New Chicken Houses

It all started when I decided to move the chickens into the veg plot by the side of my shed to help clear the weed seeds and grass as they had done with the allotment area. We tried to move the existing hen house and run, but the plastic house is very heavy!!! So we had a hunt on eBay for a new house and we bought this one

Some of the chickens have gone in on their own accord, but tonight I had to put 3 of the hens in as dusk as they were a little slow in going into their new home. Once I put them in there was a bit of "sorting" out. We shall see what they are like in the morning.

As the hens have done such a good job clearing the grass and weeds that it has been decided that we are to increase our flock of hens to help keep the grass down where we have planted a new hedge. Tim has taken the opportunity, whilst the land has been soft, to fence a second hedge line where we had an electric fence to protect the new hedge from the sheep.

Again a purchase from eBay, but this time from the same company as we got the first hen house, The Chicken House Company, as we were so impressed with the quality of the wood and workmanship of the house. As I will be attempting to hatch fertile eggs to increase my flock, we bought a hen house with an attached run.

Now all I've got to do is get some fertile eggs to go in my new incubator, (another ebay bargain). Up until today I was going to get some Barnevelder hen's eggs, as they lay dark brown eggs the same as Marans do. Marans were my first choice, but all that I've read states that they can be quite an assertive hen, but today I was talking to a local farmer who has a small flock of Marans, which is looked after by his 6 year old son, he's very taken by them. So I've swung back to keeping Marans, also looking on the Omlet site, it states that Barnevleders are very lazy hens that have a tendency to get fat. I need a hen that its going to work at keeping the weeds and grass down, so my second flock will be one made up of Marans.

Now just to find some fertile eggs and possible some young pullets.

Mixed weather

It's been a very strange week for the weather, we've had winds in excess of 25mph and then other days that have been very mild and a pleasure to be out in.
Today has been a very typical day weather wise. As I went to let the chickens out at 7am, it was mild enough that I went out without a coat and I didn't feel cold, but by the time we had walked the dogs and fed the sheep, it was bitterly cold and starting to rain.
I had to go and look at some fields for a local farmer, in regards to doing some mole control, and it was bitterly cold, my fingers and feet were like ice, but by the time I'd had lunch and caught up with Jayne on "life and sheep", the late afternoon was really mild, so mild that I managed to get my broad bean seedlings, that I bought yesterday, planted out. It feels good to get some veg plants planted out in the veg garden at last.

Saltburn Farmers Market

First one of the new season today and thankfully the weather stayed dry and relatively warm for this time of the year, and thankfully not the sleet that was forecast for us a few days ago.
It was a busy market and my customers liked the new colours that I'd dyed the knitting wool, which is good.
I had a bit of a panic last week as I'd put off the job of re-pricing my fibre, due to the VAT increase, and it looked like it was going to be a bigger job than it actually was. Serves me right for putting it off since the beginning of the year.
Pauline, a fellow smallholder, also has a stall at Saltburn selling veg, plants and her naturally dyed hand spun Jacob wool. This month she had some Broad Bean plants for sale, and as I've not sown any Broad Bean seeds I bought some from her. Hopefully I shall get them planted out tomorrow.
Packing up my stall at the end of the afternoon, it would appear that most of the stallholders had, had a good day. It makes all the effort worth while.

Moving Compost

As we've had such a mild and dry week, after Michael had left, we emptied one of the compost bins, moving the contents onto one of the deep beds. I've been letting the hens out of the allotment area and they have had a great time scratching around in the compost bins. So rather than spread the compost well on the deep bed, I've left it piled up a bit, and the chickens will spend the next few days scratching around looking for grubs and seeds and before I know it, they will have made the compost lovely and friable in the deep bed, ready for me to start using.
The hens have also got a new hut and I will be moving them into another area of the veg garden in the next couple of days for them to help clear the weed seeds and eat any little "nasty" creepy crawlies that are hiding in the soil.

New Ear tags

Michael, the breeder we bought our 2 pregnant Teeswater ewes from, called today to replace the ewes missing ear tags and also have a look at the lambs they'd had. He was impressed with all 3 lambs and very pleased with the condition of the ewes as well. When we walked into the barn, the little gimmer lamb that has a "rattle" on her chest, coughed and sneezed. Michael had a good look at her and, like us thinks she may have some birth fluid still on her lungs. I gave her another shot of antibiotics as we've now let the ewes and their lambs out of the barn into the small paddock at the side of the barn. Hopefully being out in the fresh air, the gimmer lamb will loose her rattle.
Having a very experienced Teeswater judge here, we took the opportunity to get him to have a look at our Teeswater Gimmers. One has a slight pink colouring in her ears, which for showing could mark her down and we will have to watch from a breeding point of view. He was taken by Dumpling, her fleece has a sheen to it and he thinks she will grow into a good ewe. Dimples, the smallest of the 3 gimmers, is doing O.K but still has some growing to do.
Michael was also with us when we bought the Scotties and he remembers how small they were, so he got a pleasant surprise seeing how much they had grown over the winter, no mean feat when you think how bad a winter we've had. Hopefully they should grow even more now that spring is just around the corner.
It's good to listen and glean some knowledge from a very experienced sheep man like Michael, every time we chat to him we learn something new, he's not afraid to pass on his knowledge or experience.

Headbutting Sheep

Last night we moved Gus away from the ewes and put him in the paddock with Cecil and Archie, and that was when the headbutting started, not by Gus, but Archie and Cecil. They were taking running headbutts at Gus.
Tim quickly pulled Gus out and put him in the handling area at the top of the race for the night. This left us with a dilemma as to where to put Gus. We decided to put him in with Ghilli and Grommet or two male alpacas and so far all 3 are quite happily munching the grass. So peace is restored and if Gus takes to being with Ghilli and Grommet it will mean that we won't have to keep any sheep weathers just to keep our resident tup company.
So what is going to happen to Cecil and Archie? Funnily enough when we took Tuppyman to the mart on Monday, Tim suggested that he also take Cecil and Archie, but we decided not to as we thought they would be company for Gus. Well they're off the to mart a week on Monday. It will also mean that we will have an extra paddock to use for grazing.

Born this morning

A Tup lamb, who Tim has called "Hotpot". When we checked the ewes last night Hotpot's mum showed no signs of lambing. But when Tim went to check everyone at 7 this morning, there was a steaming lamb.

Here he is asleep at lunchtime
With Mum
and a close up of him.

We had to turn this ewe over as well and try to get her milk flowing. We're more than convinced that it's because the 2 Teeswater ewes have been in the barn for the last two weeks so that we could give them extra feed, and not had access to grass, this really does effect their milk. Though they have an udder full of milk, it doesn't seem to "come down" the same as in a ewe who has been out on grass and then penned up for a couple of days prior to giving birth.
Hopefully, if the weather stays as mild as it has been during the day all 3 lambs will be out in the nursery paddock with their mums pretty soon. But as one of the twin gimmer lambs, born yesterday as a bit of a "rattle" and is now dosed up with antibiotics, along with her sister and mum, they could all be in the barn for a couple of days more.

Now we can have a rest until the main onslaught of lambing starts on the 23rd of this month.