Monday 30 April 2012

Ahh some more


Well, the chicks enjoyed a foray in to the run of the broody coop today as the sun was shining:


There were cracks in one of the remaining eggs - it's quite a late hatcher (23 days) so we'll see if it makes it. The others are bonny and well though and Blossom is doing a great job of mothering them despite her young age. Instinct is a marvellous thing, isn't it?

Sunday 29 April 2012

Ahh

Saturday was hatching day for Blossom's/nextdoor's eggs, and sure enough, I peeked in to the broody coop and saw a fluffy black and a damp blonde chick. By the evening there were 5: 2 black, 2 blonde and one who's a mixture, and very large. We think he's a baby Gloria, who is also currently broody in nextdoor's coop and we think he's a he because of the black spot on his head; certain combinations have gender-specific markings.


It's a poor picture as the horrible weather convinced me that Bloss and the babies would be better off back in the rabbit hutch in the warm shed (rather than my home-made coop), which is cosy for a mother hen but gloomy for a photo op. I went along to Middle Farm and bought some Garvo Alfamix Chick Starter which looks really delicious, and as Blossom has been brought up on nice expensive mash, she'd looked in the dish of [organic] grey chick crumb and didn't seem bothered about encouraging the chicks. The feed shop owner said "you're spoiling them!" when I told him I was buying it for 5 new additions. He may have a point. The dried amphipods and herbal extracts did the trick though and she was soon bok-bokking and the little chicks were cheeping and pecking around in the shavings. Ahh :-)

Jean is also sitting patiently in her Dinky Duck House:


I'm not entirely sure when her eggs are due to hatch but hopefully the rain will have eased by then.

My bees swarmed yesterday, or indeed it could have been the day before as it was a tiny swarm in the beech hedge. I'm hoping it's not a cast swarm, where a second queen - a princess - leaves with a small group of foragers as it will mean I have lost the swarm with the original queen and her large entourage, which usually is in the region of half the adult bees. It's too wet and cold to open up the hive to see how many bees are left on the frames (it's like the Marie Celeste after the initial or 'prime' swarm leaves) but I did pop the cluster into my new skep and decant them in to a hive I had ready. They were very sluggish though and I squashed a lump of solidified honey into the frames under the crownboard as despite filling themselves to the brim from the stores in the hive before leaving, they will have used up their crop-full of honey as fuel to keep them warm in the hedge. They need to eat plenty of honey to make wax, as it's secreted from wax glands which is a high energy process, so hopefully they will be able to refuel so that the queen can get laying. If she's a princess, she will need to go on her mating flight first which takes the pressure off the comb-builder bees as she won't be ready to lay eggs until about 3 weeks after she's flown out and found herself a batch of suitable drones one afternoon up in the sunny sky...yes, she may be waiting a while! It was a bit warmer this afternoon and the bees were orientating themselves outside their new home, so I am really hoping for some good weather over the next few weeks so they can go and forage.

I went over to the farm on Friday and split the large colony into two, and with luck I've done it in time to deter them from swarming, as I'm not on hand there to collect them as easily. The bees were really calm, and I decided not to use a smoker as I find it stressful keeping it alight, and I don't know if it works as a calming agent anyway. I try to be really gentle and measured when I work the bees as they release an alarm pheromone when they sting or get crushed which is understandable but deeply unhelpful from a beekeeper's perspective. I found an unsealed queen cell on a frame and popped that in the hive opposite with some more frames of brood and a box of honey on top. I'll go and check they are flying next time it's warm.

It was my parent's joint birthday party yesterday which was great fun, and I was the lucky recipient of the contents of my aunt's shed which she brought over with her. It's like a gardening treasure trove - lovely terracotta pots and a proper besom broom among other things. I had put some lemon pips in to compost back in the autumn and forgotten about them; lo and behold, they germinated. I've potted them up into the terracotta pots and they look charming with their glossy leaves so I should have some nice citrus houseplants!

Thursday 26 April 2012

It was my birthday at the weekend and I was lucky enough to receive some fantastic presents, including a nestbox webcam which is currently on the optional fat-ball feeder it came with. The company (handykam.com) had thought of everything, and I must say it is rather compulsive viewing, despite the fact that the chickens wandering around underneath look the same size as the sparrows and blue tits. It's a real window in to the birds' world and if it's something you've always to try - do!

