Hatching plans for 2014

Any plans to hatch your own in 2014?
Personally I thought I may have hatched my last back in 2013 when majority of my pure breed birds were stolen from my plot early September 2013.
The festive period has brought many more reports of theft, from Poultry to Pigs. Majority of these I have seen reported via Twitter.  So any thoughts of restocking my original plot with more birds and hatchings over the next 6-12 months has well and truly disappeared. 

 

This left me in somewhat of a grim mood for a few days (Rachel would say, only a few days?!)

 

In order for me to hatch in 2014, I have had to make a difficult decision.  Land to keep all my birds including the recently hatched Welsh Harlequin ducks is just not available.  I am getting to crunch point with all the poultry in the garden (it looks as though a team of Tamworth piggies have been resident for a few months). Sadly I will have to move the ducks on.
I can see the Benny Hill type scene now as I slip and slide around trying to catch the little blighters whilst at the same time trying to avoid Treacle the merciless.  Treacle is in a way the perfect broody. Don't even think about going near her chicks, even if they are now 16 weeks old and bigger than her.  On cue, every September she goes broody, and there is no point trying to break her.  So I will definitely be hatching under her again this year.  What I hatch will depend on circumstances and egg availability at the time she goes broody, which I will let her do naturally.

 

I have enjoyed hatching from eggs purchased from breeders, but I still have a desire to create my own so to speak.  From my own trio, I will hatch say a dozen and take it from there.  The overall aim to enter a bird or two into a national poultry show.  Yes there will be plenty of cockerels and below standard hens along the way, but it is something I have dealt with over the last year or two quite well.

I have a fairly good starting point I think with my Silverlace Bantam Wyandottes.  I am hopefully acquiring a cockerel shortly, and his location along with a couple of my older hens, will be top secret.

 

As and when required, I plan to move him in with the SLW bantam hens for three weeks, collect eggs and then move him out again.  This way I hope to control any potential complaints from neighbours due to crowing.

It's the only way I can breed at present, and rather than stay grumpy and frustrated for months on end, this way I can at least develop my SLW obsession.

If you know anyone who may want Welsh Harlequin Ducks, please get in touch.  I have two drakes and  three females.

Thanks for reading

 

 

 

More hatching eggs!!!

Croad Langsham chick

As if I would be able to put the incubator away for any length of time.  As it happens it was only 5 days or so and yes I have more hatching eggs.  This time the eggs were kindly donated by Hillside Pigs in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales.  Most unexpected but when I knew they were Vorwerk and Crested Legbars I could not really say no!


I tried to hatch a Legbar recently but the egg was not fertile, so this is a great chance to try again and the Vorwerk's are, I think, stunning looking birds and they lay light cream colored eggs.  Contrast with the blue of the Legbar and the dark eggs from my speckeldy it will make a lovely box of 6 eggs.

Candling egg

This is something I am actually keen on trying to grow and develop.  I know the free range home reared eggs taste much the same whatever the colour, but to be able to offer free range local multi coloured eggs would be a little different and a little unique.  Add to that the offer of quail eggs and duck eggs, I'm starting to build a picture in my head of something I would like to get involved with!

Enough day dreaming, this hatch will only be 4 eggs, 2 Vorwerk and 2 Crested Legbars.  

I have decided not to add to the 4 at the moment as I am still in the process of building my run enclosure down the allotment, plus I think my wife may just kick me out!
When I returned with the eggs I was met with a "I though we were getting rid of the incubator for a while"!
Ooooops!  Could be worse I suppose especially if I have turned up with a baby Lamb or something similar! :-)
The allotment is key really, whilst I made great progress a few weeks ago, other commitments have stopped me from getting down there to finish the job however I still think I will be ok to complete by end of March!

Vorwork - Photo from www.brbpoultry.co.uk

I have fancied Vorwerks for a while, they are lovely looking birds.  There were suposedly developed in 1900 by a German poultry breeder Oskar Vowerk and was standardised in 1913.  There is a bantam version which was developed later in America in 1966.
They seem a little scarce to me, which is a shame as they are lovely looking birds.
Hers hoping I am successful with my hatch.

Thanks for reading.

Chickens on allotments - 1950 Allotment Act

Recently I wrote an article about keeping chickens on allotments and recapped my experience with my local association.  When I first requested to keep a few chickens they refused.  So I decided to do a little research.

