We're now getting around 20 or more eggs a week from the two Light Sussex and two Cuckoo Maran hens and but once or twice a week we get a double-yolker.
They simply have two yolks in the one shell and they're obvious by being around one-and-a-half times the size. The largest to date was 106g.
It's not been possible to tell which bird is laying them but I'm trying to narrow it down and suspect one of the Marans.
Not sure why this is happening but any thoughts welcome!
Yolks being the fat content of the egg as opposed to the albumen or white which is largely protein, this means cooking with double-yolkers can have it's advantages.
It seems they make much richer omelettes and scrambled eggs - and as for soft boiled eggs, there's more to dip your soldiers into, of course!
I guess there are repercussions too when baking but I'll leave that to the experts to comments on.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Friday, May 31, 2013
Joining the Flat Earth Society with a lawn
Progress with the new lawn over the winter has been slow but at last the hard graft is done.
The walls are built and the ground levelled to back-fill them where needed. And in answer to that famous question "did the earth move for you?" No, I had to shift most of it myself.
After the digger driver's departure I was left to shape and level the ground properly. It took me around 30 hours - and that was just the lawn area.
The spring was too cold to sow grass seed until the second week in May, so it is just starting to grow now.
I used a lawn seed mixture designed to be hard-wearing for family use. That's aimed mainly to combat my eight-year-old daughter and the dog running, jumping, chasing, wrestling and scuffing up my turf!
So far, however, it looks a bit patchy so I think I need to add a bit of top soil or some nitrogen-rich manure to the bare bits. That'll be where the impoverished sub-soil, compacted, dry and seriously lacking organic matter, is still on the surface.
I'll wait for the grass to establish so I can see it clearly and then add pelleted chicken manure. Then, when the coast is clear and dog and daughter are otherwise engaged, I'll add a 50:50 mixture of top soil and sand to create a more permanent, water-retentive and life-giving layer. The hard sub-soil beneath it will need breaking up a bit too, but not until the turf is more robust.
From now on, we'll be able to play football without the ball ending up in the same corner all the time, ride bikes without running out of steam within two yards and go camping in the garden without the whole family waking up on top of me in the morning.
Looking forward to it.
The walls are built and the ground levelled to back-fill them where needed. And in answer to that famous question "did the earth move for you?" No, I had to shift most of it myself.
After the digger driver's departure I was left to shape and level the ground properly. It took me around 30 hours - and that was just the lawn area.
The spring was too cold to sow grass seed until the second week in May, so it is just starting to grow now.
I used a lawn seed mixture designed to be hard-wearing for family use. That's aimed mainly to combat my eight-year-old daughter and the dog running, jumping, chasing, wrestling and scuffing up my turf!
So far, however, it looks a bit patchy so I think I need to add a bit of top soil or some nitrogen-rich manure to the bare bits. That'll be where the impoverished sub-soil, compacted, dry and seriously lacking organic matter, is still on the surface.
I'll wait for the grass to establish so I can see it clearly and then add pelleted chicken manure. Then, when the coast is clear and dog and daughter are otherwise engaged, I'll add a 50:50 mixture of top soil and sand to create a more permanent, water-retentive and life-giving layer. The hard sub-soil beneath it will need breaking up a bit too, but not until the turf is more robust.
From now on, we'll be able to play football without the ball ending up in the same corner all the time, ride bikes without running out of steam within two yards and go camping in the garden without the whole family waking up on top of me in the morning.
Looking forward to it.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Eggs aplenty but from which birds?
At least three hens are now laying - obviously, since after couple of weeks of one or two eggs a day, we had three layed in one morning.
However, they were all the same size and colour - medium to large and mid-brown. I'd previously thought this was from a Maran as the Light Sussex eggs I used to get were much lighter. Now I'll have to scrap that theory.
Among the eggs layed in the first few weeks were one tiny egg, slightly darker in colour and about the size of a wood pigeon egg, and one huge egg - similar in every way to the others except that it was half as big again, weighing in at 96g (the others are around 60 - 65g).
