Thompson & Morgan instead.

The 3 chickens have scarified the furthest section of lawn to within an inch of it’s life but that was only to be expected. One benefit of the recent heavy rain has been that we needed to move the chicken run to the other end of the lawn which has had the effect of limiting any further damage in the original location.

We don’t know what to expect through the winter months but so far we are still getting fairly regular egg laying from them. An occasional 2 egg day is slightly more frequent now perhaps but we careful not to apportion any blame so I won’t name and shame the offender.

The most noticeable difference for me is that I only see the chickens at weekends now – from Monday to Thursday I head off to work in the dark and get back home in the dark. It’s only briefly on a Friday when I can leave work a little earlier and obviously over the weekend that I get to see them in daylight.

Smallholding property hunt

There have been a couple of occasions when we have experienced the minor disappointment of finding what looked to be a suitable property but because we haven’t sold yet we have been unable to take things further. On the bright side though, there have also been a couple of properties which had offers accepted but which have now come back on the market so there’s always hope.

There is a general feeling that the Tyne Valley or North Pennines will probably be the eventual destination but nothing can be finalised until we get a buyer for our property (and have an offer accepted for somewhere too!). We’d like to think that we’re not too bothered at this stage but I’m sure that when the time comes we’ll be just as picky as anyone else would be.

Future plans

Any planning for life on the smallholding will necessarily be guided by the property we finally manage to buy but we are managing to devote some time to general ideas so that at least we feel like we’re making progress.

Having had back garden chickens for some time we will certainly increase the numbers over time and maybe even go for meat birds as well as layers. We got our existing 3 hybrids from Durham Hens and we’re very happy with them but there are many other places like Heydon Bridge Hens, Teviotdale Farm etc if we fancy trying something different.

As far as the other likely livestock we will try, I think that one of early contenders would have to be pigs – probably Tamworths to start with as I’ve already been for a very entertaining day at Yearle Tamworths near Wooler. There are generally some weaners available at most times of the year so we can hopefully plan things to suit our other workload.

I’m still not quite so certain about having cows or goats but in time it would be interesting to work with something for dairy produce. Personally I would favour goats but that’s mainly because I’ve always thought of cows as big scary beasts but also because I have occasionally had some goat meat from The Goat Company and its fantastic when done in a slow cooker.

Perhaps we may chose a few Shetland cattle then they wouldn’t seem so threatening as they are smaller and they are still very hardy so I might feel a little differently.

There are also loose plans about providing some sort of holiday accommodation but this would depend on the options available on the property we eventually buy. Many places we have seen have a barn or outbuildings which could be converted but I wouldn’t rule out the idea of a couple of Tents, Yurts or Tipis if there were no other options. I’m very impressed by the set up at Wild Northumbrian but haven’t yet had a chance to try them out – I think I’ll wait until spring now though!

Patience is a virtue

In the meantime we have to recognise that this is not the best financial climate (or time of year) to be selling property. We can only be patient, keep watching the property websites and handle an occasional viewing of our own property.

With so much to take on board and so many mistakes we are likely to make along the way, I’m more than happy to make the most of this time for planning and learning.

Do you have any top tips for novice smallholders that you can share?

Another belated update

It seems that for the last few months I have had a consistent list of “things to get done” which somehow never seemed to get any shorter. Every time I reached the point where an item could be crossed off there were another couple of things to add to the bottom of the list!

Finally I think I can see the end of the current list but I know what will happen when I get there, I’ll just add more things to it again. With luck those new items will related to moving house and starting the smallholding but the housing market doesn’t work on luck so I’ll have to wait and see.

Hopefully I’ll remember to take some time before starting the next list and I must also remember not to add so much on the next list as well!

Chickens

The chickens are still merrily trashing the far end of the lawn plus (when they feel like flapping over the fence) the veg beds and flower borders.

Compost

The compost heap looks to be an excellent “brew” which I will try to take plenty of credit for but of course the success is probably more down to loads of chicken poop, straw and wood shavings.

It might be considered by some to be slightly “chunky” perhaps but I am disproportionately proud of my limited contributions to the process!

Attempting to move house

Some of that lovely compost has already been spread over one of the raised beds although my heart isn’t really in it. I’m not sure of the etiquette when selling a house but perhaps we should have specified that we’re taking our compost with us when we move?

Weather woes… again!