My article was published Country Smallholding in the January 2013 issue and I hope it was an interesting read. 
I doubt many will have seen it so here is a little about the law surrounding chickens and allotments.

The 1950 Allotment Act allows the keeping of hens and rabbits on allotments and is viewed as an allotment holder’s right, so long as they are for your own use and not for business or profit. It is worth checking your tenancy agreement if you have one.  Some private landlords may have included a clause preventing the keeping of animals. 

The Act allows for any animal to be removed from the allotment if it is deemed to be a nuisance, health hazard or their well-being is being affected.  Cockerels are not permitted.  This is certainly something to remember.

Allotment Act was enacted to assist post second world war with families producing their own food that was in shortage.  It is still in effect today, however there are some conditions you must meet.

• It appears to apply to Council owned/run allotments or allotments that were previously council owned and then transferred into private ownership.  If you are renting land from a farmer I doubt you will be able to rely on the Act.

• Welfare is paramount - you must have the correct housing and the animals must be well looked after.  Welfare codes enforced by the RSPCA and DEFRA should be followed.

• As mentioned earlier due to noise cockerels are not permitted.

So if you are considering keeping chickens and your back garden is not big enough or suitable, try registering for an allotment, preferably with a local authority. You can grow veg and keep a couple of hens for eggs or even meat.

Thanks for reading

Wyandotte hatching update day 18

Day 18 of the hatching of Silver Lace Wyandotte Bantams in the new incubator is proving to be exciting, for me anyway!

Hatching egg, candled at 18 days

I candled the eggs again last night and saw what I am hoping is a chick, moving around in the egg.  The photo is to the left and you can quite clearly see the blood vessels.
There are some quite strange air sack shapes going on in both of the remaining eggs.  I hope this is not a bad sign.

As it is 3 days before hatch, I have removed the 4 non-fertile eggs and the dividers separating the eggs and the auto turning mechanism has been turned off.
It is recommended to increase the humidity for the hatching period.  I had no idea how to do this until I read Katie Thears Incubation, A guide to Hatching and Rearing book and the instructions that came with my incubator.

Apparently you may not necessarily need to add more water but just reduce the temperature by half a degree to 37 degrees c and this increases humidity.

My Incubator manual also helped my understand things a little clearer.  Its not the level of water in the incubator dish, but the surface area of water.  So if you fill two dishes with water a quarter full each, it will produce higher humidity than if you fill one dish to the full capacity!

So, I am still clinging onto a little hope that the two remaining eggs will hatch.  If they do, it will go a little way in helping me set up my little project of breeding pure breed poultry, 1) to ensure their survival, 2) for fun and 3) to encourage other chicken keepers or want to be keepers, that pure breed is an option over hybrid birds.

Wyandotte Goldlace bantams at 14 weeks

Here are a few photos of the Gold Lace Wyandottes, taken more recently in the snow!

Not happy hens on the snow

I seem to be getting as addicted to taking photos as I am keeping hens and hatching chicks!  Nevermind!  Could be worse!

Wyandotte Chick with mum

I resisted the urge to drone on about it.  The hens did not like it at all but I quite enjoyed our little wintry spell.  Certainly made a change to all the mud!

Hens and chicks, sheltering from a hail shower

In the last half hour we had a heavy hail storm.  I had let the Chickens our earlier in the day.  Seems the boys climbing frame has another use in the winter!





Thanks for reading.

Guest Blog by Katy Runacres AKA The Good Life In Practice

Guest Blog Entry for you folks- Enjoy, Andrew

2013 the continuation of our smallholding attempts in Switzerland! By The Good Life In Practice Blogger, Katy Runacres.

Firstly thank you to Andrew for having me as a guest blogger.

Katie with here chickens

So a little bit about myself-I am a 23 year old ‘mad cat woman’ attempting to live a little greener. I started living in my family home in rural Suffolk, UK and now currently in a small apartment in a village in Switzerland. I have been living in the Berner Oberland canton since April 2012 since getting a job here. We have been trying to live as sustainably as we can without a garden by growing herbs and salad on our windowsills, recycling, composting and sourcing other food locally.

We have loved living here but have felt a little frustrated at times that we cannot live off the land better. However, this month we have had good news about our flat and its effect on us smallholding-this dear reader is what I will be divulging!

