A baker's dozen, Hatchwatch July 2016

It's been a jolly exciting few days. The eggs in the incubator were due to hatch this week, as were the eggs under the broody hen. I've spent a lot of the week finding distractions, so that I didn't just sit on a chair in front of the incubator willing the eggs to hatch, because as we have learnt, staring at the eggs doesn't make the chicks come any faster.

We had some more topsoil delivered on Monday, so I have created the next raised bed by putting down a layer a cardboard and covering it with topsoil and compost.


Into this bed I have planted some winter squashes, which may just about have enough time to produce some small squashes to store for winter. I've also put in a few perennial herbs too. 

The last of the broad beans have been harvested, blanched and frozen and the garlic has been lifted and is now ripening and drying ready to be plaited or stored in netting bags for use throughout the year. Mr J and I eat a lot of garlic, I like it roasted we so can easily use two or three bulbs of garlic a week.

On Wednesday the first little chick hatched, it was one of the Cream Legbar's eggs (crossed with the bantam cockerel that we had for a few weeks). It is tiny, a tiny little ball of fluff, it looks like a black fluffy small golf ball, but it's feisty and was ready to come out of it's little egg (and it was little in comparison to all the other eggs). 

Later in the day another chick arrived. I am assuming that it is one of Jack's eggs, but we won't know until the hatch is completed and we can check which eggs have or haven't hatched. It is the colour of champagne and looks like a typical Easter chick, now we are a tad confused because we don't have a white or champagne colour hen so can only assume that it's colouring comes from the parents of the mother. Whatever the reason that it is a pale one, I am delighted because I have a preference for white birds.

Following these two hen's eggs hatching, our first duckling hatched. Mr J and I sat quietly watching it emerge from its shell. I wasn't prepared for how sweet it would be and in comparison to the chicks, it was huge! 

On Wednesday afternoon we went to collect another batch of spend brewery grain and hops which I will use to create another compost heap or two. I've decided that I need to use a better mixture of green and brown materials with the spent grain to encourage faster composting, but we are struggling to find much brown material at the moment.

However in the evening we took delivery of our first load of wood chippings, hopefully it is the first of many. As a thank you to the tree surgeon who is giving us the chippings, I made up a veg box and included a few eggs, which he took with him when he left. The first pile of wood chippings included quite a lot of Leylandii, which we had discussed beforehand and I was happy to take them as they will be used on the pathways and so shouldn't be a problem for our soil and plants.
The wood chipping pile also has a large section of broadleaf tree leaves, which I was delighted to agree to having as I can use them in the compost piles and of chipped broadleaf tree branches which will be ideal to mix with the spent grain and some straw from the duck house in the compost heap.

When I got up on Thursday morning I immediately checked the incubator and was delighted that a second duckling had hatched. I went out to open up the henhouses and when I came back in another chick had hatched and by nine o'clock in the morning, another one had hatched. They were both Australorp chicks and will be companions for the one that hatched in the previous batch of eggs and is now four weeks old. I headed back outside and moved some of the wood chippings onto pathways between the vegetable beds and around the perennial border, when I came back in an hour later, chick number four had hatched.

Trying to keep busy, I bottled up the elderflower wine that we made. We now have 21 bottles of wine stored away that will be ready to drink in a few months.

 As the day went on, more chicks pipped (made a small hole in the shell) which was very exciting as we were already happy to have so many healthy looking little chicks. 

We finished setting up the secure pen for the ducks in the stable, complete with a heated lamp to keep them warm and got the nursery box ready for the chicks in the boot room. Late afternoon we moved the two ducklings and the oldest two chicks to their new accommodation. The little chicks immediately looked at home, snuggling under the brooder, cheeping away to each other. 

The ducklings however, looked cold and forlorn, so Mr J ran to into the house and found a suitable soft toy to put in with them. Almost as soon as they had the soft toy in the pen, they ran to it and sat down beside it. Snoopy toy is offering them comfort. But they still looked cold, so I placed towels over the top ends of the pen which would stop so much heat being leeched into the atmosphere and very quickly, the ducklings started to look warmer. It's a constant learning process here and despite being able to read masses of information and watch countless videos giving me a good idea of what to do, it is only with experience that we actually learn what works and what doesn't.

So by bedtime on Thursday we had eight chicks and two ducklings. We moved the two chicks that had hatched on Wednesday to the nursery box in the boot room, which made a little more space in the incubator and overnight another Australorp chick hatched.

Friday morning (today as I type) my daughter, her partner and my two grandsons came to visit us on their way home from a few days in Mid Wales. Grandson number one was very good about being quiet and not frightening the chicks and very good at counting them in the incubator. 

It was great to be able to show him a photo of the tractor that had come to deliver the wood chippings, but I suspect Mr J and I had been more excited about the tractor than he was.