I was also given a Dinky Duck House by my parents which is brilliant. It was a timely gift as Jean the call duck has gone broody, and as I had a bit of a scare the other day when she wasn't well, I thought I'd better breed some potential replacements! Female call ducks are hard to come by and they have a strong pair bond, so if anything happened to one of them, the other would be bereft. So, I took the decision to try for some ducklings :-) She is sitting on 5 eggs so hopefully I'll get at least one female. Blossom's eggs are due to hatch this weekend so I am considering investing in a new broody coop from Flyte So Fancy. I have a bit of a rat problem and I'm concerned that my Heath Robinson attempt won't be rodent-proof, and I've got a feeling Mary (Blossom's brood-mother) might be getting the nesting urge too as she was tucked up in the corner of the Lurve Lavatory at bedtime. Although that could be because she's a bit thick.

The weather's been dreadful here (although we need the rain blah blah) and the bees have been pouring out of the hives as soon as its dry to head off to the oil seed rape and dandelions. I've been rejigging all the frames in my spare hives and I am debating as to whether I should split the big colony or let them swarm. The garden is looking fantastic with the frequent cloudbursts (including the couch grass and willowherb in the borders) and I had a bit of a result with Freecycle: I'd requested some hanging baskets to use as cloches to protect my new plants as Henry can spot a shiny new perennial like a hawk, and before I know it he's scuffed the whole thing across the garden with his great feet in the name of impressing the hens with his muscular leg action and worm-finding abilities. Anyway, a chap called Alf emailed me and this morning I collected 24 hanging baskets from just down the road! The are all a bit rusty which means they blend in to the borders really well and in fact are not devoid of charm in my rural setting. Think delapidated milk churn or ancient tractor aging gracefully into the landscape and it's sort of the look I feel I've achieved. Once the foliage grows up through them they'll disappear anyway. I'll kick myself if I see my idea in one of the Chelsea Show Gardens...

My knitting project is growing although I need to find some other stitch markers as I'm using my wedding and eternity rings at the moment which are not ideal, although it does put them to good use :-D I've signed up to finish my degree as I've swapped the courses over to a BSc which doesn't need me to go on a residential school. I had stopped for a break with every reason to suspect I would not pick it up again, but I miss the challenge [of feeling completely out of my depth!] and I end up fretting about useless pointless stuff so I figure my best option is to lock the old grey cells into something worthwhile. The children are pootling along quite happily with their various interests and actually I find that they get swept along with me to a certain extent when I'm studying.

I hope to have some duckling and chick pics to show everyone at some point :-)

Tuesday 17 April 2012

A Visit to Perch Hill

On Saturday I took a trip out to Sarah Raven's Open Day with Kate. It was rather chilly and we hurried past the cutting garden to the warmth of the barn and conservatory where tea and cakes were being served. After a delicious slice of coffee cake spiked with Baileys, we pottered around the shop choosing seed packets, wondering where our houses could accommodate the beautiful candles, and handling spools of colourful string with their lovely smell of potting sheds. I bought a pack of gladioli "Plum Tart" in the sale as I've never grown glads before, and some veg seeds: Red Bor kale, Amsterdam carrots and red giant mustard leaf. It was busy in the shop and I get a bit nervous when I'm walking round somewhere with so many costly and smashable items but the Delft blue hyacinths in pewter dishes were kicking out a perfume so it was very pleasant. Ms Raven's styling is inspirational but not wholly appropriate to my lifestyle and it's a bit out of my price range, but it is a lovely place to go with a friend and the gardens were looking surprisingly colourful given the earliness of the year. I'm not quite sure why I find the orderly lines of veg and tulips so appealing as I'm hardly a neat freak in any other area of my life!


The afternoon was the Grand National, and I managed - by complete girly fluke - to back the winner! A wonderful grey horse, who won by a few pixels judging by the photo finish. Two horses had to be put down which always puts a dampener on these things, but I take a rather pragmatic view having had horses myself, and being a livestock owner is fraught with delight and disaster. Anyway, I'm going to spend my winnings on some yarn to knit a jumper - my largest [size] challenge to date.

