Latest Happenings around the Chicken Pens
There is always something going on around the pens and the chicken houses / coops, whether we are preparing for the months ahead or playing catch-up on the activity in the weeks that have passed.
Bee-keeping - June'10
Bee-keeping began last year when we bartered chickens, adult fowl and eggs with a couple of different people to acquire; first a couple of brood boxes complete with frames and foundation and later a couple of nukes of bees. Along with chicken-keeping we had become bee-keepers.
We learned a lot over the autumn, winter and spring about the pit-falls and potential losses that await the inexperienced beek. Reading, observing, application, visiting our mentor's apiary and phone calls all helped to increase our knowledge and direct our practical application in establishing our own small apiary in 2009 - 2010.
We managed to over-winter our bees this year without loosing a colony although there were a couple of periods when it was touch and go. Thanks to Eddie's intervention and regular mentoring from an experienced bee-keeper (Mick, you know who you are - thank you) both nukes have now become viable hives.
I'm feeling positively virtuous this week, having found an old recipe to treat the wood of the first of our new bee boxes.
It's a mixture of linseed oil and melted beeswax, giving the box a lovely golden tone with natural products and no chemicals. A fitting home for our next colony.
When the treatment soaks into the wood the brood box will be moved to it's permanent home in the apiary along with the others and before long will be buzzing with activity as a new colony becomes established.
An inspection of the hives in the apiary is now just another part of the daily routine when we tend to the chickens, collect the eggs and inspect the perimeter for signs of predators etc., etc., etc...
Muscovy Ducklings - May '10
I'm always amazed as the speed with which ducklings grow. These lavender muscovys were the size of my hands just a few weeks ago.
Their daily routine is one of sitting around as in this photo, taking an occasional trip to the duck pond to cool off or just for amusement and regular trips to the feeding station.
Some days if it's really hot they even seek the shade of the goose house to rest.
They are such beautiful colours and always appear as if they are smiling at the world and all it offers.
They will soon be joined by a couple of indian runners who are still too small to spend their days unprotected by overhead netting.
Bloody Fox - April '10
I am beside myself with annoyance for the last two days.
Our first muscovy, a beautiful lavender duck, and a mothers' day gift from my daughter had happily settled with our hens, ducks and geese.
Free to range between the pens and down to the pond she had tamed to the point that I could walk up to her and she didn't even move.
She occasionally took flight over the pens to the pond if the mood hit her and returned with a stroll. foraging as she went. She had become friends with the other ducks and was regularly found sitting by the goose house.
Our goose began to hatch and perhaps the muscovy was encouraged to move elsewhere. She went missing the day after this happened. We searched the field around the other pens, the ditches and the surrounding fields, in the blind hope that she had flown out and was sitting on a secret nest somewhere; but no such luck.
The BLOODY FOX must have taken her. She (the fox) was back again last night, sitting in the ditch - for another supper no doubt.
The field is fenced all round with chain link AND electric fencing but the muscovy must have flown over the part crossing the field - goodness knows for what reason as she had plenty of space where she was - but that is the nature of muscovies. I should have clipped one wing but I wanted her to be able to live as naturally as possible with the occasional flight to the pond.
My MISTAKE!
Our First Japanese Bantam to hatch - April '10
This is our first Japanese Bantam, one day old and all fluffed up after emerging from the shell beside her/him. These little chicks are less than half the size of a standard chicken when they emerge from the shell - much less that quarter their size as adults.
Processing Table Fowl - March '10
We are processing the last of our fowl for the table this week, until the temperatures decrease again next winter. Day and night-time temperatures have risen and it's no longer possible to hang the meat for as long as we would like. One warm day could result in a total loss. Persistent low temperatures this winter have allowed us to hang meat without any concern for its freshness and our freezers are well stocked for quite some time with the best quality free range chicken, duckling and goose meat.
We were very lucky this winter to have received a freshly killed venison from a friend. Eddie skinned and butchered it and time is curing the skin. This meat is reserved for a special summer barbeque.
Our First Hatch this Spring - March '10
'Hey, listen... is that my Daddy calling?' the young chicks ask!
These are our first chicks of 2010 and are just 10 days old. They are just beginning to grow some of their feathers. In a very short couple of weeks they will be fully feathered and look completely different. There are several breeds in this hatch, Light Sussex, Speckled Sussex, Exchequer Leghorn, Silver Grey Dorking and Rhode Island Red.
Spring has Arrived in Chicken Kingdom - March '10
Spring has arrived. Although the weather is cold, daylight hours are increasing and with regular bright sunshine almost every day, the chickens natural instinct to reproduce themselves has re-ignited.
Cocks are crowing and hens are laying, slowly, but none the less, laying. There are regular displays, to prove supremacy among the cockerels.
Most of our breeds are segregated in their own breeding pens once again. We've set our first batch of eggs which are due to hatch in the beginning of March.
Vigilance is increased in spring as we live quite close to an old, overgrown, disused quarry which is the happy home and breeding habitat for foxes.
During the recent snow in January is was possible to see the foxes' nocturnal treks around the field where the birds were penned, through the ditches and in the neighbouring fields. We've been very lucky given their constant presence to have had only one loss over the winter months. We are attributing this to our use of electric net fencing.
The risk of predation is increased in spring when cubs are born, and increased further again when the vixen takes them out to hunt.
Last year we lost six young geese all at once, to a vixen who was training her cubs. The ditch had been severely cutback just a couple of days previously. Before fencing was erected to block the gaps left by the trimming, the geese walked out through a hole, into the next field, right across her path...
It was heart-breaking.
Life Begins - May '09
At the moment we are busy extending our pens and building extra housing. We try in so far as we can, to re-create the birds natural environment. They are all free ranging very large segregation pens on grass with individual housing for each breeding group.
We have several groups of mothers and babies in the nursery area at the moment. Some are 
with chicks in a covered run to protect them from predators. This plan is being thwarted by a very persistent rabbit who insists on entering the run at every opportunity by getting under the wire or sometimes even chewing through it.
One of our light sussex hens has 12 goslings which are rapidly becoming as big as herself although some of them are only a 1 to 2 weeks old. She hatched 5 of the eggs herself; the remainder hatched in the incubator a few days later. She continues to mother them, all the time wondering why they prefer to eat grass and splash around in water, to all the great treats she provides and entices them to eat from her scratchings.
Another of our light sussex is the proud mother of ducklings
Above is a Khaki Campbell duckling taking a rest on its mother's back (a light sussex) and below a 3 day old duckling is walking among the buttercups 