After they had left, Mr J and I checked on the broody hen in her house and she had moved off the eggs to the main body of the hen house (leaving the eggs in the nesting box). Knowing that she couldn't have been off them for too long, I decided to remove them rather than let them go off and potentially cause an infection in the hen house. As we lifted one out, it cheeped! So we raced back into the house and put it into the incubator. We quickly candled the other eggs which were infertile so we disposed of those ones.

Within five minutes, the egg from the hen house had hatched. Another of the pale champagne colour, which was now the third one this colour. One in the nursery brooder box, one in the incubator and the hatched egg in the broody hen's house.  

We were beginning to lose count of the chicks and it was getting too crowded in the incubator, a lesson that I have learnt for next time (to put in fewer eggs at a time if we are going to have large breed birds in there), so we took six of the Australorps out and put them into a bucket to transfer to the nursery brooder. 

Didn't take them too long to settle in and find their food! 

To ensure that the incubator didn't become too dry, I sprayed some warm water on to the broken eggshells which increased the humidity without getting the chicks that were still in there damp. We noticed that there were two more eggs pipping and one was looking very dry. So I took the gamble and sprayed some warm water on to that egg in the hope that this would soften the membrane that had started to dry out. And about half an hour later the 'dry' egg was broken open by a small but perfect looking Australorp. We were now up to eight chicks in the nursery brooder box, three in the incubator and one under the broody hen.

The chick in the last egg that has pipped is still struggling its way out of the shell. It is heartbreaking to see a bird that is strong enough to break through the shell then fail to actually get out. But, I have come to realise that if it is not strong enough to hatch, then it's probably not strong enough to survive. 

I will update this blog as and when I have further news from the incubator.

Photographic distractions

The next batch of hatchlings are due any day now and I have been looking for ways to distract my attention. Sitting in front of the incubator really doesn't make them hatch any faster, but it has allowed me to see that some of the eggs are starting to move. So I've taken a wander around the garden and taken lots of photographs.

This is my favourite part of the herbaceous border, which is mostly a jumbled mess of field weeds and young perennials.

The daisy like flowers which would normally be considered weeds have lifted this border and although I will take them out before they seed too much, I have really enjoyed their sunny little flowers.

The Patty Pan courgettes are now setting fruit and the first will be ready to eat in a week or so. I pick them when they are about three inches across so that they are still sweet and have very few seeds in them. Sliced and tossed in a little butter in a pan they are delicious.

The giant pumpkin Howden that my grandson gave me the seeds of has now taken off and seems to be growing six inches or more a day. Plenty of male flowers have appeared and I think I've seen a female flower developing, so fingers crossed that there is a big pumpkin by autumn.

The nasturtium seeds were sown to provide some companion planting in several of the vegetable beds. I'm not sure that I like the mixed colours and next year I will look for some more simply flowered seeds instead.

Marigolds, also planted as companion planting, have created a brilliant display. The bright orange splash of colour in the vegetable garden is attracting pollinating insects aplenty.

The borlotti beans have produced some nice looking pods. I have no idea how I am supposed to cook them (do I slice them like runner beans or pod them and eat the seeds?), but I will look it up in due course. Unless they taste amazing, I don't think I'll bother with them again. There aren't many pods per plant and I feel that there are better uses of the bean poles in terms of cropping.

 Rainbow Chard, with its colourful stems are providing us with lots of green leafy food with the bonus of the chickens loving it too. Neither Mr J or I were terribly keen on chard, but steaming it lightly with plenty of black pepper added to it, we are learning to like it (or at least tolerate it knowing that it's good for us).

Each morning and evening I check over the brassicas for eggs laid by cabbage white butterflies and where it's obvious that I've missed some eggs, I remove the caterpillars. They can hide pretty well and when I went back round the garden this morning to take these photos I found several that I had missed during my early morning search for them.

The January King cabbages are just starting to form hearts, this is one of the few that hasn't had it's outer leaves chomped away by caterpillars and slugs.

In the same bed is the purple curly kale, the chickens are particularly keen on it. We haven't eaten any of it, but it's been a great supplement for the chicken food, even the small chicks squabble over it and Big Red and Little White will come to sit on my lap to eat it on an almost daily basis.

The ducks came to see what I was doing with the camera, they have become much more trusting of us over the last few months. When we first got them they ran away from us all the time, now although they don't like us to get within a couple of feet of them, they do come to see us and watch me as I potter in the garden.

I couldn't resist taking a photo of this little chap who was merrily flying from flower stalk to flower stalk on the lavender hedge. If anyone can identity the species, I'd be interested to know (please leave a comment below if you recognise what it is).

This gorgeous little field bindweed (convolvulus arvensis) has popped up all over the place, I like the delicate pink of the flowers.