I took the girls in to town yesterday and Amber purchased some semi-permanent hair colour as she's been whittering on about it for ages. She did have doubts as the Ribena-coloured water streamed from her hair when I showered her head over the bath, but I told her it would be fiiiiiine and to stop worrying as frankly it was too late to change her mind. It's quite an attractive plummy-chestnut although of course I prefer her dark honey-gold locks. It lasts for 24 shampoos according to the packet, which given Amber's current rate of hair-washing and general ablutions, should last her about 3 years.

Today has been chilly and breezy inbetween sunshine and 'useful' showers to borrow the term used by the forecasters. I've planted the gladioli corms and Amber put some French bean 'Purple Teepee' into pots. It's National Gardening Week so I'm focussing on horticulture in the afternoons...it's a valid reason! - I'm not just trying to find excuses to go into the garden in the name of education, honest. There is a massive shortage of horticulturalists and botanists so I like to feel I am doing my bit to make the children aware of what can be grown and when and how. I did discuss vegetable crops with them but got a bit unstuck as Tristan refused to believe that we actually imported broccoli, saying that surely nobody liked it that much. I will get them pricking out seedlings later in the week as I've got quite a few: the alkanet and woad have germinated, as well as a quarter-tray of some green and glossy seedlings which are a bit of a mystery. I'm not a great labeller.

I've almost finished a pair of fingerless gloves based on Susie's Reading Mitts, a wonderful (free) pattern on Ravelry which I've adapted to have 2x2 rib at the wrist and fingers as it's a bit easier.

Blossom is still sitting on her eggs so hopefully we will have chicks by the end of the month - I hope it warms up a bit before then. The bees have been flying when the sun comes out and I am hoping for some swarms soon to fill all the hives in my garden!

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Spring Action

I heard the cuckoo this morning, which is the first time. I've seen orange tip, red admiral and peacock butterflies, lots of bumblebees and lacewings too so far, but of course it's the cuckoo that announces it's Spring (or at least, more Spring-like than sub-Saharan Africa). It seems to be a semi-resident as I hear it calling from the same area, and I have also seen flying in its cumbersome manner across the field behind me in previous years.

The nestbox I put up in the copper beech behind the house has had blue tits successfully breeding in it for the past two years, but I heard a tap-tapping while I was giving the hens their breakfast, and thinking it was a woodpecker, went over to have a look. It was actually a great tit hammering away at the entrance hole trying to get in. I've seen blue tits, wrens and sparrows making reconnaissance missions in and around the box but the great tits seem to have bagged it as I saw one of them shoo away a blue tit. It couldn't seem to get its shoulders through so I'm wondering how long they'll persevere.

I'm now feeling I should provide the ousted blue tits with a new box and we were looking at camera ones this evening which would be brilliant, although I'm conscious it'll be another thing for me to worry about!! I could put it in the beech tree as the ivy provides plenty of cover and birds already nest there but I'm not sure how much room they need between boxes; I don't think they like to nest too close to each other (apart from sparrows who apparently enjoy the company) and I don't want to put off the great tits. An alternative would be in the cherry tree outside the front door, then the cable could come straight in through the lounge window, giving the Ocado/post/milk man an opportunity to garrote himself as he trips over the makeshift duck barrier and dodges the bees. I will also order some roosting pockets from Wiggly Wigglers as I have had dunnocks nesting in the hedge in these before now.

The weather has been very wet today and despite parched conditions a week ago, my garden has been transformed in to a sloppy and slippery mess. I am making a new border where the chickens were during the winter, as they demolished the grass and if I'm going to make good, I'd rather not simply reseed it. I'm sure my landlord would approve of a shady border with foxgloves, Pulmonaria, Lamium and a bee-friendly clover lawn instead of boring old ryegrass??

We went to Iden Croft Herbs yesterday which was, er, interesting. We didn't know what to expect, but that wasn't it. Anyway, I got some really interesting herb seeds which I sowed today: Good King Henry, cuckoo flower, woad, alkanet and arnica to name a few. My veg table now has a hanging basket on the side of it for me to plant a tumbling tomato, thus increasing the useable area.