Our landlord has agreed to give us a small section of land near our house to use as a mini allotment! This means we can finally start growing properly and can plan what we can grow where. We can begin as soon as possible (although may have to wait until the snow has melted!). We hope to mainly use it to grow vegetables like leeks, carrots, and salad crops such as rocket and cherry tomatoes. Additionally, a factor that we have taken a lot of thought into is what we can grow when-a problem when all growing seasonal planners are for UK soil not an alpine village! However, we have asked a local Swiss friend to write up a basic vegetable plotting chart so we know what to plant in when-particularly as often the weather can still be snowy up to April time. We already have some basic ideas to possibly sell or barter surplus stock in the summer to neighbours or friends-fingers crossed!

Moreover, the landlord has allowed us to use an extra piece of sloping, stony land right next to the house for some chickens! This has been our aim and I have really missed having my chickens back home. Therefore, we can now start making plans for up cycling old wood to make a hen coop for 2. The plot will be big for 2 chickens to root around in! We shall start looking for suitable places to get chickens from nearer to spring time when the weather is better and ask around local Swiss friends.

If you would like to hear how the adventure in veg growing and the search for Swiss chickens continues please have a browse at my light-hearted smallholding blog: http://thegoodlifeinpractice.wordpress.com/, or find me on twitter: thegoodlifein and facebook: The Good Life In Practice.

By Katy Runacres

Candling Eggs on day 11

Excitement, enthusiasm, anticipation!  Words that I would used to define how I felt when I received my hatching eggs through the post back on the 10th January.

There is something special and addictive about hatching chicks.  Sadly my hatch rates have never really been high.  My first attempt under Treacle my Speckledy hen resulted in just one chick hatching out of 3 eggs.

The second attempt in October 2012 resulted in two chicks hatching out of 6 eggs, again under Treacle!

My third hatch is in my new incubator. A Corti AF25 - the automatic turning model.
I set the eggs back on 9th January and candled as recommended on the 7th day.  Being relatively inexperienced at candling, I was happy to leave the eggs for a further few days before discarding any that are unlikely to hatch.

I candled the eggs again tonight the 20th January at 11 days and took photographs of each egg.  I think this may be a useful guide for anyone candling their own eggs.  Apparently you should not candle to often and for too long! So here goes with the photos!

One of my own chickens eggs - Not Fertile

First incubator egg - not looking too promising - I would say this is NOT fertile.

Second Egg - something defiantly going on in this one - good to leave   in the incubator.

Third egg - Not Fertile! :-(







I cant go on really, sad that only one other egg below seems to have something going on. 
2 out of 6 again!!

Hopefully the other fertile egg!








Lets hope the two do hatch and there are no complications.

Thanks for reading! 

Smallholders Course at Humble by Nature

Slight detour from hens and eggs today.  Promise I will be back on track next entry.

Kune Kune Pigs (Photo from Wikipedia)

Saturday morning saw me travelling into Monmouthshire to The Humble by Nature farm owned by Kate Humble and Ludo Graham.
Its a fantastic place and very accessible.
They run a variety of courses that cover working with animals, rural skills and food and cookery.  I went to check out the Smallholding course "oink, cluck and baa".
I was not disappointed and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in these areas.  At the same time as learning a great deal and relaxing for the first time in a long time I met up with some brilliant like minded people who owned smallholdings, others that were interested in buying smallholdings and others like me who have chickens and fancy expanding.

Tamworth Pigs (Photo from Wikipedia)

Liz Shankland was running the course and it was a great introduction to smallholding, some of the animals you can keep and some of the regulations and issues to consider before you take the  plunge.

They didn't put me off mind you, however it made me consider some key points, the main one being, if I take on animals do I have a back up plan.  What if I am unable to tend to them due to illness for a period or what if I want to go on holiday?
I can't see a simple answer to this one.
It would be unfair or rely on friends and family constantly.



Cavapoos - Roco & Max

I am aware of a service local to me similar to an animal sitter.  They look after a variety of animals in their own surroundings for people who go on holiday and also provide walking services for dogs.

They will look after hens in your garden and have even offered to look after hens on my allotment in Morganstown
Would they even visit pigs to feed and water?
Even if they would, would it be viable financially?

I suppose if you have a dog you accept that you put them in kennels or take them with you?  Rachel would not want to share our holiday with hens however much I enjoy keeping them or pigs for that matter so I guess, unless you have a friendly farmer or smallholder neighbour, there is very little option but to pay someone.  If you are running a business I guess it's a running cost to factor in when pricing your product.  If they are a hobby or pets then its just like owning a dog!!

If anyone has any other ideas let me know.

Thanks for reading.