After the noticeable improvement in the weather over recent days/weeks I had thought and hoped that we had finally made it to summer but it appears that I was wrong.

Yesterday (Sunday) we had yet another torrential downpour which led to more temporary flooding at the bottom end of the garden. This was not as extensive as on the previous occasion in July but it still meant that we had to venture out in it to relocate the chicken house/run.

Of course I should be grateful that it was just a minor garden problem and did not affect our house. It pays to keep things in proportion as it was apparently quite a bit worse for some people according to the BBC

Just in case I thought it was a one-off for yesterday only, while sitting here at work today about 6-7 miles from home I have heard more thunder and lightning plus there has been news of various temporary road/rail closures in the general area. I guess the journey home may not be a smooth as normal!

The Met Office has a helpful Weather Warnings page which pretty much sums the situation up very nicely. At the moment looks like this:

Real life can slow you down

There haven’t been enough updates lately mostly due to a change of job, preparations for a wedding (No.2 daughter) and at times some atrocious weather! However that will soon change now that normality is slowly returning and other plans can start to move forward.

New job in easy commuting distance

After 2 weeks in the new job things are beginning to settle into a new routine rather than with the old job which involved travelling away quite a bit. There is also the added benefit that the garden and veg beds can get some attention after work.

Unfortunately in the last 2 weeks the weather has veered wildly between two extremes with some lovely sunny days but plenty of grey, damp, miserable ones too.

The big wedding day

The impending wedding is now only a week away and should be a great event over a couple of days. However this also means that the whole thing will all be over by the end of next weekend and our lives can move on to other things.

Smallholding plans

In particular I’m impatient to get some progress with the house sale and the other general changes needed to get us closer to the smallholding idea. There has been some slow and careful progress with our future plans but we are still not completely clear on the best way forward or how much can sensibly be achieved

First things first

This weekend I need to get a few hours in the garden to assess the progress with the veg beds because the potatoes are starting to show signs of flowers. According to my information this is quite a crucial phase and it won’t be long before I can check the results. Initial checks on a plant which had suffered some damage shows a poor yield but maybe it’s too early to tell?

I also need to take a closer look at the chickens because one of them has occasionally laid a “rubbery” egg recently and is looking a little off-colour. However these phases only last a few days before she apparently returns to normal for a week or so – It’s time to study some more chicken books and ask around on the various forums.

Size isn’t everything…

I’m not sure where this one came from but it was completely unexpected and out of all proportion with the normal eggs we’ve been getting.

In fact I’m not even sure which one of the three dropped this on us and we discussed the likely suspects but when I checked afterwards none of the chickens were walking funny.

There are regularly 3 eggs by mid-morning each day but nothing on this scale – the moment just had to be preserved for posterity with a picture and a dedicated blog update.

Right now it’s still in the fridge for the moment as I think we’re all a little nervous about what may be inside!

Classical conditioning with chickens?

It has been a regular event over this past weekend (before the rain came) for me to spot a chicken that has “jumped” the fence and got loose in the garden. That isn’t a major crisis of course but as a relatively inexperienced chicken keeper I think it’s important that I show them who’s the boss.

When I see an escapee making a dash for it I set off down the garden whistling The Great Escape theme in a jaunty fashion and prepare to chase down the miscreant before she can get near my seedlings.

The thought has crossed my mind that the chickens could become conditioned to this famously catchy tune and they might somehow link that with getting out of their run. Obviously I don’t profess to have a background in Classical Conditioning (as with Pavlov’s dog experiments) but perhaps in future if I whistle the tune before they escape they may feel an inexplicable psychological response and try to get out?

Chickens – stupid or crazy?

I can’t quite decide whether our chickens are stupid or crazy but they’re definitely just a little bit bonkers. This makes for some entertaining times for us as relatively new chicken keepers but we’re still not completely sure what constitutes normal chicken behaviour sometimes.

The most likely explanation is obviously that this behaviour is not something unique to our chickens but as with most domestic pets (or even children perhaps?), it’s nice to think that yours have that something special, that distinctive feature or talent which makes them stand out from the crowd.

The mad rush out of the door in the morning is always good to raise a smile at 7am but I’m not sure whether I’d be rushing out just to peck wildly at some chicken feed or to scratch about in the grass. Of course, I could be underestimating the taste of chicken feed but I’m not curious enough yet to find that out for myself.

