Tag: chickens

Posted in Friesland Farm

Seed order, missing dog and red mite remedies.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 8th Jan: It’s cold but dry this morning, did the morning rounds, one of the hens from the front paddock seems to have a bad leg so I got her in and put her in a stable with some water and food. She wasn’t walking very far so wouldn’t be able to get to the feed and water buckets, not sure what is wrong but if I give her rest and food hopefully it will sort itself out.

Had to have two goes at lighting the Rayburn this morning as the first attempt failed, most unusual but second time around it went well.

I contemplated doing a bit outside this morning but it really it too chilly to wander round looking for jobs, it’s ok if you have something you can get stuck into and warm up a bit, I decided the seed catalogue might be a better and warmer option, I do need to order sooner rather than later or the favourites will be sold out.

I noticed over the weekend that the geese are getting into the water bucket, a sure sign that mating season is starting for them, although I couldn’t top it up this morning as the hose was frozen, I will do it later on when it’s hopefully thawed a bit.

A package arrived his morning with some goodies in as a thank you from our Christmas guests, that was a lovely surprise.

I forgot to put the grey bin out even though I had marked it on the calendar, the bin men stopped at the end of the drive and then came looking for the bin, what a fab crew 😀 very grateful for that and messaged the local authorities to let them know how thank full we were, I’m sure they are always getting grief for things that go wrong so a bit of positivity will even it up a little.

It seems to have warmed up a little this evening so I took the opportunity to fill up and clean the water buckets, the hen I put in the stable is no longer there but I found a dead one in the back hut, not sure if it’s her or if she has just wandered off, I will keep an eye out for a limping hen tomorrow!

Trying to organise a delivery of straw bales as we will run out soon and our normal farmer does not have any left 😜 For some reason I didn’t keep the telephone number of the chap we used before, I looked all through my messages/contacts but can’t find any reference so having to track him down by other means, must be more organised 😝

Tuesday: Definitely milder today, I couldn’t see any sign of limping hen this morning so I’m guessing it was her that died. I put fresh bedding in for the ducks while I was on my rounds, made a quick coffee and took it outside with me to do a few bits in the garden. I read an article yesterday that said don’t do any gardening while to mud sticks to your boots lol so I will heed that and just Potter when necessary. I still have carrots growing and wanted some for tea so pulled those and weeded the bed a little, they work well in a raised bed, it doesn’t get waterlogged so they haven’t rotted and it’s high enough for the carrot fly not to be able to reach them and lay eggs, I also dug up some celeriac although something has been eating the tops off of them, my escaped rabbit I expect, she is still loose. I gave the carrot tops to the rabbits and went back in to make apple and celeriac soup and a chicken casserole. To be honest the soup was a little bit too sweet for my liking and I would probably leave out the apples next time but as it was packed with goodness I still ate it for lunch along with some Parmesan croutons I made from the last bit of the loaf I made the other day, they were delish 😀 I made a new loaf and got some apple and blackberries out of the freezer for a crumble for John later. I have a lot of fruit to use up, I’m am going to have mine with a blob of creme fresh I think. I had Mia and while she was asleep I looked through the rest of the seed catalogue and put markers on the ones I want to purchase so just need to sit down and put the order through now.

Did the afternoon feed and collected the eggs, the numbers have now gone up as we relented and put a light in with the front lot, it made a difference within a couple of days so we will carry on doing it, the light is rechargeable and dies sometime during the night so they are not on 24hr egg laying duties 😝 I need to put oyster shell and grit on the feed shopping as a fair few of the eggs from the ladies at the back are breaking readily when they are washed, the oyster shell helps to harden up the egg shells and they are obviously not getting enough even though they free range.

Wednesday: Today felt like Groundhog Day, I asked Alexa if it was, she said ‘no’ which made me laugh and be grateful that I woke up even if it was to the same old routine or so I thought. I did the morning feeding and then went into the greenhouse to contemplate what needs doing, I went through the seeds to bring indoors so that I don’t over order something I already have, I also bought in the clear covers for the seed trays to give them a good wash along with two propagators, and a big load of seed markers, though where the rest are is a mystery, I had hundreds of them. I went to the postbox and on the way back wondered why there was only one dog waiting at the gate, I called the other one, nothing, 45 mins later after me searching everywhere including up and down the lane she finally turned up, it is not something she has ever done before and she is definitely in the dog house 😡 I ordered some shelving to make the most of the space in the greenhouse, there is plenty of higher up space that doesn’t get used to it’s full potential so I am rectifying that.

The sun was lovely this afternoon, I was almost fooled into thinking that spring was in the air, it would be nice to have a few more afternoons like that.

Thursday: I am off out for lunch with Shelley and Josh today so got the morning feeding done, lit the fire, got tonight’s dinner sorted and cleaned the two propagators for the greenhouse before I went.

After doing the afternoon egg collection and shutting the birds away John phoned to say he would be late so I took the opportunity to sit quietly and order my seeds, a bulk tonne bag of multipurpose compost and some miscellaneous bits for the greenhouse including capillary matting. I can’t wait to get started on the growing season, though I can’t believe the prices of some things these days, I thought the garden centre would be cheaper but nope it turns out ordering online is.