There are some mighty thistles all around the smallholding, I am torn between leaving the flowers to go to seed (to feed the birds in the autumn and winter) and cutting them all down soon to prevent them spreading even more. In the meantime, the rich purple flowers are being visited by insects and I'm enjoying their stature, shape and colour.

The brambles are now fruiting well and I'm looking forward to gathering the first fruits in the next week or so. Once they have fruited I will cut them back to the ground before our hedges turn into spikey thickets.

 In the greenhouse, the tomatoes are growing well. We've picked half a dozen deep red tomatoes and there are lots of green tomatoes on the vines waiting to ripen. I've grown several varieties to help me decide what I'd like to grow more of next year.

These simple flowers are of MoneyMaker, the plants have grown tall, strong and healthily. They are a must for next year and have clusters of medium to large tomatoes which I know that I like the taste of.

This more elaborate flower is on a Russian black tomato plant, given to me by our friend Merv who breeds Cream Lebgar chickens and has supplied us with our girls and the cockerels. Merv had more plants than he needed so gave me a dozen plants for the green house.

The garlic has been lifted and is now drying off before I plait some of it and store some in the freezer. Mr J and I eat a lot of garlic, I like it roasted and can happily eat a whole clove of garlic with a plate of vegetables.

A couple of weeks ago, I bought a new hydrangea to go into the shrubbery, I particularly like the large pale flower heads against the deep green, almost shiny foliage. And, as a way to continue my distraction, I am going to plant it tomorrow.

But for now, I am going to check on the broody hen in our house to see whether her eggs have started to hatch and then, as always, it's time for a cuppa!



Broody hen v incubator

Our last brood at three weeks old

Mr J and I are preparing for an exciting week ahead. By this time next week we should have a good idea of how many new chicks and ducklings we have. And we will then be able to compare how well the incubator and brooder do in comparison to the broody hen.

On 1st July I put ten duck eggs into the incubator. They were gathered over a period of twelve days and are the eggs from Frederick and Mrs Warne, who are Aylesbury ducks (a commercial strain rather than exhibition birds). When I candled them on day six there were three that were obviously unfertilised. Now I'm not quite sure how on earth she has managed to lay unfertilised eggs. His 'attention' to her is relentless and we have thought that we should get a couple more Aylesbury ducks, just to give her a bit of a break.

On the 5th July one of the Cream Legbar chickens became broody and because we had the space and some potentially fertile eggs, we moved her to an isolation house where she has been sitting on her clutch of at least six eggs. There may be more eggs if she laid a couple more after being moved. I haven't disturbed her to find out how many are under her, although I know that she has been lovingly attending to a rubber fake egg.

Then, on 6th July I put eleven Australorp eggs and four from our own girls into the incubator, which should mean (I hope) that the chickens will hatch just before or around the same time as the ducklings.

Last night, we had to remove one of the duck eggs. It had gone bad in the incubator and was smelling dreadfully, so that leaves us with six fertile duck eggs and fifteen hen eggs. Late on Sunday night I will take the supports out of the incubator, top up the water reservoirs and remove the turning cradle in readiness for the hatch in the next couple of days.

I did notice that the incubator was running a little cool during the first week, so the ducks may be slower to hatch, but it has been so warm for the last week that I think the incubator has been running a tad warmer than 37.5 degrees that it should be, so maybe that will bring them back on time. Having said all of that, I don't mind when they come just as long as they hatch safely and are healthy.

So, at some point next week, the grand hatch should start. I will try to video some of the chicks and ducklings hatching, but I also aim to spend quite a chunk of the hatching time either outside or away from the smallholding. For the last two hatches I haven't managed to get anything done. I have sat in the snug staring at the incubator, willing the eggs to break open and stupidly I have got quite stressed at watching little chicks try to break out of their shells and then fail, so thought that if I was out of the way, I wouldn't get upset.  I can almost hear Mr J's snort as I type this, he knows me well enough that my good intention of staying away from the incubator is unlikely to come to fruition. Although, if there is also activity in the broody hen's house, I will be torn between sitting inside or outside!

We are once again heading into unknown territory, ever eager to learn new skills and absorb new information, I feel a little worried about doing the right thing for the ducklings, but also know that instinct will tell me when it's the right time to take them from the incubator and put them into their pen in the stable under a heat lamp. And, I'm not sure when we are supposed to integrate the broody hen and her chicks back into the flock. So, to help me work out when I start to integrate the broody and her chicks, I am taking a webinar chicken raising course on Sunday evening.

Big Red and Little White enjoying a dust bath in their sand pit

I am comfortable that we are getting the process right for the chicks. Big Red and Little White are now eleven weeks old and live with Jack and Diesel on their side of the chicken field. Red is becoming a more handsome chap with each day and has been practising his crowing skills (he has a surprisingly deep voice for a young chap). Little White can't really be described as little any more as she is almost as big as Diesel, eventually she will be more than twice the size of Diesel. Of the four that hatched last time, I am increasingly convinced that we have one Jersey Giant cockerel and one hen, that the Australorp is a hen and the hybrid, well, I still can't work that one out!

