A couple of hours on the plot

Having completely rebuilt and refurbished the chicken run in the back garden it was about time I visited the allotment plot.  I took the opportunity today and made some headway.
I have decided to try the no-dig method of growing potatoes.  Lazy I know, but got to be worth a try.

Having cleared the plot of weeds, I spread a layer of chicken manure and home made compost on top, then covered with thick black pond liner.  I pegged the pond liner down and then cut slits in the liner, used a trowel to loosen the soil and planted the potato, that had been sitting on my window sill for the past 4 weeks, just underneath the soil.
There is no need to plant any deeper as the liner on top will protect the potatoes that grow from going green.  It also means I don't need to weed between the rows. Like I said earlier - lazy gardening.  Let's hope it works.
There is also no need to earth up as the liner will do this for you.  If it all works, there will be even less work to dig the potatoes up.  I will just need to lift a section of the liner, and put up the potatoes, maybe using a small hand fork, but significantly less effort that I usually put in.  Like I say, I have fingers crossed.
I do have a couple of concerns, and that is ensuring the plants get enough moisture and making sure the top growth gets through the little holes I have made.
Not one to put all my eggs I one basket (chickens get in everywhere with me), I am only trying this method with the first early potatoes.  Casablanca is the variety and is supposed to have good disease resistance.
My second early potatoes, Charlotte, will be planted using my usual method, digging a trench, scattering a few chicken manure pellets or grow more fertiliser, covering and then earthing up when needed.

Whilst there today I also weeded the asparagus bed and covered it with a layer of compost and manure.  This is the second year that have been in the ground, so I am looking forward to taking a slightly bigger crop this year.  The few spears we tried last year were outstanding.  I might just try dipping them in a soft boiled or poached egg.

I was please to see the rhubarb was growing, although in comparison to my neighbours plants they doo look quite pathetic.  Hopefully the topping of compost and manure will help them thrive.

Homebrew banana beer

For some time I have wanted to try and make my own banana beer after sampling the Banana bread beer you can buy by the bottle.  Quite a few recipes meant trying to make the beer from scratch, mashing your own malt.
Finally I have found and road tested a recipe that I am pleased with.
It uses a basic beer kit, where you add the cooked bananas to the malt extract while heating on the hob.  Nice and easy, but there are a few tips to make things go smoother.

Here is the recipe.

Banana Beer 40 pints---This one uses overipe bananas and ferments on the bananas to give a really bananery taste! 1 normal 5 gal Beer kit with yeast - I used John Bull traditional English ale, single can with spray malt 12 over ripe bananas 2 tsp Pectolase 1kg sugar - normal white sugar  •Peel, break up, and gently simmer the banana in a couple of pints of water for about 20 mins, a little more if the fruit is firm. Mash up with potato masher! •add contents of warmed Beer tin to the banana pan and warm through. • add sugar to a couple of gallons of water in fermenter. Dissolve. •mix in slightly cooled banana mix from pan •top up to 4 gal with cold water •add pectolase and top up to 5 gal •pitch yeast. Ferments fully in 5-7 days at room temp in early summer. STRAIN INTO SECONDARY BEFORE BOTTLING. •condition as normal (1tsp per pint or equity), improves greatly after a fortnight's sit in the bottle. • be warned can be very lively to serve, consider cutting priming sugar a little if worried.

A couple of points to take away from the above.

1.  Priming sugar, I reduced the amount I put into the 5 gallon mix.  Traditionally they suggest 30g per 5 gallon, but I used 25g.  The result is an ale that needs pouring from height to produce a head and serving cool, not from the fridge but an outbuilding or garage.
2. The banana makes it very difficulty to use a bottom tap on your fermenter, so I would recommend syphoning into another fermenter before bottling. If you can leave it over night to settle again (with air lock in place) it will prevent any sediment or pieces of beer getting into your bottles.
3. The taste - it is not the same as eating a banana, in fact, you could miss it unless you are looking for it. This may just be the way I have brewed it, but it is a pleasant  aftertaste of banana rather than overpowering.