When I use the multipurpose compost for seedlings I will add vermiculite, sand or well composted bark, you could use leaf mould if you have it too, it doesn’t need any extra nutrients for seeds just good drainage. When I use it for potting on I will add either some well rotted manure that has dried out or something like blood fish and bone for slow release nutrients. I do have large quantities of compost I made last year and then grew the potatoes in but I will be needing that to fill up some new raised beds I have planned.

Friday: I had a busy day planned so got the rounds done as quickly as possible then onto sorting out the greenhouse, I wanted to move it around, clean it inside and out and tidy up any rubbish, all was going well, I had planned to come in at around 10.30 to light the Rayburn as it’s not too cold today and Mum was coming for a coffee. Then at about 10.20 life went a little haywire for a moment or two! Apart from the fact that my cordless screwdriver decided not to work, an egg customer came and left empty handed, I had forgotten to put the eggs out 😝 cue a mad dash to get them out there, a fox shot across the back, the dogs were in because Mia slunk off again, and at this point I’m guessing she has been doing her job and chasing off foxes, the skip lorry arrived and as I looked for fox footage on the cctv I found it hadn’t been working! A little bit later and a riderless horse went galloping down the road but thank goodness it wasn’t one of ours. Everything settled back down for the rest of the day, the greenhouse is now looking tidy, clean and I have maximised the useable space for growing, with the hazels down there is much more light getting in so I should have a good seed germination, that’s the hope anyway. John is looking at a job tonight so it’s down to me to do the feeding and then the shutting away when it gets dark.

There are so many jobs that need doing I need octopus arms lol, the veg garden needs a good tidy up but then I’m inclined to think I will wait in case we get any more windy weather which just blows everything all over the place again, the poly tunnels need the algae cleaning off to let maximum light in, of course the fruit cage is still in a heap and that needs looking at before stuff starts to grow, there is still a lot of stuff to cut back, weed membrane to put down to suppress weeds and warm the soil, rigging up fencing to keep the ducks and the escaped rabbit off the garden, clean the rabbit runs out, clean the ducks out, fresh bedding for the geese, look at the cctv, tidy the hay barn, do some paperwork, cleaning, cooking, washing, light the fire and keep it going, I’m exhausted just thinking about it all 😂 where is my list?

As John wasn’t back yet I thought it would be a good opportunity to sort out some paperwork and get the desk cleared, made some bread as well.

Before and after photos of the tidy up and reshuffle. The things under the green covers are my orange and lemon trees, I have two lovely lemons growing which should be ready to harvest later this year.

Saturday: Normally John is here at the weekends but today he is working to finish a job, first though he went to collect feed. I did the morning feeding and put some fresh bedding in for the ducks on the way round, then as John arrived back the postman also arrived with some of the bits I had ordered for the greenhouse, happy me 😀 It was the greenhouse shelving and some yellow fly strips so I got on with putting together the shelving and hanging up sticky paper to catch anything lurking in there. The shelving is going to give me some much needed extra space for seedlings, an extra layer up high, they come as a four shelf unit but I have used it in half and it can easily be put back together as I need space for growing on outside so a win win buy I think. I also potted up the Autumn Gold raspberry canes I bought at the end of last year, I am intending to pot most of the raspberries I grow to stop the runners taking over the whole patch. The fruit cage is the next job on Johns list so he tells me whoo hoo I need to get that up and running again before things start to grow, this time the posts will be concreted in, the last ones were just rammed into the earth but they have rotted away although they did last about 5 years so that’s not too bad. The new one though should be altogether more stable and not move and rock in the windy weather which is a bonus as the door will also stay firm, the old door moved a lot and sometimes I couldn’t even shut it properly. I put some net up for the peas in the small poly tunnel to climb up, I have grown them in there because if I did it outside they would have been eaten by now, I will hopefully get a good crop of early peas 😀 Daffodil bulbs have pushed through as have the garlic and onions, I feel positive for the year ahead, for now at least 😝

I sat down with a cuppa and through various trails of reading I ended up reading a report of trials to control red mite in the poultry industry (a little light reading 🤣🤣) it was very interesting though and here is the link http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/4506/1/S0043933909000403a.pdf for any other poultry keepers in case you want to have a look. Apart from chemical controls there are other methods used such as high heat 45c, fungus (entomopathogenic fungi) which if I could find any for sale would be very useful, good old diatomaceous earth (silica, which basically cuts the exoskeleton on the mites) and also simple things like cardboard traps which I am definitely going to try out when we next clean the boxes.

Try and learn something new as often as you can is something I have always done, not necessarily have a go at it just reading and digesting the information is good enough to keep the grey cells from slipping into a coma.

