One Of Our Chickens Is AWOL

The Offending Culprit
The 16 Eggs She Was sat On

All Taken Away

Here at Smallholding tips things never seem to go quite as you plan there is always something happening to put a severe dent in your time management.

You may recall we had a visit from the fox who halved our Geese population overnight, well the other day I noticed that I hadnt seen one of our chickens for a while, I thought perhaps the fox had got her as well as the geese, but yesterday when I went down to let them out in the morning who should come strutting round the corner but our little AWOL bantam hen, she redily tucked into some of the corn I had just scattered then went into the coop and started tucking into the layers pellets, I quickly ran up to the house and got Sharon who I might add was only in her night dress, I told her what had happened so she slipped on her tracksuit bottoms and a jacket and joined me at the coop the bantam by this time was gone so a detailed search of the surrounding area was started.

After about half an hour Sharon shouted "I think shes in here" Iwent over to the compost area, climbed up onto one of the heaps and as I pushed the long grass apart with a stick there she was sat inbetween the compost heaps and the pig run.

The grass and stinging nettles here are about 3 feet high and there she sat right in the middle as good as gold, I proded her with the stick and she got up to reveal 16 eggs that she had been sat on so she had obviously been missing a bit longer than I thought. I managed to catch her and take the eggs away to discourage her from going back, anyhow as I wright she has not done so but has returned to the flock. I have told her any such repititons and she will be spending some time in the naughty cage.

The upshot of all this is that I was now running about an hour late for my day job (good job Im self Employed) but this seems to be the norm when running a Smallholding you never know what is going to happen next.

The Rats are Back

As you may have read in previous posts I am very happy at the way everything is progressing in my polytunnel.
This morning when I opened it up I looked around to see how the crops were doing and to my horror I noticed some of the courgettes had been half eaten away, also some of the cucumbers. It looked like it could only mean one thing, the rats were back.
Last year we had a similar problem but after putting down bait boxes with rat cubes in we seemed to have got rid of them, I have put the bait boxes back down tonight and will keep you posted on our rat eradication progress.

The Lincolnshire Buff Chicks are enjoying life out in their new run and are having great fun scratching around and pecking at the grass.
Sharon has now sold all her Silver Grey Dorking chicks so the money from them will help with the food bill, every little helps as they say.

Smallholding Tips Ramblings

Polytunnel Vegetables

Lincolshire Buff Chicks 3 Weeks Old

Willy and Milly Our Pygmy Goat Twins

Sharon and I cleaned out all the birds and livestock on the Smallholding today. It is a long job but one that gives you a great satisfaction when finished, knowing that they all have nice clean quarters again.

The most fun job is cleaning out the 2 saddleback weaners, they are so inquisitive and so playful we usually have a great time with them, when I go in their hut to get the old straw out they inevitably follow to see whats going on which then leads to lots of scratching and they seem to have a great liking for chewing the laces on my boots, all in all they are just having fun and when the new straw bedding is put in they are sraight in there nosing it all up in the air and restructuring it to their liking. Pigs are just great and everyone who comes loves them. However I never loose track of why they are here.

The new Pygmy Goats Willy And Milly continue to cause havoc in the chicken coop and as yet I havn't devised a plan to keep them out but allow the chickens in, Im sure I'll come up with something.

Sharon did a lovely salad for tea with everything coming from the smallholding. New Potatoes from the polytunnel, Sharon had grown some in tubs and I was very surprised at the amount she got from a small tub also some italian rosso lettuce, beetroot, green peppers, cucumber,rocket, ferline tomato's and fresh boiled eggs.

Smallholding Tips Update 1

Welcome. Tonight I thought it might be an idea if I gave you a few brief updates on things that have happened around the smallholding this week.


As you can see, after the foxes visit the remaining Goose and Gosling are settled in their new evening quarters its not ideal but they are safe from the fox. I then let them out in the morning and herd them back to their paddock. The Gosling is growning very quickly and although they are mainly grazers I give them some growers pellets each morning as well.


You will be pleased to know that She Who Must be Obeyed has come on leaps and bounds this week in her Sheep Dog Training I have taught her to 'come by' 'away' and she is responding well to the whistle, Im not sure she is ready for One Man and his Dog yet but I think she shows great potential. (only joking dear)

Between us we can now get the geese from their paddock to their bed in only a few minutes, Sharons nimble dartings and frantic arm waving leave the Geese no option but to go in their pen for the night, plus they are getting use to it.