My next beer will include honey. I'm searching for a recipe, so if you know of any please get in touch.  Thanks for reading.

Its hatching time in the Homer household

Just when you think the bottom has fallen out of the market for Welsh Harlequin ducks......quack!
Three were taken off to a good home last week.  It's always a relief when you meet someone genuinely passionate about poultry and waterfowl.  It makes letting the birds go a lot easier, and boy did I need the space.
I have two left, one male, one female and whilst the initial plan was to move all of the ducks on, I can see myself keeping these two now, certainly until they have been through the spring show at the Royal Welsh Showground. Plus, there seems to be a battle brewing over the dinner table between the eldest boys for the soft boiled duck eggs.  I would not be popular with them if the duck egg supply stopped.

So for now they are staying.  It does mean they need names.  All other named birds have been food based, Rhubard, Crumble (no longer with us), custard, apple, blackberry, pudding and not forgetting Treacle.
So where do I go from here?  Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

With a whole pig, jointed in the fridge, I will be busy curing bacon and ham over the next day or so.  However, with March just round the corner my mind has turned to hatching again.  I will be hatching my own quail eggs this year using some lighter coloured japanese quail.  Apart from that, I do need, or should I say want, a male Silverlace Wyandotte to run with my 1st place winning hen from the Royal Welsh winter fair and the Welsh National Poultry Show.
I'm having difficulty sourcing one locally, so next option is hatching one.  This way I will hopefully have a choice of males and it gives me a little more time to find the best place to keep them.

As it happens I have just this second ordered some hatching eggs from Cheshire Poultry. They have some great looking birds.  Poultry genetics, Fancy Fowl editor, and genuine nice guy, Grant Brereton recommended I contact Steve Dace. I can't wait.
Hopefully by the wyandottes have hatched, the quail will have started laying and I can put my pair/trios together ready for hatching, in a month or so.

Thanks for reading.

Muddy run - chickens and ducks

I have been spending quite a lot of time recently in coffee shops. Whilst I would love to use independents, the choice is very limited for me, so I tend to avoid those that don't pay the correct tax and plump for coffee that is apparently "the best this side of Milan".

I find it relaxing and I seem to be able to waffle on and compose my entries for my blog despite the hustle and bustle, banging of coffee baskets, grinding of beans and occasional chink of china in the back ground.

I find it is one of only a few activities that truly relaxes the mind and body, giving you that moment to your self and opportunity to listen and observe others.
I get the same satisfaction out of the allotment and looking after the animals.  The daily morning dash outside in this recent torrential rain and, this morning, hail, has been made in lounge wear (pyjamas to you and me) and in full wet weather gear.  Not because of the rain, but just due to the sheer volume of mud in my garden at present.
My wellies are permenantly caked in mud, as are the waterproof trousers, jacket and the poor chickens and ducks.

So I have a plan.  Over the years I have used sand as a base in my run area with a good layer of wood chip on top.  It's works well for 3-4 hens.   Now the collection is bigger and includes a couple of ducks, I need a system that means the wood chip does not dissapear into the sand and mud, as the hens start to dig like Steve McQueen in the great escape.

This is the plan.
Level the ground, easier typed than done, but isnt it the same with everything.
Using a few slabs I will cover part of the run area, leaving a gap for some plastic guttering to run the length of the run.
Disinfect with stalosan f, then peg down a layer of plastic mesh that is manufactured and designed to stabilise grass.
Surround with raised beds or wooden boards (this will stop the wood chip being flicked all over the grass, when it grows back).
Top with wood chip.

Simple, but I'm sure it will be effective.
The plan with the guttering and slabs, is so that I can hose down the wood chip (or even better the rain will help) and wash any mess and poo into the gutter.
I have a sloping garden, so this may not work for everyone.  The gutter will run into a border with bushes, so they will benefit from the water and manure, and any excess can be shovelled out.

I concocted this plan whilst in a coffee shop, scribbling on a note pad, so who knows how it will go.  I will post photos of progress and the finished job.

Thanks for reading.

A busy month so far...