On the other hand, our chickens are obviously not completely stupid because they seem to have realised that when one of us comes down the garden there is a faint chance of a treat. That may possibly be just a few hours out to roam around the garden or maybe just a hand full of meal worms but it seems to cheer them up immensely.

However, they must be a little crazy because this weekend we witnessed a brief struggle between two of them over what we thought was a bit of twig or leaves. Closer inspection showed that it was actually a small frog with skinny legs (hence the twig mistake!). After resolving the dispute over ownership of the frog, we were very surprised to see that the winning chicken promptly pecked the hapless frog a few times (to subdue it maybe?) then apparently swallowed it whole.

I was quite sorry to see the little frog go although perhaps not as sorry as he was! I’m sure he was doing his best to keep my cabbages free of pests but it was a timely reminder that it’s a jungle out there and only the fittest will survive. In future I’ll keep on the good side of my chickens…

Back from the short break and so much to do

Finally we’re back home after a few days away in Devon and in particular a very informative visit to Hidden Valley Pigs – a great smallholding introduction course despite the worst the Exmoor weather could throw at us. The whole area is such a lovely part of the country but it’s just so far away from the North East of England.

Amazingly it seems that the chickens and all seedlings have survived both my absence and the slightly limited supervision of No3 daughter. Even the garlic I planted only two weeks ago is already starting to make an appearance above ground, no doubt greatly encouraged by the recent good weather and the persistent drizzle which now greets us on our arrival back home.

It was a pleasant surprise to find my copy of Reading The Rocks had already come in the post courtesy of North Pennines AONB. It looks to be a fascinating read and loaded with interesting facts but I’ll post a full update on the book after I’ve had a chance to read it properly.

The weekend has all the makings of a damp one but hopefully that won’t hold me back as there are so many tasks I need to get on with. Things like planting out the first early potatoes (under cloches maybe?), installing a second water butt, some minor adjustments to the chicken setup, possibly planting some leek and carrot seedlings out then of course some more seeds can get planted in seed trays if I can make some space… All that plus there are a few of our own fresh eggs to get eaten along with the tasty sausages and bacon we made while at Hidden Valley Pigs!

The first egg has arrived!

The first egg of many we hope I suppose it was bound to happen really as I’m not there at the moment to witness the grand arrival of THE FIRST EGG personally.

It’s not entirely unexpected of course especially as the chickens were getting nicely settled and they are around the right age now at about 20 or 21 weeks.

However there is still a slight feeling of having missed a momentous event. I know it’s not on the same scale as the first steps of a child or the moment you take the stabilizers off their bicycle.

Despite that there is an irrational sense of pride – our first egg from our first chickens – even though all the effort was from the chicken and not us.

It may not look like much to others but to us this is something special, a moment to savour. I’m sure we’ll get used to it soon enough and in the meantime No 3 daughter will be tucking into a nice egg in the morning!

I’m keeping my fingers crossed

We have a few days away coming up so the Small Plot will be left in the hands of No3 daughter and although I’m not particularly fussy, I just know that things won’t be done exactly how I’d like. Okay, maybe I am a little fussy but then again I have invested a fair amount of time and effort getting the seeds to this stage so I’d rather not have any setbacks now.

The assortment of seeds and new plants have been careful arranged in the mini greenhouse or the reclaimed cold frame so I’m hopeful that they will make it through relatively unscathed. I suspect a text message cashing in some past favours may be needed if I hope to get them watered while we’re away though.

With luck the seeds that have been planted more recently (a 2nd batch of carrots, some lobelia & other flower seeds collected last year) will be perfectly happy. At least any water loss through evaporation will be less now that the weather is a little cooler.

We’ve tried to explain the limited complexity of the daily routines when keeping chickens but these have mostly been met with the comment “Yeah, yeah, whatever…”. There were some tricky episodes earlier this week when the chickens decided to go “exploring” when they were allowed into the fenced run we added. As a result it seems certain that the chickens will have to make do with their (roofed) run for the whole time we are away. Better safe than sorry I guess.

Obviously I’m looking forward to the time off from work but I’m also looking forward to getting back as well. There will be the chitted potatoes to plant out, my onion sets have been delivered, the first batch of carrots and the leeks should be well advanced and the French marigolds for companion planting may also be ready.

Exciting times ahead!