However, they were all the same size and colour - medium to large and mid-brown. I'd previously thought this was from a Maran as the Light Sussex eggs I used to get were much lighter. Now I'll have to scrap that theory.
Among the eggs layed in the first few weeks were one tiny egg, slightly darker in colour and about the size of a wood pigeon egg, and one huge egg - similar in every way to the others except that it was half as big again, weighing in at 96g (the others are around 60 - 65g).
Sunday, May 5, 2013
First egg
Our hens layed their first egg today. I'm guessing it's from one of the Marans as it is a mid-brown, medium to large egg and much browner than the pale eggs we were used to getting from the previous Light Sussex hens.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
What's been eating my broccoli?
We've had numerous pest problems in the fruit and veg garden in the past, including mice, rabbits, squirrels and magpies - and we even had an issue with brown hares a few years ago.
But what has been eating my brassicas?
It started in mid-March when the only green vegetables in the garden were the purple sprouting broccoli - possibly my favourite veg - and some leeks. Something started eating the leaves of the broccoli, including the thick leaf stalks. Since then it has proceded at a pace and, until this weekend, I had no idea what it was.
It spoiled the florets with a bit of mechanical damage rather than eating them but really went for the leaves, leaving sharp, jagged edges and maybe about 80% loss of leaf surface. And it didn't even start with the tender new growth but seemed to go for the biggest leaves, initially those a good 18 inches off the ground.
Those first stems attacked seemed too thick for mice. Even a rabbit would have had to reach up for them and why would it do that when there were other leaves in easy reach? Given the usual rabbit approach of starting with newer, tender growth, it seemed unlikely to be one. And, having a "shoot first, ask questions later" policy with squirrels, I hadn't seen one in the garden for several weeks.
So we set up a trail camera to see if we could catch the culprit digitally. It worked a treat and now we can add wood pigeons (Columba palumbus) to our list of garden pests.
I've never had a problem with them in the past so I've left them alone, gladly watching them as they arrived routinely in early evening at the bird feeding stations outside our kitchen window, pecking up some of the fallen food left on the steps by other smaller garden birds.
But I had noticed their numbers rising in recent in months. Flocks of up to two dozen roost in the trees around our yard., We used to have peregrine falcons - widely condemned by pigeon racers - nesting nearby but I've not seen any for a while. Perhaps the rise in one population is linked to the demise in the other on a local level.
So now it is time for me to take action and, since a much needed and fancied fresh food has been removed from our table at this time of garden famine, can anyone recommend a good recipe for pigeon pie?
But what has been eating my brassicas?
It started in mid-March when the only green vegetables in the garden were the purple sprouting broccoli - possibly my favourite veg - and some leeks. Something started eating the leaves of the broccoli, including the thick leaf stalks. Since then it has proceded at a pace and, until this weekend, I had no idea what it was.
It spoiled the florets with a bit of mechanical damage rather than eating them but really went for the leaves, leaving sharp, jagged edges and maybe about 80% loss of leaf surface. And it didn't even start with the tender new growth but seemed to go for the biggest leaves, initially those a good 18 inches off the ground.
Those first stems attacked seemed too thick for mice. Even a rabbit would have had to reach up for them and why would it do that when there were other leaves in easy reach? Given the usual rabbit approach of starting with newer, tender growth, it seemed unlikely to be one. And, having a "shoot first, ask questions later" policy with squirrels, I hadn't seen one in the garden for several weeks.
So we set up a trail camera to see if we could catch the culprit digitally. It worked a treat and now we can add wood pigeons (Columba palumbus) to our list of garden pests.
 |
| Fat wood pigeon, soon to be an endangered species, feasting on my prized purple sprouting broccoli |
I've never had a problem with them in the past so I've left them alone, gladly watching them as they arrived routinely in early evening at the bird feeding stations outside our kitchen window, pecking up some of the fallen food left on the steps by other smaller garden birds.
But I had noticed their numbers rising in recent in months. Flocks of up to two dozen roost in the trees around our yard., We used to have peregrine falcons - widely condemned by pigeon racers - nesting nearby but I've not seen any for a while. Perhaps the rise in one population is linked to the demise in the other on a local level.