Give us a cwtch

February has been busy for me so far.  Lots of change and decisions to make.  The first being to move jobs for the first time in 13 years.  Secondly and in my opinion much more importantly, I realised that I can not keep the ducks in the environment they deserve in my back garden.  I love their characters and the early morning quacking as that charge out of the house like the start of the wacky races.
Their eggs are a lot smaller than I expected, but then that could just be age and I genuinely love their markings, on both the ducks and the drakes.  
Sadly they must go. I had planned to keep them on my plot, but the theft of all my chickens, put paid to that.  On the other hand, I will be hatching quail and hopefully Silverlace wyandottes going forward.

On top of all the decisions, I have been busy writing and reviewing contributions for some fantastic magazines, Country Smallholding, Home Farmer and Practical goats, sheep and alpacas.

I'm hoping to get some links to the articles on line soon and will post them on the blog.

On top of that, I am brewing banana beer and orange wine.  Both smell amazing and I will post the recipes on the blog soon, although if you buy the Feb edition of Home Farmer you will fine the Pineapple wine recipe I will be starting towards the end of this month.

I'm also looking forward to receiving some pork soon from Hillside Freerange to make some of my own sausages and cure some more of my own bacon and ham.  I have never made my own sausage, but want to give it a go with some basic equipment before taking the plunge and signing up to a day course.

All in all, I guess I sound like an alcoholic writing foodie.  
Happy days.

The ducks start to lay!

It took a few weeks longer than expected, and I was starting to get impatient and wonder if I had a set of duff ducks.  Thankfully on Wednesday this week one of the ducks started to lay.  My first ever home reared duck egg from ducks I had hatched.
I've said it before, but you can't beat that feeling, seeing the egg (not so white unfortunately as it had been layed in a pile of poo) and knowing the birds are doing what they do best and are comfortable and happy to start laying.
I've been toying with the idea of selling all the ducks, simply due to space now that I am no longer keeping birds on my plot.  The problem is, now they have started laying I'm even more reluctant.  I'm still going to sell one male and at least one female, so that I have a trio left.  But the whole bunch going is now highly unlikely.
I'm sure it's the time of year but I have not had many enquiries for the ducks or the silver lace Wyandotte I am trying to sell. So I have a plan, connected to the Spring fair at The Royal Welsh Show Ground in May. I will be entering the show with a couple of the ducks and my silver lace  on the Saturday, and there is usually a sale section. Lest hope there are lots of buyers.

This time last year I had the incubator fired up, but I'm delaying this year.  Firstly because of the poor weather and secondly because of space.  The plan is however, to hatch some more silver lace wyandottes to produce a male to go with my existing group. Then I will start hatching my own eggs.  I'm learning patience.  I'm also planning on hatching some quail when they start laying.  I have some nice colours, silver and white, so I'm hoping to create some interesting colours.

Poultry lice

Whilst I have seen lice on chickens before, I can honestly say I have been very luck and none of my hens have ever suffered from them......until last Friday.

I was monitoring my little gold lace Wyandotte as I could see she was loosing some feathers from her back end.  She has always been a tricky one to catch. Her sister is a lot easier to get hold of, so unfortunately she hand not had a good health check for a l little while other than from a distance.

She was eating, drinking, seemed happy enough other than the loss of feathers. I put it down to an unusual late moult.

Today as she bent down to feed, putting what should be a fluffy backside in the air, I noticed a very bare and red patch of skin.  So with wellies on, I decided today was the day to catch her.

It did not take long, perhaps because she knew she needed help.

First place I check whenever I check my hens over is the vent, and it was clear mites were active, eggs had been laid at he base of the remaining feathers and I could see two or there lice roaming around.  I could not get a photo, but have found a particularly good photo on the Internet, so you can see what I discovered.

I decided to gave her a bath to clean off as many of the eggs as possible, and bought an anti mite spray from the local pet shop.  It's the one used for small birds and rabbits. Lower strength than what is normally recommended (1% invecticim).  Chicken vet is a great website to get info on this product and recommended you talk to your vet before using as there is an egg withdrawal period.

I'm going to treat her for 3 weeks, and not use any eggs from the wyandottes for a month.