I am now going to knit a lemon for my tea cosy...

Sunday 8 April 2012

It's Been a While....

...partly because I have run out of room in my online photo album so can't post pics without deleting previous ones or purchasing album space, and my laptop has been donated to my son and my old pc won't speak to my camera. Consequently, uploading pictures and getting them on to my blog is a bit of a palava. I'll try and sort something out though. Things have been busy here: I find spring such an energising time of year but I'm actually trying to slow down a bit. I used to make my cup of tea in bleary-eyed fashion, crawl back to bed and resurface once the life-giving caffeine had gently woken me up. Now, I have got in to the unhealthy habit of putting the kettle on, feeling obliged to go and feed the hens and then take the tea outside and start wondering what I can get on with in the garden. Yes! I know! Madness!!

The children are going to their dad's tomorrow morning until Tuesday afternoon so I am looking forward to a bit of peace and quiet. Camilla has been round which is nice for the girls, and Amber has had her friend Emily to stay too. Tristan had his regulation time with Joel last week so the inevitable bickering has been at a manageable level. I have banned the words "I'm bored" with threats of double work when we get back to homeschooling if they chunter about not having anything to do during the break. Tristan is starting French GCSE and hopefully history if I can understand what set books I need to get. I took a special trip up to Foyles in London to have a decent peruse but got completely lost so gave up. I did get a really good insect field guide, a biodynamic calendar, a bee book called "Queen of the Sun" which is a lovely anthology of  articles, pictures and poems from a bee-friendly perspective. Oh, and a great Eleanor of Aquitaine bio by Douglas Boyd which I am really enjoying. So. er, yes, not a great result on the textbook front but I'm well stocked up. Things with their dad are ok; I'm letting the CSA do the running around for me! Well, I say running...I think the Alps are moving more quickly but hey, I wouldn't want to do their job.

The garden is looking full of promise though, and this morning we are finally getting some rain. Drizzle actually, but it's better than nothing. It's not been too bad with the hosepipe ban as I have the duck's bathtub water to decant over the border (which yes, I lug 5 watering-can-loads of water to) and I've been prioritising my new plants so it's all looking pretty green as I've got mainly perennials.

The chickens are all doing well and enjoying the dry weather. They still haven't touched the dust-bath station I installed, but are finding plenty of other places; in my row of potatoes, a pothole they've excavated in a patch of bare earth in the lawn, under the bikes which kicks dust up all over the chains, that sort of thing. Blossom the chick has gone broody, and at the risk of sounding like I advocate teenage motherhood, she's been so out of sorts and hormonal I felt it better to let her sit and see if she stays rather than force her out of it. She's in the spare rabbit hutch in my potting shed so it's nice and quiet, and she has got a selection of nextdoor's eggs under her. My neighbours lost Dorothy, a favourite hen and have a few of her eggs left. There are some others too, mainly Pekin bantams and Polish and some other fancy fowl - they're a bit more adventurous than me.

The call ducks are also fit and healthy, and are right at this moment enjoying the dampness. John the drake is extremely full of the joys and keeps grabbing the chicks and trying to mate them. I did think he was just chasing them but no, having observed him from the upstairs window as I shouted directions to Amber in the garden, he definitely has more libidinous things in mind. They have got a bit wise to him now and give him a good pecking which is a bit dangerous as they could do him some real damage. Not that he seems frightfully aware of that. It certainly doesn't seem to be putting him off. Jean, the duck, did go broody too and [extraordinarily] tempted though I was, I decided not to let her incubate :-( she is very young and ducks are less easy to find homes for than hens. I'll see if it happens next year and let her have a go then.

I'm knitting/crocheting a tea cosy at the moment - it's a variant of the Spring Explosion Tea Cozy from Crochet With Raymond, which looks like this:


I'm doing a fruit 'n' veg one though, and so far it's looking great. I've also discovered the Martha Stewart website which has lots of ideas, so have been churning out strawberry pincushions (from the Sewing Projects) section, and yesterday Kate came over with her machine and we gave it a clean up whilst drinking tea and chatting. Very pleasant :-)

Happy Easter to you all.