So now it is time for me to take action and, since a much needed and fancied fresh food has been removed from our table at this time of garden famine, can anyone recommend a good recipe for pigeon pie?
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Welcome to young Barney
Enter Barney, a fine looking Silver-laced Wyandotte cockerel, around 10 months old.
He's a Swansea boy - or Gower at least - and quite tame. he let the children of his previous owners pick him up and bring him to me to put in a box.
And by getting him from all of 60 miles away we stand a good chance of making sure he's not related to any of the Silver-laced Wyandotte hens we're planning to get locally, should we decide to breed them.
He was free to a good home and went straight in with the hens. He was a bit cautious at first, as were they, but he soon decided to show them who was boss and few pecks and chases around the hen pen put that straight. One of the Marans actually pecked back but quickly gave her ground.
He's not started mating yet - I think he may be too young still and as they're not laying there's a fair bit of naivety all round. But he's a fine looking bird and well mannered so I'm sure the hens will be charmed by him soon enough.
He's a Swansea boy - or Gower at least - and quite tame. he let the children of his previous owners pick him up and bring him to me to put in a box.
And by getting him from all of 60 miles away we stand a good chance of making sure he's not related to any of the Silver-laced Wyandotte hens we're planning to get locally, should we decide to breed them.
He was free to a good home and went straight in with the hens. He was a bit cautious at first, as were they, but he soon decided to show them who was boss and few pecks and chases around the hen pen put that straight. One of the Marans actually pecked back but quickly gave her ground.
He's not started mating yet - I think he may be too young still and as they're not laying there's a fair bit of naivety all round. But he's a fine looking bird and well mannered so I'm sure the hens will be charmed by him soon enough.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Hens cautiously apporove their new home
Our new brood is settling in safely ... but slowly.
To start with they were understandably nervous in their new environment and stood in a corner in a tight huddle.
They gradually started to inch around their pen. They looked small and lost in it. They aren't yet fully grown but still were surprisingy tentative. In the first day of their arrival they only managed to explore perhaps half the pen which is 30 feet by 30 feet.
And they didn't take to their food either. I'd started them on a mixture of Layers Pellets and Chick Pellets, with the idea of gradually easing them on to just the Layers Pellets. But they didn't seem to fancy either. And didn't even get as far as finding the food trough on that first day. They did however, do a little scratching in the soil and leaf litter and found plenty to eat there.
I had to lift them up and put them into the hen house that firs night and they didn't really want to go. The next morning I took a peep before letting them out and they hadn't used either the roosting bars or the nesting boxes but just huddled together in a corner. It took them around 10 minutes to come out that morning.
But later that day I saw some of the food in the trough had been eaten and they'd managed to get to the other side of the pen. Again, I had to lift them into their henhouse that evening.
The next day, however, they went straight to the food trough and an hour or so later I saw them on the branches my daughter had turned into an obstacle course for the previous brood to play on.
They seem to stay out later than their predecessors, waiting until it is dark to go into the hen house. And I had a shock last night when I went to shut them up at half-time in the France-Wales match - about 5.45pm when it was just dark.
Three were huddled in a nesting box but one of the Marans was roosting on top of the door frame to the hen pen. I'll have to look into clipping their wings or put some loose wire across the top to stop them sitting there.
To start with they were understandably nervous in their new environment and stood in a corner in a tight huddle.
They gradually started to inch around their pen. They looked small and lost in it. They aren't yet fully grown but still were surprisingy tentative. In the first day of their arrival they only managed to explore perhaps half the pen which is 30 feet by 30 feet.
And they didn't take to their food either. I'd started them on a mixture of Layers Pellets and Chick Pellets, with the idea of gradually easing them on to just the Layers Pellets. But they didn't seem to fancy either. And didn't even get as far as finding the food trough on that first day. They did however, do a little scratching in the soil and leaf litter and found plenty to eat there.
I had to lift them up and put them into the hen house that firs night and they didn't really want to go. The next morning I took a peep before letting them out and they hadn't used either the roosting bars or the nesting boxes but just huddled together in a corner. It took them around 10 minutes to come out that morning.