Sunday: A busy morning doing the usual stuff, then putting a windbreak up around the veg garden mostly to stop the ducks coming in now that we are gearing up to grow stuff and it will also help to create a micro climate for the veg so a double bonus although I needed to order more as there is not quite enough. It doesn’t look pretty but needs must, no point putting stuff out for the ducks to walk all over it or worse, eat it! I cleaned out the three rabbit pens, and the bantams house, we spent a mad 15 minutes trying, in vain, to catch the rabbit that is still loose, she is now eating any available crops in the garden including the celeriac and carrot tops. A delivery of 50 straw bales turned up so those had to be stacked, the cat presented its arse with a worm hanging out so that had to be sorted luckily I had stocked up on wormer so they have both been done 😝 John cleaned out the hens at the front and cut up cardboard to try this new technique of trapping red mite, it’s not full season yet but might as well start as we mean to go on. Bird flu is in the country albeit a different strain from last year so we need to be mindful of that and keep up to date with any bulletins, they do send a text by landline but Facebook is much quicker at letting us know.

And then out for lunch 😀

Well that turned into a long lunch and we were late back, the fire had gone out and the chickens were waiting for their tea, the eggs had sold out so it was action stations for a mad half hour and then relax 😀

That’s it, the end of another week, have a good one, make each day count, learn something you never knew TTFN 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

Rouge ferret, sad goodbyes and an eco egg.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday PM: Just got back from my away day with the girls and a fabulous time was had by all of us 😀

Update on the Guinea pig versus ferret episode:

Saturday night, I heard the guinea pig squealing at around 10pm went out with a torch to see a ferret chewing on his neck, the ferret disappeared quickly and I got the pig out and bought him in to do some first aid on him and put him in a box out the back for the night.

Sunday morning I got an old cage, cleaned it up and put the guinea pig in there to get better, the damage surprisingly was not to bad just superficial. Bearing in mind I was due to go away it was all hands to the pump to set a live trap and try to catch this ferret otherwise it would be starting on my rabbits and bantams! John called later in the day to say it had been caught, though I never got to see it, it was obviously a pet as it was quite tame and must have been on the run for a while as it was also underweight and had lice.

Back to Monday: John has done a sterling job looking after everything albeit only for 24 hrs lol, it’s still a big responsibility 😀 and decisions have to be made and he has booked Kai in to see the vet for tonight. Kai has been off his food for nearly a week, is limping and is reluctant to leave his bed, these are not good signs, if he has a temperature and needs antibiotics that will be he best outcome, if it’s not that then it’s more serious and we will be saying goodnight to him.

Well he returned with Kai and he has had a shot of painkiller and antibiotic although the vet could not find anything obvious wrong with him except the tenderness he is feeling in his front leg. However he needs to eat in the morning, if he doesn’t he is not going to get any better and an appointment has been made for tomorrow night just in case.

Tuesday: Obviously my first thought for the day was to feed Kai and see if we can get him to eat, success, he seems a little perkier and has eaten a bowl of wet food, the call to cancel the appointment can be made and we can pick up some more medication. It doesn’t mean he is out of the woods yet though, if the meds don’t help him to improve then we are back to square one and decision time so fingers crossed. He is twelve this coming year, which doesn’t seem old but it is for a husky and he has lived outside all his life and so is bound to suffer with his joints more readily than a house dog. We bought him indoors yesterday evening until his appointment but it is clear that it’s unfair on him to change his surroundings, especially when it’s a lot warmer than he is used to.

As for the rest of the morning, the guinea pig is doing well and I was going to put him back with the rabbit BUT on my morning rounds I found a dead baby bunny, one of the ones that had escaped and we hadn’t been able to catch. A bit of detective work and I could see that it had been bitten out in the paddock as there was a patch of fur, it has then made a dash for the orchard pen as it can get through the pheasant wire and died in there. Question is, what has bitten it in the first place? Possibly a fox has tried to catch it or we maybe have more than one ferret on the premises so I have reset the live trap to see if anything else is caught. Always something 😜 The chickens, ducks and geese are all tickety boo thank goodness. I filled up the wild bird feeders and have turned on the wildlife camera to see if I can get some footage of how many there are and what type.

The wildlife camera in the day was a disaster the only footage I got was of me opening and closing it! I will try again maybe at dusk.

Kai seems to have made quite a remarkable recovery, he is back to barking, wolfing his dinner down (with the meds in) and hardly limping, fingers crossed it stays like that.

Wednesday: The weather continues to be mild which makes going outside pleasant enough and at least the wind is drying things up a little.

Not much on the to do list today, Mia arrived and did a bit of baking, a crazy, wacky chocolate cake, no eggs, no dairy so great for Josh to share when he arrived later in the morning.

Put some more rat bait down when I put the birds to bed and that was pretty much it, just as well as the weather has turned quite foul out there, the wind was blowing a hoolie all night long. Went out to get a bit of shopping after dark and saw two tiny baby deer on the side of the road, goodness knows what they were doing out and hopefully Mum was not far away.

Thursday: The wind is still going, though not so fierce, got the morning rounds done, cleaned out the smaller rabbit run and the girl baby rabbit cage while I was at it. Then inside to make some bread, I made whole meal the other day but it was a bit like lead lol so gone back to white with a bit of whole meal flour mixed in as I now need to use it up. John came home at lunchtime and cut up some of the wood mountain 😝 while I cleaned and tidied up the boot room a little, it gets so dusty and cluttered in there that it needs a sort now and again.