I wasnt going to phone my Mum till Sunday but I couldnt wait so I called up to see if her new anti-squirrel operation was working. Some of you may recall that a squirrel had been stealing her Sungold Tomatoes everytime one turned red. She had put a kind of Smallholders typical DIY style greenhouse aruond them.
Mum was pleased to report that she & my Dad had been feasting on her tomatoes most of the week she says they are very sweet & juicy and a million miles away from shop bought stuff. As the plant supplier I am very pleased for them.


The 2 Saddleback weaners continue to do well they are 5 months old now so they have about 2 months or so to finish clearing the paddock of weeds a task which they seem to be revelling in. This week they have had all kinds of supplementary goodies stale cakes, bread, lots of small falling apples, carrots, courgettes, potatoes and other things beside.


Willy and Jenny (aka the Woodentops) our 2 Twin Pygmy Goats are also doing well they have become very affectionate and will readily eat out of your hand. Talking about eating I have noticed they seemed to be getting a bit on the fat side, but as we are new to Goatkeeping I wasn't sure if this was natural or not, any how I went down to see them the other day but they were nowhere to be seen, I immediatly started panicking and called for she who must be obeyed to form a search team however just as we were about to start we heard a little Goat crying upon investigation we found both the Goats in the Chicken shed eating the layers pellets, I thought no onder they look a little fat, they had got in through the pop hole.


The laying hens continue to lay well and I must say keeping track of where some of them lay their eggs is becoming a full time operation. You go to all the trouble of providing good comfy nestboxes and we have a hen who lays one each day in the rabbit hutch also another under the rosemary bush in the herb garden, one on top of the skip in the yard and even on top of the feed bins, in fact almost every corner of the smallholding and thats just the ones we know about.


The new Raised Bed Vegetable Garden is coming on, the Runner Bean Plants are covered in beans and so far we have had around 6 pounds the onions are swelling up nicely but sme of the kale is not doing so well. Sharon has sown some carrots & parsnips outside in tubs both are doing fine, its early days for the parsnips but we have had some of the carrots allready.

In the polytunnel with the recent good weather everything is shooting away so far we have beetroot, lettuce, cucumbers, squash, carrots, peas, sweetcorn, broccolli, peppers, chillies tomatoes and my rare experimental tomato patch (more about that next week).

Life at this time of year on the Smallholding is petty good but we are allways ready for the next kick in the teeth.

Organic Gardening and Lawn care

Taking care of our home inside and out is something most of us do take plenty of
pride in. We want to be able to make it the very best that it can be. The
landscaping outside is what everyone who drives by and who stops to visit us will
see. It is important to use to be able to arrive home and to feel welcomed there
by what we see.

In order to get your garden and your grass to look its very best though, you need
to have the right tools and the right ingredients. Too many people assume this
means you use pesticides and other chemicals to kill weeds and to keep pests
out. Yet you can have a lovely garden and lawn organically so you won’t be
harming the environment in the process.
Fertilizer for your grass has a great deal of chemicals in it. The two main
chemicals found in them that are problematic are nitrates and phosphates. Since
it takes several pounds of fertilizer to complete one yard you will be exposing
your family and pets to unnecessary problems.
You may not realize it but the use of such fertilizers can trigger asthma, be linked
to cancers, and even cause neurological problems for your pets and young
children. These chemicals also get into the soil and then run downstream into
water supplies.
Instead of using this switch to natural compost. You can buy it or you can even
make your own. The process of making your own isn’t very difficult at all. You
simply get a compost container and you place food scraps, the droppings from
your livestock and poultry and even the leaves from your yard into the container.

This will become the compost you get the nutrients from for your lawn and your
garden. You want to save your materials all year long to make enough compost.
This is because the amount you end up with will be significantly compact
compared to the volume of materials that you start out with.
With healthy soil to place your grass seed on, it will be able to grow much
healthier. It will have longer roots which ensures survival. At the same time you
will need to offer it less water to stay green. This is going to help you cut back on
your water bill as well.
With many areas being on water restriction in the summer months, you want to
be able to get as much use out of it as possible. By having the soil properly
prepared you can still have a lovely green lawn even when you are restrained to
only allocating water for certain periods of time on specific days of the week.
To get the most out of the water you put on your grass you need to take care of it
in the early morning hours. This will result in more of it getting into the soil and
less being lost to the process of evaporation. Many individuals believe that they
can get the same results if they water at night. However, a big problem is that
this leaves your grass very susceptible to various types of fungus growing.
To ensure your garden is able to benefit from the water you provide keep the
ground level. You don’t want it to all run off and therefore not offer the items in
your garden the water they need to thrive. A good option to think about is to
place mulch in a nice layer over the top of the soil. This will prevent the water
from evaporating so your plants and flowers will get to retain more of it.
If you plan to spend a great deal of time enjoying the grass you have grown you
want to do so organically. This way your family won’t be at risk of anything. Look
for type of grass that tends to grow well in your area. Not all of them are
universal so selecting the wrong one can result in you being disappointed with
the overall look of your lawn.