But later that day I saw some of the food in the trough had been eaten and they'd managed to get to the other side of the pen. Again, I had to lift them into their henhouse that evening.
The next day, however, they went straight to the food trough and an hour or so later I saw them on the branches my daughter had turned into an obstacle course for the previous brood to play on.
They seem to stay out later than their predecessors, waiting until it is dark to go into the hen house. And I had a shock last night when I went to shut them up at half-time in the France-Wales match - about 5.45pm when it was just dark.
Three were huddled in a nesting box but one of the Marans was roosting on top of the door frame to the hen pen. I'll have to look into clipping their wings or put some loose wire across the top to stop them sitting there.
Monday, February 4, 2013
New chickens arrive after fox attack
We collected four new hens the other day from a supplier in Neath; two Light Sussex and two Cuckoo Marans, all large fowl. They're around 17 weeks and so probably won't be laying for a month or two.
They look to be nice birds, still with some growing to do and some settling in to their new home. And I'm looking for two or three more, including a cockerel.
They've come to replace the birds we lost to the fox last autumn. It was a sad end for them and initially down to human error on my part. We often let them out into the garden if we were around and they usually made their own way back to their pen in the evening before dusk and we'd lock them up again.
But one fateful day I forgot that they'd been out and so didn't go to lock them up and, as it did most nights, the fox came through our garden ... just on the off chance...
And this time it's luck was in and our's and our chickens' was not.
It took three and left two more for dead, including Harry the cockerel who I had to finish off to spare him his suffering. But one very traumatised hen survived unscathed.
We were just about to go away for a few days and I didn't want to leave the hen on her own as she was really missing the company of the others. So, as the hen pen and hen house still seemed to be safe, I decided to pick up another hen to keep her company before we went away.
I found a very pretty Silver-Laced Wyandotte just about at point-of-lay and brought her back to join our lucky survivor. Then we travelled to Ipswich for a few days, leaving our willing neighbours to feed them.
I also had a cockerel lined up to collect on the way home - a Gold-Laced Wyandotte in need of e good home and was trawling the internet to find replacement birds to rebuild our small brood. But it was not to be.
While away the fox returned. This time it delivered a frenzied attack on my chicken pen. The scratching at the wooden hen house was reminiscent of a Hammer Horror werewolf film but it stood firm. There was also sign of it trying to dig under but rocks and roots made that impossible.
Undeterred, however, the fox that it finally chewed its way through the chicken wire - proper 19 gauge 1.5 inch galvanised wire specifically for chicken pens. And it then chewed another hole to get out with both hens.
So I've reinforced the hen house, looked for weak spots and attended to them and put 16 gauge welded mesh around the existing wire to keep the fox out. And with our new arrivals we've returned to the practice of actually shutting them up in the hen house every night.
So far so good ... but watch this space.
They look to be nice birds, still with some growing to do and some settling in to their new home. And I'm looking for two or three more, including a cockerel.
They've come to replace the birds we lost to the fox last autumn. It was a sad end for them and initially down to human error on my part. We often let them out into the garden if we were around and they usually made their own way back to their pen in the evening before dusk and we'd lock them up again.
But one fateful day I forgot that they'd been out and so didn't go to lock them up and, as it did most nights, the fox came through our garden ... just on the off chance...
And this time it's luck was in and our's and our chickens' was not.
It took three and left two more for dead, including Harry the cockerel who I had to finish off to spare him his suffering. But one very traumatised hen survived unscathed.
We were just about to go away for a few days and I didn't want to leave the hen on her own as she was really missing the company of the others. So, as the hen pen and hen house still seemed to be safe, I decided to pick up another hen to keep her company before we went away.
I found a very pretty Silver-Laced Wyandotte just about at point-of-lay and brought her back to join our lucky survivor. Then we travelled to Ipswich for a few days, leaving our willing neighbours to feed them.
I also had a cockerel lined up to collect on the way home - a Gold-Laced Wyandotte in need of e good home and was trawling the internet to find replacement birds to rebuild our small brood. But it was not to be.