I heard or read a saying ‘a story told is a life lived’ that has stuck with me all week (I googled it and it was from Outlander!) For some reason it struck a chord with me and I am glad to be able tell my daily story albeit a cutting room floor version, trust me you wouldn’t want the full blown ‘life of Dawn’ version, to start with it would take a week to read and secondly I would probably get a lot of hate mail due to the sarcastic tone I would inevitably adopt 😜 Maybe one day under a pseudonym, invitation only, those who have a strong mind and a sense of humour 😉

I did the afternoon feeding and John did the putting to bed, ‘put the grey bin out and feed the dog’ I tagged in as he was going out of the door, 34 years and the training is only just kicking in 😁

The temperature has dropped rapidly outside tonight so looks like a cold start tomorrow morning, I follow a page called Reality Weather which looks at very long range forecast and the movements of weather fronts, blockages etc, we might be in for an extremely cold and prolonged snap either this winter or next, yep that’s how long range it is, they can’t tell exactly because it depends on how the fronts move but it seems there is some unusual movement going on in the Northern hemisphere which will eventually wreak havoc! I look forward to that 😝 and in the light of the information I will make sure we are well stocked up in wood and food just in case 😀

Friday: My rounds took longer than usual this morning, firstly I checked on Herbie the guinea pig and his eyes had closed over so I got him out and bathed them, happily they are now open and he looks fine. He is still on the sick ward out the back, apart from his eyes he seems ok still eating and drinking and no sign of infection in fact his neck has healed well though it does look like leather it will probably restore given time. Then it was onto the routine stuff, cleaning out the ducks on the way round, when I let the bantams out in the orchard I noticed one was not looking well, hunched and not running for food like the others. I picked her up and immediately could feel that her crop was full, this should not happen, in the morning a hens crop should be empty as the food they have eaten the day before should have been digested overnight. The first step is to massage the crop to loosen the compaction, then hold the hen upside down and continue massaging, gravity will help to move the obstruction, sure enough though it took about ten minutes, a smelly mess began to appear from her beak, I began to gently pull it to help it along it was a mix of straw and grain. Young chickens can be a bit stupid and eat anything, this one has decided straw might be good, it’s not, and that is what has caused the blockage. I bought her in and I gave her some kefir by syringe, a delicate job as you can accidentally send the liquid into her lungs which would be fatal. Then I made her some scrambled egg and put her in the dog cage in the back room with some water, I can’t make her eat but hopefully she will pick up enough to want to eat. The kefir is a fermented coconut drink which I happen to be taking at the moment, it is full of good bacteria and hopefully will help to process anything left in the crop. The rest of the rounds went with out incident 😀

I have said before that I could do with a little hospital corner, a couple of purpose built in cages that are easily accessible so that anything poorly can be monitored with ease, may put that one on the to do list.

Did some tidying and putting away in the back area, another dumping ground that needs doing every now and then, and then got the bantam out to repeat the upside down massage, not much in there now but she still hasn’t eaten or drunk anything so unless she does she will probably got into heart failure if she is not already on the way.

Had a discussion about Kai this afternoon, although initially he picked up a little, there has been no improvement and this afternoon he started growling at me when I tried to get him up, he has a course of meds and painkiller and we will finish those and see what happens but it’s not looking good he should have improved a fair bit by now.

John came home early and cut up some more of the wood mountain 😝 I put the front birds to bed and he did the back lot, it was bloody freezing even then so we also did the water ready for the morning and there was ice in the hosepipe already brrrrr. I have been putting rat poison down each time the last lot disappears, which it is going alarmingly fast, this time of year they are looking for an easy feed and somewhere dry to sleep, right under the hen house is ideal but I’m determined to knock them on the head quickly.

I bought an eco washing egg, I looked at the reviews and thought I would give it a try, it probably won’t be so good on heavily soiled garments but on normal day to day wear it should be fine, they last for 720 washes apparently and obviously kinder to the environment in terms of chemicals, packaging reduction and general manufacturing, I hope they are good, I will let you know.

Saturday: It’s only 10am and we have had a proper morning of it, had to call the vet to book Kai in today as he is not eating again, this will be his final appointment 😩 and you don’t realise how it affects you until you try to talk to the receptionist on the phone 😪 The Guinea pig has not made it, turns out there was infection under the skin, the bantam doesn’t look like she will make it but I have put her out with the others for today to see if being with them helps pick her up and something upset the horses all around and Jack cleared a 5ft fence into the next paddock! Roll on wine o’clock 😜

On the upside the girl baby rabbits went off to their new home this morning, in one fell swoop we have 4 less mouths to feed now one way or another.

I can’t settle to do the jobs needed, made bread, lit the fire, waiting for John to return with an empty collar and lead, I cried when I put him in the car, he has been an amazing dog, pulling John around the block on the skateboard for his daily exercise a few years back, keeping an eye on everything night and day, driving me mad with his yapping sometimes, he is irreplaceable.

I have just done the first wash with the eco egg and I have to say I’m quite impressed, it was a whites wash and the clothes look clean and fresh, fresher than usual, high hopes for this egg 😀 darks next and we we see how that comes out.