You also want a grass that is going to hold up well to people walking on it and
playing on it. You don’t want to have to keep everyone off of your lawn in order
for it to continue looking nice. This can be a sad outlook because it will be
inviting, especially under the shade trees and not being able to go out there isn’t
going to make your family happy.
Some individuals immediately reach for chemicals to kill off weeds that grown in
their garden or their lawn. Yet this isn’t the right solution to turn to. First, find out
what type of weeds you are growing. That will tell you what the problem may be
in that area. Some weeds are actually good for your lawn and you will want to
leave them.
They can serve as a natural fertilizer for your lawn. The rest of them you want to
pull out by hand or to use tools to remove them. Make sure you get them from
the roots up so they can’t regrow as easily.
It is often a thought to just run them over with a mower and be done with them
but avoid doing so. There are seeds in the weeds and when you do this they will
spread all over the place. That will result in your lawn having more weeds than
before and in various locations spread throughout it.

Smallholding Back to Normal

After recent events with the foxes visit life around the smallholding is getting back to normal, we are being extra careful making sure all the livestock are locked up to prevent any further mishaps.
With the recent warm weather everything in the polytunnel is coming on leaps and bounds, and today Sharon picked a lot of courgettes, cucumbers, lettuce and peppers and very shortly will be picking a host of tomatoes.

Sharon will be making some Cucumber Relish and some Piccalili and I will give you the recipies for them shortly. Our runner beans are also doing very well and it looks like the best crop we have had since we've been here.

I spoke to my Mum today who told me an interesting story. A while back I gave her a couple of Sungold Tomato plants, she has lovingly cared for them and they have been doing very well, however everytime some of them turned red they would vanish into thin air. Mum who was eager to taste the fruits of her labour started a covert survellance operation, after days of watching, the culprit was finally unearthed, a Squirrel no less was seen troting accross the lawn got up on its back legs and swiftly despached a couple of nice red tomatos, Mum could harldly believe her eyes but the plants are now covered up and she is eagerly awaiting the next red tomato.

My Wife is a Dog

Now before everyone jumps down my throat let me explain the headline.

As you recall from yesterdays post the fox got our Gander & one of our two goslings, so to make sure the fox never came back and got the goose & the other gosling I have been shutting them in one of the old pig pens, its not ideal but at least they are safe.

Now to the point of the headline. To get the goose to the pig pens they have to be moved about 40 yards accross the drive accross some concrete hard standing and negotiate various obsticles in between.

I asked Sharon for some help to herd them over and it soon became evident that she had some Sheep Dog blood in her, busily scurrying one way then the other keeping the geese on a steady bearing to the pig pens. after negotiating all the obsticles the geese were hovering over the entrance to the pen, I whistled the wife who came in from the flank the geese shot in the pen, and I quickly shut the door, job done for another night, the things we do for our livestock

The Fox Has Been

It is with some sadness that I have to tell you that last night we had a visit from the dreaded fox. We have had a pair of farmyard geese for about 5 years, they were the oldest residents on the smallholding we got them just after we moved here from a chap called Terry Jacks he was the one who sung a song called seasons in the sun, anyway he was off to live in spain and needed a good home for them so we took them in.They were very placid and soon became part of the family.

All the chickens are locked away every night but the geese spent the nights on an island in the middle of the pond so we never locked them up. This year they had 2 goslings and last night the fox had been, when I went to feed them this morning I could only see the female goose and one of the goslings, after looking all round the pond I found a trail of feathers and found what was left of the gander, the other gosling was nowhere to be seen.

It has been very sad and the goose spent all day calling for her mate. A lesson learnt here is never be off guard when keeping poultry & wildfowl the fox is an opportunist and will strike when you least expect it. We have shut the goose & gosling in the old pigpens tonight where they will be safe

Grass Cutting and Composting

I'm a bit chuffed today it actually stopped raining. I took the opportunity to get the grass cutand as you can see there is a lot of it, the good thing about this is it generates a lot of grass clippings, these are very useful around the small holding.