While away the fox returned. This time it delivered a frenzied attack on my chicken pen. The scratching at the wooden hen house was reminiscent of a Hammer Horror werewolf film but it stood firm. There was also sign of it trying to dig under but rocks and roots made that impossible.
Undeterred, however, the fox that it finally chewed its way through the chicken wire - proper 19 gauge 1.5 inch galvanised wire specifically for chicken pens. And it then chewed another hole to get out with both hens.
So I've reinforced the hen house, looked for weak spots and attended to them and put 16 gauge welded mesh around the existing wire to keep the fox out. And with our new arrivals we've returned to the practice of actually shutting them up in the hen house every night.
So far so good ... but watch this space.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Swings and roundabouts (and slides) in the snow
It was fun while it lasted - well, perhaps for the first couple of days anyway - but now the rain is washing away the snow and revealing the damage it's done.
The worst casualty appears to be a beautiful large red Camellia japonica (probably 'Grand Prix') which stood about five feet high and just as wide. But the weight of snow that fell on it on January 17th and 18th - probably no more than 4-5 inches in this sheltered spot - split half of it off at just above ground level.
Elsewhere, where we had up to 10 inches of snow that night, we've also lost the tops off at least one cherry which was about 9 feet tall, two plums - formerly 6 feet tall and a load of summer-fruiting raspberries.
The brassicas may take a while to recover as they've been flattened. The sprouts harvest was almost finished as we quickly got through the small crop from short plants. The purple sprouting broccoli was perhaps 10-12 weeks from being ready though, so only time will tell how they recover.
And the leeks will probably be okay and the garlic and onions were will be fine based on past experience.
I gave up sowing broad beans in late autumn or early winter having had my plants flattened a couple of times in recent years. They grow and flower and fruit just as readily as usual, albeit with bent stems. But the beans being so close to the ground just feed the mice which is a tad frustrating.
On the plus side, great snowman, snowwoman and snowgirl; great snowball fights; fun with the dog trying to catch every snowball as if it was a tennis ball (it was the first time she'd seen snow); and perhaps top of the list should be fun with the sledge on our new route.
It went from the top of the garden by the greenhouse, through the orchard and past the "soon-to-be" new lawn to the bottom of the yew hedge. It was a run of about 200 feet with twists and turns like the Cresta Run and a fall of about 30 feet - one of the benefits of living on the side of a valley. And it lasted well but the second sizable fall of snow this week - another 4-5 inches - slowed it down.
So we finished off by making a snow slide on the patio instead, dubbed "Snowmageddon" by my daughter. And, as she said, it was "awesome".
Swings and roundabouts then from the snow.
The worst casualty appears to be a beautiful large red Camellia japonica (probably 'Grand Prix') which stood about five feet high and just as wide. But the weight of snow that fell on it on January 17th and 18th - probably no more than 4-5 inches in this sheltered spot - split half of it off at just above ground level.
Elsewhere, where we had up to 10 inches of snow that night, we've also lost the tops off at least one cherry which was about 9 feet tall, two plums - formerly 6 feet tall and a load of summer-fruiting raspberries.
The brassicas may take a while to recover as they've been flattened. The sprouts harvest was almost finished as we quickly got through the small crop from short plants. The purple sprouting broccoli was perhaps 10-12 weeks from being ready though, so only time will tell how they recover.
And the leeks will probably be okay and the garlic and onions were will be fine based on past experience.
I gave up sowing broad beans in late autumn or early winter having had my plants flattened a couple of times in recent years. They grow and flower and fruit just as readily as usual, albeit with bent stems. But the beans being so close to the ground just feed the mice which is a tad frustrating.
On the plus side, great snowman, snowwoman and snowgirl; great snowball fights; fun with the dog trying to catch every snowball as if it was a tennis ball (it was the first time she'd seen snow); and perhaps top of the list should be fun with the sledge on our new route.
It went from the top of the garden by the greenhouse, through the orchard and past the "soon-to-be" new lawn to the bottom of the yew hedge. It was a run of about 200 feet with twists and turns like the Cresta Run and a fall of about 30 feet - one of the benefits of living on the side of a valley. And it lasted well but the second sizable fall of snow this week - another 4-5 inches - slowed it down.
