Where Did That Horse Come From

Run Forest Run

She Who Must Be Obeyed Getting Involved

Dave The Horse Whisperer

Come Here Boy

Hi Everyone

A strange thing happened at the weekend. I have always fancied having a horse but I dont really know anything about keeping a horse so it has never been a real goer plus I suspect they cost a fortune to keep, anyway back to the plot.

My daughter Hannah and her boyfriend Dave came to stay for the weekend and we had a few beers Friday night and had a lazy Saturday morning. Dinner time came and Dave & I had a few glasses of wine, we were just chatting when I happened to go into the conservatory and was astonished to see a horse in the back garden quite casually noshing away on my back lawn.

Bloody Hell theres a horse in the garden I shouted, where said Hannah the back garden. We all rushed out and there was this small horse chomping the grass with not a care in the world. "How did it get in here she who must be obeyed asked", "how the hell should I know" was the reply. "You better take it back to Petes" (our nieghbour who breeds these horses) said Sharon.

I rushed round to Petes but he was out so back to plan 1 try and catch it. No chance me & Dave tried every bribe we could think of but the horse wasnt having any of it. I then inspected the fencing to see if I could see where the horse had got through but I really couldnt see anywhere it could have got in.

Plan B then, I got my wire cutters and cut the wire on the fence. Now all that remained was for the duvet sharer and Dave to round the horse up & drive it through the gap back into Petes field, easier said than done, I joined the fray and after about half an hour we finally managed to get it back to its own field.

A quick repair job on the fence and panic over, wait till I see Pete. Life is never dull here at the smallholding me & Dave gracefully retired to the house to finish of the wine, thankfully no horses to interupt proceedings

Chickens For Sale (Sales Are Growing)

Hi Everyone


Last October Sharon started a little Chicken Business. This came about because our chicken field borders the main A16 and people kept coming in asking have you got any chickens for sale or do you sell chickens, but we explained that we didnt and our chickens were just for egg laying, we then sell the eggs which pay for the feed (just). We have got a few rare & pure breeds and Sharon breeds these as a hobby during the spring/summer.


Anyhow Sharon had been working down at the local rest home part time for the past 3/4 years but left in September last year after it was taken over by a big national company who made everyones life unbearable so Sharon left.


The downside was she was going to miss her own bit of money. As she is quite knowledgable about keeping chickens and people had been asking for them I suggested she start her own poultry business, she thought it was a good idea so I set about converting some of the old pig pens which had a large outside run. This was the easy bit as finding a supplier was a devils own job and after about 50 phone calls we found a supplier of top quality Hybrid Hens consisting of 12 different sorts and many different colours. The idea was to give people something different from the ordinary ISA Brown type.


The chap turned up with our first batch of 100 chickens at 8-30 pm and it was pouring down with rain. With all the hens safely in their new quarters we settled up and went in to ponder on what we had let ourselves in for.


By the end of the month Pete turned up with another 100 and we were reasonably happy as we only had 17 left from the previous batch. Things quietened down over December & the early part of January and Pete is coming with 60 more birds tomorrow 2/2/2010 the trouble was we still had 36 left from before.


Anyhow luck has smiled on us as a lady who own a local chinese restaurant called and asked if we had any chickens for sale as she wanted 50 to supply eggs to her restaurants, I said we only had 36 but had some more coming. I gave her my best price and she decided she would have 30 today and 20 more later, she asked if I could deliver them so I said I would.


We got our big wire dog cage and a few boxes together and boxed all 30 hens up ready for delivery. When we arrived everything was ready they had converted a big mobile home and fenced off a nice big area around it. Just so you know they have about half an acre at the back of the restaurant. The birds were unloaded and seemed happy in their new surroundings.


We went over to the restaurant to get paid for the hens and as a joke I said "any chance of some fried rice" the lady said no problem and the chef returned 5 mins later with 2 fried rice 2 sweet & sour prawns and 2 "chicken" chown mein, it was very nice and it saved Sharon cooking when we got back.


So all in all a good day long may it continue.


We now have a website if anyone wants anymore information then please take a look it can be found at http://www.chickens-for-sale.com/

Frozen Chicken

The photos above show the main snow covered chicken area where Sharon keeps her Rare & Pure Breeds

I dont know about you but I've well & truly had enough of this snow, it has been extremly hard work looking after the chickens in this weather, so Sharon & myself decided to have a break and go down to the snow covered chicken field and make our very own Frozen Chicken for a bit of fun.

As you can see from the pictures above it didnt turn out fantastic but I think you can just about make out what its suppose to be and we had a bit of fun doing it, quite a few cars peeped their horn as they went by they must have thought we were mad (which of course we are), but not as mad as the people driving their cars in this weather its no wonder there are so many accidents.

I have made a bit of a resolution to myself this year and that is to post more often on the Smallholding Tips Blog so lets see if I can follow it through, watch this space. I have allready been told off by my Auntie Dot for not posting more often as she said she liked reading the goings on down on the smallholding and as she is a retired school teacher I dont want to run the risk of getting 6 of the best, so I better keep her happy.

Getting back to the snow, it has been a nighmare looking after all the chickens, just simple things like sorting out the frozen drinkers every morning takes over an hour carrying watering cans of warm water back and forwards from the house no easy task as its 100 metres each way. (I really sympathise with farmers with livestock to tend to must be very hard indeed)

Of course the chickens hate the snow and could very well end up as a frozen chicken if they did go out for to long. The trouble is by staying inside creates another problem because they need cleaning out more often all the straw becomes wet & matted and heavy to lift so She who must be obeyed passes that particular job onto yours truly.

Well thats the first post of 2010 done lets hope the weather improves soon and Frozen Chicken becomes just a distant memory.