Sunday: A beautiful crisp, sunny but bloody cold morning! John went out and did the feed rounds and reported that there was a dead rat in the front chicken hut, that’s good at least we are managing to kill them off, well one at least 😝 I stayed inside and did a few small household tasks and then the biggy we had on the list today which is sweeping the flue and cleaning out the Rayburn. A very dirty job but very necessary as we don’t ever want a repeat of a chimney fire again, we clean it depending on the amount of use it has had and now was as good a time as any.

I have done three washes with the eco egg and I’m still pretty impressed I have to say, the clothes look fresh and clean, you can add conditioner if you want it to smell nice but I haven’t as yet as I can’t see the point, I’m in the minority camp of liking my bath towels rough not fluffy so I won’t even put some in when I wash those.

Last night was the first night without Kai and I woke up this morning thinking I had heard him bark, which of course I didn’t, makes me wonder how many times I had thought I heard him when he was here when really I didn’t, dreamt it maybe lol.

It remains cold into the afternoon and I am very reluctant to venture outside unless I have to, luckily John volunteered to do the afternoon feeding and collecting of eggs so I’m staying put in the warm, plenty of time for me to be doing it all next week. He said the bantam was eating with the others so at least she is still alive for now.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Steaming the pudding, more unwelcome visitors and cuddling a chicken

Posted on by frieslandfarm

I picked up some reduced cranberries in the supermarket, had to be a bargain at only 5p 😀 I will probably use them to make a cranberry and orange sauce to go with cold meats at Christmas as we are not having turkey this year. I may pick up some more if they have any next week they will always be useful for making something different.

Monday: Cold start again today so I made sure I had thick socks on, plenty of layers 1and thick gloves as well. To give the hens a bit of heat I mixed in some poultry spice with their feed this morning. I make my own as it’s cheaper than buying the pots that you can buy, they contain turmeric, fenugreek, garlic and one other ingredient that I can’t remember at the minute, but I just looked on the pot and ordered bulk individual items and mixed them in a tub, it makes loads. Hopefully it might boost egg production which has dropped off considerably due to the lack of daylight hours and the cold temps. I did a bit of cleaning out of nest boxes as I went, that helps to keep the eggs clean and makes my job easier when I am boxing them up later in the day. I checked the baby rabbits and fed all the small animals, we now have five in there so one of the escapees has come back! The small garden birds have discovered the feeding station that now has bird seed in and judging by the excited chirping this morning they are very grateful. I am going to make a couple more seed holders as I only have one and there are a lot of birds, easily around 20 I would say and these are the ones living in and around the nest boxes (and gaps in the cladding)on the front of the house.

Then on to feed the dogs and give Kai’s kennel a clean out and give him a nice clean duvet for his bed for the colder months.

Inside then to light the Rayburn and the temperature is not going to go much above 4 degrees today ❄️ and I want to try and stay warm to see if it helps my hand problems, I think it does as yesterday they were fine until I had to go outside then all evening they were playing up.

I fed the Christmas cake some brandy and it will now be wrapped up and stored for a couple of weeks when I will get it out again and lace it with more brandy 😀

Tuesday: The day of epic boiling of the Christmas pudding, 8 hours of bubbling water to cook it so an early start is needed, and I better put the timer on as I will probably forget over the course of the day how long it has been in. Again I followed a Mary Berry ‘figgy pudding’ recipe. I made bread, leek and potato soup and some rock buns while I was at it. Had Mia from lunchtime and Shelley and Josh came for a visit, I can nip out and feed the hens and collect eggs while Shelley is here so that’s what I did. John came home in time to put the birds to bed and found a bag of live chickens dumped at the gateway! Going through the the cctv we could clearly see who it was and they are known to us so John will be calling in there tomorrow for a few stern words 😤 Clearly they don’t want to look after them so there is no point taking them back to him and after all it’s not the chickens fault, but there is the risk of contamination to my flock so they will all have to be wormed and de loused/mited just in case. Very unfair on us and the chickens.

On the upside I have found a home for any of the baby rabbits that are female so I just need to sex them and see how many that is, just the boys to find homes for as there are definitely both sex’s among them.

Wednesday was lost somewhere 😝

Thursday: I have a fair few jobs I want to get sorted today, the main one being separating the boy and girl rabbits! I’ll tell you though you couldn’t write this stuff, I went out and fed them caught the three up that are in the run I made, the others have escaped 😜 then I looked at the one in the guinea run, 2 boys, 2 girls great, I go off to prepare a separate hutch for the boys and when I get back I check the bunnies again in the run and remove the boy, go to get the one from the guinea hut and it’s gone!!! I’m sure it will be back but it means I don’t get the job done and dusted just yet. One of the babies died, I don’t know why, it was looking quiet yesterday, can’t see any obvious signs of anything but they have been getting out and so anything could have happened to it at some point. Just having a quick coffee then I have 10 sweet chestnut trees to decide what to do with. Some will be potted up for sale, some will be planted in the hedgerow.

Among many other jobs on the list today, the rat poison arrived so I needed to put that down just as it got dark, the rubbish needs to go out though I have no idea what colour week we are on 😝 had another look for the baby rabbit but that one is right under the hutch and I can’t reach it, meanwhile another is out in the paddock chomping on grass but I can’t find the net to catch it with.