So we finished off by making a snow slide on the patio instead, dubbed "Snowmageddon" by my daughter. And, as she said, it was "awesome".
Swings and roundabouts then from the snow.
Saturday, January 26, 2013
The Big Garden Bird Watch - our results
Bird life around here is fantastic both in numbers and varieties and we variously feed, water and shelter our local populations. So I happily spent an hour or so this morning keeping a look out at different birds in the garden and this is a bit about what I spotted:
In addition flying over us I saw crows (at least five), rooks (countless, in a flock), more wood pigeons and numerous smaller unidentified birds.
We've had no thrushes for the last year until earlier this week. The one we have here looks like a young bird.
Conspicuous by their absence were:
Also surprisingly absent were the Buzzards. They usually wheel over us throughout the day on sunny days like today. Perhaps the snow which was still widespread for most of the day limited the thermals they go for. I didn't see or hear any all day. Nor were there any ravens which are sometimes around at the same time as the buzzards.
I'll get some pics of these birds up over the next few weeks. And I'll see if I can find last year's results we submitted to see what's changed.
Anyone wanting to do the Big Garden Bird Watch can still do it - it's supposed to be today and tomorrow (January 26th and 27th 2013). Here's a link to the details on the RSPB's site.
- Robins - 5
- Blackbirds - 4 (and all male)
- Thrush - 1
- Long-tailed tits - 9
- Coal tits - 2
- Great tits - 4
- Blue tits - 3
- Chaffinches - approximately 7
- Dunnocks - 3
- Tree sparrows - approximately 16
- Collar doves - 3
- Wood pigeons - 2
- Greater spotted woodpecker - 1 (male)
- Magpies - 3
- Jays - 3
- Sparrow hawk - 1 (male)
In addition flying over us I saw crows (at least five), rooks (countless, in a flock), more wood pigeons and numerous smaller unidentified birds.
We've had no thrushes for the last year until earlier this week. The one we have here looks like a young bird.
Conspicuous by their absence were:
- Nut hatches (we have two every day throughout the day at the feeding stations on peanuts and fat balls),
- Yellowhammers (we have one now, who was around all day yesterday. We had two last summer for the first time in 12 years)...
Also surprisingly absent were the Buzzards. They usually wheel over us throughout the day on sunny days like today. Perhaps the snow which was still widespread for most of the day limited the thermals they go for. I didn't see or hear any all day. Nor were there any ravens which are sometimes around at the same time as the buzzards.
I'll get some pics of these birds up over the next few weeks. And I'll see if I can find last year's results we submitted to see what's changed.
Anyone wanting to do the Big Garden Bird Watch can still do it - it's supposed to be today and tomorrow (January 26th and 27th 2013). Here's a link to the details on the RSPB's site.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Mediterranean garden washed out before it's started
In late March we dug the footings for three walls which will form the new Mediterranean garden and lawn. It then started raining and it rained for the rest of the summer. It was wetter than an otter's pocket.
This led to two problems;
I have three walls to build:
So it needs a serious concrete footing to stand on and that took a lot of concrete, all mixed in my barrow mixer and poured into the footings by hand. Hard work but more fun than two hours with Gwyneth Paltrow.
Okay, probably not.
This led to two problems;
- First, the sides of the footings collapsed as the ground became totally waterlogged.
- And second, the builders merchants couldn't get the delivery vehicle anywhere near to where I needed the materials so I put it off, again and again, while I waited for the rain to stop.
I have three walls to build:
- One is a retaining wall, 72 feet (22m) long and ranging in height from ground level to five feet (1.5m).
- Another, 44 feet (13.5m) is technically a retaining wall but the ground behind it is very stable.
- The third is only partially a retaining wall, the ground on one side being higher than the other by up to 18 inches (45cm). But it stands up to five feet tall on one side, three-and-a-half feet on the other and it's 64 feet (19.5m) long.
So it needs a serious concrete footing to stand on and that took a lot of concrete, all mixed in my barrow mixer and poured into the footings by hand. Hard work but more fun than two hours with Gwyneth Paltrow.
Okay, probably not.
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