TIP

It is well known that grass cuttings can be of great benifit when added to the compost heap but do not add too many at one time or it just goes to a horrible slimy mess but if you layer it with dry & fibrous material ie shredded newspaper, cardboard or straw this will help with ventilation.


We add all our animals bedding straw and shavings which contain droppings, pig, chicken & goat poo are very good activators that get your compost heap going,do not put any cooked food or meat as this will atact rodents and rats.


If Sharon or myself are working outside and nature calls then we have a bucket for No 1's this is also put on the compost heap to activate it also kitchen peelings & tea bags spent flowers are also added. To do well the heap should be damp,dark & warm also the more heat your compost heap can generate the better this will speed the process and kill any weed seeds. Every now and again the heap needs to be turned, this adds air to the compost, helps mix it, lets you check on its progress and generally helps produce a good end product over time.


Grass cuttings are also very good as a mulch around plants and vegetables, I put a lot of todays cuttings around my swift potatoes this will create a little heat but also hold in the moisture, the runner beans also had the same treatment. They are very good at supressing weeds, at the top of the garden area we have a hedge that use to have a lot of stinging nettles and thistles growing from the base, over time I have put lots of grass cuttings along the hedge base and now there is not a nettle, thistle or weed in site.

The Smallholding Residents

I thought I would introduce you to some of the residents that reside on our smallholding. I cannot imagine life here without the animals they and the chickens, geese & ducks are an integral part of the smallholding and although they can be hard work and at the moment a bit expensive to feed I wouldnt be without any of them.

Ducklings and Scaty

Scaty The Rabbit

Pygmy Goat Twins 14 weeks old No Names Yet

Rare Breed Young Ixworth Chickens

Some of our Chickens

Our 2 Geese and their Goslings

I will introduce you to some more of the animals in the coming posts and tell you a bit more about them.

Pig Food For Thought

Well she who must be obeyed came back from work last night with her usual Goody Bag for the pigs. Sharon works part time 3 evenings a week at the rest home in the local village, she has got a bit of a deal going on where by the other girls who she works with all bring in their vegetable peelings and other waste veg that might have gone over the top, also stale bread & other goodies and in return we give them a small joint or sausages when the pigs are butchered. The cook also donates stale bread and cakes.

With the cost of feed at the moment everything helps to spread the cost of the feed. However you should still make sure your pigs get their staple pig food as this contains all the vitamins nutrients and other things to maintain a steady healthy growth.

We try and feed our pigs a varied diet and they get fed twice a day, they are creatures of habit and god help it if Im 10 mins late with their food they certainly let me know with a chorus of high pitched squealing.

For breakfast today at 7am they had a selection of stale bread & cakes,buiscuits & assorted vegetables also a few courgettes from my poly tunnel, after a bit of fighting over the cakes things settled down into quite a civilized manor and after watching for 5minutes I left them to it.

I was on a day off from PAID work today so the afternoon feeding chores were passed on to me by she who must be obeyed and who am I to argue so off I went, its pouring down with rain so with my 2 trusty mutts at heal we go and see to all the chickens & our 2 new twin Pygmy Goats, then its over to the geese closly followed by Scaty the rabbit who lives with our 7 ducklings.

After this it is up to see to the pigs. At the moment we have 2 Saddleback weaners whose prime job is to clear the paddock they are in of all the weeds as we have it earmarked for a future vegetable patch. Anyhow this afternoons treat for the pigs is 2 kilos of sow weaner nuts and some more vegetable peelings. You would think they had never been fed and once again after a bit of argy bargy they settle down.

She who must be obeyed is ringing the bell to let me know my tea is ready so I better get up to the house or I will be in the doghouse for letting it get cold.

Welcome to our Smallholding

Welcome to our Smallholding Tips Blog. We are Mark & Sharon Burrows and we live on a Smallholding just outside Boston in Lincolnshire, We have been here just over 5 years and use to live on an estate in Southampton, in a future post I shall tell you how we came to be here.

The purpose of our Blog is to pass on Hints & Tips about most aspects of running a Smallholding a lot of the information is things that we have learnt by trial & tribulation and other things that other people have passed on to us.

Topics will include looking after livestock, growing vegetables, recipies, land management, poultry, green issues, renewable energy & other general things around the smallholding.

I shall also be keeping you informed of the daily goings on here.

I really hope you will find our Blog interesting & helpful, we would also welcome your feedback & comments and any tips of your own that you may want to share with us & other readers, so please come back regularly