Friday: ❄️ brrr very cold this morning! Did the rounds quickly lol, topped up the wild bird feeder as they will be hungry in this weather as well, thought about working outside but gave it a miss and did indoor stuff instead. Had a visitor drop in for a chat and as we were talking at the gate another egg customer pulled up, good job because two minutes later a very dodgy couple in a old van who couldn’t speak any English pulled up. They were trying to buy 1 chicken??? Well that was what they were gesturing but as I have said before you know when someone doesn’t seem right, the chap wouldn’t take no for an answer and I was grateful that there were others there with me, one took the registration number and the other wrote down directions to go and find chickens for sale, I don’t think they were real directions lol. They left and my visitor stayed around for 10 more minutes just to make sure they didn’t come back. With all the activity in the area at the moment you got to keep your wits about you 😜 As a consequence I am now spending every five minutes looking out of the window just in case, puts you right on edge. The egg customer came back twice, once to give me the reg number she had jotted down although I had already committed it to memory and then again to tell me they were still hanging round the village an hour later so they clearly didn’t head off to look for chickens for sale, at this point I rang 101 to report the incident just in case they were up to no good.

Saturday: The weather started off ok and slowly deteriorated 😟 John was away early this morning on an errand so it was just me manning the place. Did the morning rounds and found that something had attacked my guinea pigs and killed one of them, poor Stuart Little, Herbie the other one I bought in and tended his wounds which were superficial and purple sprayed him and put him back out, hoping that whatever it was doesn’t come back and if it does he can fend it off as I don’t have anywhere else for him to go. I’ve half a mind to think it was the baby boy rabbit that was in with them but he didn’t have any blood on him and the neck had been eaten out so looks like stoat maybe, if it was a rat they are usually only interested in food and there was some in the bowl. The boy rabbit has now been put in with the other boy, so now girls and boys are separate thank goodness, so we won’t have any mishaps!

We often have some strange customers and visitors as this week has already shown 😜 and today’s request did not let that custom down, ‘can I cuddle a chicken’ luckily it was John who was out there and he can be very obliging lol and so the lady’s request was granted 😝

The rain continued to come down and once I had finished the housework and John had finished outside we called it a day and watched a film in the warm and dry 😀

And that’s it for this week as I am off with the girls tomorrow morning for some great food, great drink, spa treatments, relaxation and general time out leaving John in charge for the time I’m away.

I haven’t got any photos this week and I was looking back through them to see if I could find one or two of general interest, what I decided was that I will do a blog just of past photos sometime next week, it’s interesting to look back at what we have done form year to year, keep your eyes peeled for that 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

Soup, ducks and a big hole! 

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday, felt great, well rested from not doing much at the weekend, decided to get a move on and start clearing the garden and tidy up, it was going well, I took up and old raised bed and moved all the earth to a new bed, dismantled the rotten sides and levelled out the ground, then went onto cutting the bottom stalks of the runner beans, I leave the roots in the ground because they have nodules of nitrogen on them which are released back into the soil as they die, then onto the fruit cage to get some clearing done and tighten up the wires where they had become loose over the summer with the foliage growing through. Most of the morning was a very fine rain but it didn’t get me too wet, and just as I was thinking, I will get a good amount done today, the rain became a bit heavy and definitely started to get me wet, considering there was no rain forecast I was a bit miffed! I came in for some lunch and waited for it to clear up which it did and set off back outside to carry on, I didn’t have to think about getting dinner today as we bought a lovely chicken, ham and leek pie at the country festival and that was on the menu along with the last picking of runner beans. Then some strawberries from the freezer heated up with some sugar and a dollop of ice cream. Went out picked 3 butternut squash, rain started again so I abandoned outside came in to hoover instead. Made Mary Berrys roasted butternut squash soup, delicious, recipe:

SERVES 6

INGREDIENTS

3 small butternut squash, about 1.6kg (3 ½ lb) total weight

about 2 tablespoons olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

freshly grated nutmeg

25g (1oz) butter

1 large onion, roughly chopped

2 large carrots, roughly chopped

2 large sticks celery, sliced

2.5cm (1 inch) root ginger, grated

1.1-1.3 litres (2-2 ¼ pints) vegetable or chicken stock

sprig of fresh rosemary or 1 teaspoon dried rosemary

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 400°F /Gas 6.

Cut the butternut squash in half lengthways, scoop out the seeds with a metal spoon and discard. Arrange the squash halves cut side up in a roasting tin just big enough to hold the squash in a single layer and drizzle over the olive oil. Season each squash half with salt, pepper and freshly grated nutmeg. Pour 150ml (1/4 pint) water around the squash. Cook in the preheated oven for about 1 ¼ hours, basting occasionally, until the squash are very tender. Allow to cool.

Melt the butter in a large pan and add the onion, carrot, celery and grated ginger. Cook for 5-10 minutes until beginning to soften. Add the stock, rosemary and seasoning, bring to the boil then partially cover and simmer for about 20 minutes until the vegetables are tender.

When cool enough to handle scoop the flesh from the squash and add to the pan. Blend the vegetables in a liquidiser or food processor until smooth. (If you use a food processor, it is easier to process the vegetables with a little of the liquid, adding the remaining liquid to the processed vegetables to make the soup).

