The Smallest Smallholder

Took down the dividing fence down last night and let the chooks meet each other again - the fighting is still happening but its not as bad as before, so hopefully they will all settle into living together. Fingers crossed.

Have run into another small problem though - a snail or slug has got into the mini greenhouse and eaten all the seedlings. GGRRRRR. If I catch any, they are chook food!

Time to plant some more.

Warmest weekend of the year so far, so once more we stocked up with cider and beers (you might spot a growing trend here) and spent as much time as possible in the garden.

Had a good general tidy up and then built a new (smaller) raised bed next to the fence and planted it up with peas. We have not done peas for a few years - last time we tried, due to space restrictions, we just put 3 plants in a pot with a cane wig-wam to grow up. It worked OK but for the amount of work we only got enough peas for about 10 small portions. With the new garden layout, this time we have put in 20 seedlings so hopefully a bumper crop is on the way this year. Should be enough room in the bed for another crop too - thinking of trying beetroot.

Also got some more of the fence painted - its going to be a long ongoing project as most of the fencing has something growing up it, so we are having to carefully paint around all the plants. I will explain more when we are a little further along and I can put up some pictures, but for now lets just say that it adds some colour and fun to both our garden and end of the street - its attracting plenty of comments from those walking past anyway.

Update on the chooks - things are looking good and im hoping to try putting them all together again on Wednesday night.

And finally....

A big thanks to Derrick (our plumber) and Steve (our electrician) who both spent all day Sunday working on the brick shed im converting to an outdoor utility room (our kitchen is just too tiny for everything). The electrics are now finished and Derrick is coming back this weekend to finish the plumbing. Feeling really good about it - another one of our projects is coming to an end and the result is going to be so useful.

After the chicken problems I described yesterday, I thought Id let you all know how things are going.

First off - thanks to everyone who gave us advice both through this blog and on the RC forums. A great part of the lifestyle we now lead is being able to ask for help and getting good solid advice - everyone into this is type of living (wether it be full blown self sufficiency or just growing a few tomatoes in the garden) is striving to make a better quality life for themselves, thier family, and thier enviroment and its great how everyone joins in to help each other out.

Right onto the chooks. Got home last night to find the injured chook reaching through the dividing fence to nick food from the other (original) birds - very encouring sight, first because it shows that the wound is not too bad as she is obviously feeling pretty good and secondly because shes feeding well. Moved all the feeder against the dividing fence and all the chooks (new and old) seem happy to eat in each other company, without too much noisy arguing.

We are feeling much more positive about it all now - im still going to keep them seperated for at least a week while the wound heals (for all you not chicken keepers: if a hen see's blood or a good patch or red on another hen, they can help but peck at it - chooks have even died from this), but have a feeling its gonna turn out OK.

So, onward to the weekend. We plan to plant out our peas, paint some more of the fencing, plant more carrots and on Sunday we should have the sparky and plumber coming round to continue the work started a couple of weeks back. Hopefully after that I can put the patio back together and clear the garden up.

Over the easter weekend i extended our chicken run and added 2 new POL chooks to our existing 3. There was the usual fighting as the dominant 2 (both speckledy's) made sure the newbies knew thier place. Fine, thats to be expected - but chickens can be evil minded things and this process can and often does go on for days. Things had been getting better over the last few days though - less fighting and the original birds seemed to able to spend at least 5 mins with the new ones without attacking them, although the new ones did take to spending most of thier time in the chook house instead of being outside, but i let it go as there was only a problem when one of the originals went in to lay an egg - quick scuffle, and both new birds quickly vacated the house and went into the run while she laid.

Until i got home last night - both new birds were cowering in one of the nest boxes, and one had a nasty cut on the back of her neck that was attracting the others to peck it further. I dont have a second house/run, or room for one, so divided my the run up again into the new and old sections and put the new chooks in the new section. The originals have the piece with the house in, so i had to use the best thing i could find for the newbies - a cat box i used to collect them in - lined with straw it at least gave them somewhere to sleep. Ive bandaged up the cut as best i could and both new chooks seem happy - they are eating/drinking fine and ill keep an eye on the cut.

Not sure how this will play out - they are all happy and safe for the minute but they cant live like this long term. If i cant rectify this the new chooks may have to go.