Taste for seasoning and serve hot with crusty bread.

I didn’t have any carrots so just left them out also used powdered nutmeg instead of fresh

Tuesday, baked more bread, also tried baking a gluten free loaf from flour I had not used before result: Brick! Did a good couple of hours hoeing and cut the grass. Looking forward to my massage tonight, a treat to myself to relieve the aches and pains of work life. Lamb chops with mash and peas for tea. Had butternut soup for lunch with homemade bread. 

Wednesday, spent most of the morning setting up the duck area in the front paddock to move certain ducks for breeding, the new electric fence arrived yesterday so set that up, probably won’t electrify it to start with unless we get problems, it’s more to keep the ducks in than anything else, painted the house with wood preserver and made a pallet into a solid base for the water to go on, then they hopefully won’t muddy the grass too much and I can move it around. Going to put the Khaki Cambell females that are getting on for 5 years old with the Welsh Harlequin males who are only 1 the result should be some decent looking layers! Salmon for tea, Got to get the healthy bits in. 

Duck eggs are in short supply at the moment and customers keep asking me to save them, this is an impossible task so I refuse to do it, if I had duck eggs for everyone that wanted them I wouldn’t need to save them! Now I have a polite but firm notice telling them first come first served and do not ask me to reserve them 😝 very sorry but it’s not Morrisons as we keep saying! People are too used to expecting the shelves to have what they want. 

Thursday: after the usual feeding, watering and letting out routine, I spent a couple of hours cleaning out the birds in the orchard pen. The quail have been looking a bit ropey and ruffled, I thought I would find red mite in the hutch but no sign 😀 cleaned out their sleeping/laying quarters put in a dust bath for them then clean the outside area and put left over poly tunnel plastic around the open mesh sides to hopefully stop the rain driving in during winter and soaking the ground. Will also act as a windbreak although the light will still get through. We have a newcomer in the form of a Pekin Bantam, his name is Aaron, we have taken him in due to his previous nieghbours complaining about his crowing pffffft it’s more of a squeak tbh and a small yappy dog would be more annoying, he spent a day or two in a cage on his own but I have now moved him into the rabbit run. A larger area that has a roof so does not get muddy, this will be a blessing though he does not realise it yet, as he has feathered feet and could end up in an awful mess over winter. I thought he would have a go at the rabbits but turns out he is a bit afraid of them and runs away when they come over to sniff him out. I will probably put a little bantam hen in with him but am waiting for louse powder to come before I do, they all need a dusting before winter. I will also be worming the birds over a seven day period and giving them a home mixture of poultry spice which is turmeric, garlic, and a few other things, when the temperature drops.

I am keeping a close eye on the walnuts, as soon as they look as though they are beginning to split i will do my best to beat the squirrel to it, although I saw him only yesterday afternoon so am guessing the time is nearly here, don’t worry I will leave him a stash

Checked my home made rat trap this morning, nothing yet! Make more bread. A couple of hours end of month paperwork then a delivery arrived 60 cabbage and leek plants, off outside to plant them. Picked some butternut squash they seem to have small splits in them at the top, lack of water in the beginning I’m guessing. 

Friday, cleaning, shopping day, egg delivery in the evening, fried chicken night

Sat spent the day cutting back the hazel trees around the drive, high vehicles finding it harder and harder to get past! Shredded all the off cuts for the veg garden paths, cut the front drive grass, made bread, roast pork, hubby got the feed and dug a hole! Moved the ducks, drakes to the stable, breeding group to the front leaving the ladies, one drake and my old man in their original pen. Old boy is very geriatric now probably 7 or 8 years old, lost condition and limps but still eats, sleeps, drinks and poos so is a happy chap

Sunday, spent the day helping hubby, he has dug a large hole to be a soak away near the water butts, we get a lot of run off from the hard standing and the dogs running through the mud make it quite a mess in Winter. It is now edged with some kerb stones that we were given a few years ago and the earth mound levelled off. Unbelievably when he started digging he soon hit clay and a very deep seam of it at that, if you have ever done building work round here you will know that very near the surface is usually brash, no matter where we have dug in the past it’s hard going as demonstrated by the electric board last week, just where we could have done with it, clay turns up instead! We spent the best part of the day doing it, and also decided that the humongous crab apple tree that bombs apples at you and makes a racket dropping them on the tin roof, can be trimmed back quite dramatically once it has shed its leaves this year. It must be at least 40 years old if not older and each day I pick up a bucketful for the geese but there are thousands of them. Baked another loaf of bread and discovered that the strong white flour from Aldi makes a better loaf than other leading brands 😀

The egg sales have been full on this week and hopefully now I have separated the ducks I will get more duck eggs to sell as well. 

Posted in Friesland Farm

Harvest Moon

Posted on by frieslandfarm

I have been writing things down as I go along this week otherwise I usually find I cant remember what I did and write the blog in a haphazard way.

After our weekend away the first job on the list was picking as this had not been done since the Thursday before, there were plenty of beans, cucumbers and tomatoes plus a few raspberries. We also decided to harvest the pumpkins, spaghetti squash and the onions before the first frost catches us unaware, they are now in the small poly tunnel drying off, the skins need to harden on the squash and the onions need to dry so that they can be stored overwinter.