We could be looking at the first big failure of the year and a major setback to plans we have for selling a few eggs.

Not a good day

Its Easter. 4 days off work. perfect - time to sit back, relax, see the family and eat chocolate....NOT.

We have been meaning to extend the chook run for some time to make room for 2 new hens. I woke up early and full of life on Easter Friday (something must have been wrong with me), and decided that this weekend with its forecast of nice sunny days was gonna be that time. First though it was onto a local car boot sale in search of more demijons (can never have enough - theres always something to ferment), and then a french market in town where we picked up some fantastic cured meats and cheese (yum yum). Then finally, having enticed our lodger along with the promise of cider and food in exchange for his help we went off and got paint, wood, screws etc.

So, its now Friday afternoon, we have a fridge full of cider and ........ a plan.
The chook house sits on stilts, which allows the chooks to wander underneath, and there is a 4ft x 5ft run attached to the front. When i originally built the house & run I intended to move it around the garden, but built it too big and heavy so its had to be permanently sited - this means though that with my poor judgement and questionable carpentry skills i never put in a door that would give me easy access to the run area - its also only 4ft high, so when i do manage to get inside i have to assume painfull yoga-style poses to get anything done. So the plan was simple - stand the current run on its end so the 5ft part is upright and against the house, and the 4ft part is on the ground. Then, build a new 6ft high part on the front of this, complete with a door.

It sounded simple.

We built the frame. Well, most of it - i didnt buy enough wood. So looked at starting to put the chicken wire on - i didnt have enough of that either. OOPS.

So Saturday it was down the DIY place again for more wood and then the farm supply shop for some chicken wire. While there I checked the notice board - a local farmer/smallholder had a few POL hens for sale. Excellent - we knew we wanted 2 more but didnt want to spend too much and was just gonna keep an eye out for any that became available - didnt expect it to happen so quickly or easily. Quick phone call, some money changing hands, and we have too new hens. Really really need to finish the run now. Spend the afternoon finishing the framework.

Sunday - spend most of the day putting the chicken wire on and securing it to the original part. I shut the chooks in the house, cut away the wire between the sections, forked over all the soil, hung up some sprout stems, put down a tray of corn and finally let them out. It was great - they ran halfway down the ramp, stopped, looked around and then went nuts - they didnt know what to do first - eat, run around, explore the new section (that briefly contained a little piece of lawn) or dig and scratch around in the newly turned over soil. They are here to provide eggs and eventually meat - they are not pets, but a resource - but I see no reason why they cant do that and still be happy hens.

So we get to Monday - last day of the long weekend ( DOH - should have booked a few days extra holiday), and other than the noise from the chooks as they squabble over their place in the pecking order (always a problem when you add new birds to a small flock), its another great day. We set about clearing the area around the raised bed so i could build another, much smaller, one. We also started painting the fence, but thats for another time.....

A weekend with some sun - just what we needed. Gave us a good chance to start catching up on things and to move ahead with this years plantings.

In the front garden we divided 1 of the beds into 3 little plots, and planted 1 plot with carrot seed - in 2 weeks we will plant the 2nd plot and in 4 weeks the 3rd plot. Hopefully this will result in a nice slightly staggered harvest rather than the 2 week glut we had last year. OH also planted up another of the beds with parsnips. They may take a while before they are ready to eat, but, along with carrots, I think they are one of the best tasting vegies to come from the garden - the taste when fresh is completely different from any you can buy in the shops - including farm shops. We always try to cook our carrots and parsnips within an hour of digging them up - they are so much sweeter.

Then it was onto the raised bed, and now there are splashes of green all over it from lettuce, cauli, and cabbage seedling. Radish and beetroot seeds have gone in too.

Then it was the herb pots - planted some new basil, oragano and rhubarb (original was looking a bit scraggly after the frosts)

Then the patio (groan) - we are having electricity and water run to the brick-built shed to the side of our patio. To save cost im doing all the ground work we can, so cue 2 days of back breaking work with a kango and various spades, shovels and forks as we chopped though the 6 inch slab of concrete and flinty-chalky soil beneath it.

So we hurt like hell and have an interesting collection of bruises, but at long last things are planted in the ground!!!!!

WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!