On Tuesday a friend came to visit, remember the one with the bees and lucky me I got a little gift of honey, I have resisted pooh bear behaviour and have not opened it and stuck my finger in, but I can hear it calling me from the cupboard so I am sure it wont be long before I do!

Wednesday was a busy day starting with the usual routine of feeding everything, then I went on to clean out the dog kennels, we have some lovely smelling (bubblegum flavour) disinfectant that we use, I am not sure the dogs like it very much but it makes the chore that little bit more pleasant for me. The dogs had a treat of sardines to help with their coat for the coming months and we were all pretty pleased with ourselves. The pigs are doing a great job at eating up any surplus apples and veg, they have also been given some powdered milk that was left over from the lambs, we also gave some of the powder to the chickens, I mix in some oil with their pellets and then mix in the powder to coat the pellets, they have been moulting and the calcium will give them a bit of a boost with new feather production. I can report that since creosoting the coops the dreaded red mite have gone thank goodness, and we have just been given four containers of creosote so that will keep us going for a while. The battery was a bit low on the chicken paddock and as a result some have found a way out, luckily when they have laid an egg they make a complete racket about it, one was in the front paddock in the long grass laying, one has been in the hay barn laying, I just hope I am finding all the eggs as the numbers are still down, I counted sixty two laying hens and we are getting about twenty four eggs a day, quite a lot are on a free ride at the minute!

We have had a holiday horse for a few days, he was staying in the front paddock, we taped off the apple tree but he soon learnt that there was no electric on there and was helping himself to a free lunch. Our horses have now come off next doors paddock as they are moving, we moved them to the back and decided they could eat of the strip that runs down the side of the ménage as the grass has got quite long, I let them out and within five minutes they had decided the field looked like a better option and jumped the top rail to get to it, we have left them there as it would just be a continuing circle of getting them out and them jumping back in besides that field needs eating off too before the wet weather flattens it all.

A couple of the days were spent having a good tidy up, the other coops that were creosoted in August have now been put away for the Winter, they have been stacked and covered with tarpaulin, when we come to need them again they will have a quick coat applied and be ready to use a couple of days after that. The clearing up included having a bonfire, on a farm it is very wise to pick your moments to do this, obviously it could not be done during the heatwave when everything was tinderbox dry, it is also a good idea to take note of any wind and what direction it is blowing as we have a barn full of very dry hay! It was worrying moment when I had forgotten I had lit it that morning and came out in the afternoon to see smoke, realisation dawned, fleeting moment of panic over.

The temperature had taken a turn for the colder a couple of days ago although it is mild again as I type this, the heater was needed to take the chill off the evening air and so I decided that some comfort food was in order, we had a lovely piece of braised beef with onions, and mashed potato, beans and carrots all from the garden, followed by and apple and raspberry pie, delicious, that’s the only good thing about the winter months, the smell of a long slow cooked piece of meat waiting for you when you come in. I made extra large portions of everything so that some of it could be frozen for those days when I just don’t have time to cook.

I am very aware that there is a lot of picking still to be done, the apples, the plums, blackberries, elderberries, some elderberries will be given to the chickens and they make a nice addition to an apple pie, I also noticed that the sloes were abundant this year, I have not tried anything with those yet but hope to have a go at sloe gin if I get round to picking any. I have a large quantity of green tomatoes still outside, the plants have given me plenty of ripe ones but as the temperature drops they are slowing down, green tomato chutney is delicious with cold ham around Christmas time, if anyone wants any to have a go come and get some. I have been jotting down notes to formulate a plan for the veg garden, what was good, what was not, what needs clearing and mucking and where to plant some winter veg, broad beans can go in soon and the poly tunnel will be used to grow early crops of peas and carrots. I also have some green manure to plant, this grows on a vacant patch and then you dig it back in Spring, it helps in many ways, firstly it prevents any nutrients being washed away by wet weather, secondly it helps to stop any compaction of the soil because the roots are busy finding their way around the dirt and lastly once you dig it back in it feeds the soil ready for the new plants, as long as you don’t forget you planted it and let it go to seed (as I did one year and it spread everywhere) , it is a great help.

Quick update on the leaks last week, the gutter in the stable area was full of debris from the trees and so was blocked up, that has now been sorted and the leak in the kitchen ceiling was caused by Hubby not clearing up after himself when he cleaned to flue from Rosie, he left the deposits on the roof and it caused the rain to back up near a bolt and find its way inside, needless to say he got a telling off and now all is well 😉

The windy weather has taken its toll on the bean stalks, three of them have gone over but I am still picking beans from them as the roots remained in the ground, although with the colder, wet weather the foliage is beginning to deteriorate and it won’t be long before they start to go over. Then the job of tidying up the plot for resting will begin in earnest, I love it when the growing season begins but I also love the satisfaction of clearing it all ready for next time.
Look out for the Harvest Moon this Wednesday 19th, its a bit early this year as the autumnal equinox is on the 22nd, it is just a normal full moon really but I love the fact that it has got a name relating to the time of year in the northern hemisphere.

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