So over the next month we will get to see whether the broody hen or incubator and electric brooder are less work, less complicated, more efficient and more productive. Even though it was purely coincidental that a hen went broody at the same time as we were ready to put the next eggs into the incubator, I am really pleased to be able to watch the differences in person.

Creamy Pasta Chicken Italia recipe

Last night I made a lovely pasta dish, so thought I'd share the recipe with you.

Gluten Free Creamy Pasta Chicken Italia

Ingredients for 2 hungry folks or 4 for lunch

125g Tesco gluten free dried fusilli (or any other GF pasta)
Pan of boiling water
1 pack Heck Chicken Italia sausages cooked
1 small tub of Philadelphia cream cheese
2 large cloves garlic, crushed in a garlic press or chopped very finely
Little grated nutmeg
Large pinch (or more to taste) coarse ground black pepper
Splash of milk if required
50g mature Cheddar cheese, grated
Sea salt to taste

Cook the sausages in your preferred method (I like to cook them in the oven)
Cook the pasta as per the manufacturer's instructions until al dente (cooked but still firm, you don't want soggy pasta in this dish!)
Cut the cooked sausages into small bite size pieces.
Drain the pasta once cooked and put in a medium large saucepan, add the chunks of sausage and crushed garlic and stir over a low heat for a few minutes to release the flavours of the garlic.

Turn off the heat, but leave the pan in place to use the residual heat on the cooker.
Stir in the cream cheese and it will start to melt and coat the food.
Add grated nutmeg and black pepper.
If the mixture is too thick and gloopy, add a little milk to make the sauce smoother, keep stirring gently so that it doesn't stick to the base of the pan.
Add the grated Cheddar cheese and stir gently until melted. Taste to check for seasoning and add a pinch of salt if required.
Serve with salad.

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Volunteering on our smallholding

A little while ago Lisa from Cottage Coppicing got in touch to ask if I would like to swap a day of her energy for sharing some of our ideas and practices with her. As this sounded like a fabulous swap, I jumped at the idea. So this morning Lisa came to our smallholding for a chunk of the day. 

Because so much of my day revolves around food, growing, tending, harvesting, preparing, cooking and eating it, I thought our day together should start with 'second breakfast'. So earlier this morning a made a sticky ginger loaf and some fruit salad to have with a (decaf) coffee before we got started.

Lisa was having a 'me' day and chose to spend it with us as a change from her usual routine. I was chuffed to bits to have some additional help in doing some more physically demanding tasks.

So Lisa asked a few questions and I told her about how we came to live here and how my health had impacted on our decisions about the way we would live in our new home.

I showed her the eggs in the incubator, the 3 week old chicks, the young cockerels who are 6 weeks old, Big Red and Little White who are 11 weeks old and the rest of the chickens. She met the ducks and asked whether, if I could only keep one would it be ducks or chickens. I said ducks, because I like their independence and Mr J said chickens because the ones we have are friendlier than our ducks.

Lisa turned one of the compost heaps in a matter of minutes. This task would have taken me about an hour and then I'd need to rest for a couple of hours or so, I don't think Lisa knows how grateful I am for her volunteering.

The compost heap is coming along well, it certainly isn't going to be three week compost, but it will probably be an eight week compost heap, which I still think is pretty good going.

We then went inside for a cold drink, in the heat of the day (and it being surprisingly breezy here) I am extra careful about keeping up our fluid intake and taking breaks from the sunshine.

 

We headed into the stable to continue the mucking out that I have been doing bit by bit since we moved here. Lisa shifted five barrow-loads in no time, so I emptied the wheelbarrow each time it was full, into the area of the chicken field that is becoming the 'circle of love' for the part of the field with the shed in it.

 

Lisa sat in a chair in the field and held some kale for the birds to peck at and true to form, Big Red and Little White jumped up onto her lap to eat the kale and be stroked.

I think that Lisa was up for doing plenty more, but I was starting to get hot and tired and it was definitely time for lunch, so we had a picnic lunch at the kitchen table and talked some more about our plans and ideas for the smallholding and Lisa's plans for the summer holidays. Lisa works with wood and makes lovely items that she sells in her etsy shop, (link above) I particularly like some of the little garlic chopping boards. I've asked Lisa to make me some robust plant labels to go under the currant bushes, so that we can identify the variety of currant for years to come.

After Lisa had gone, I wandered back to have a look at how much had been achieved and I am delighted that she has cleared about a third of the old muck in the back half of the stable area. There is still one more barrow load to take outside, but that will have to wait until it is a bit cooler.

The other thing that I spotted in the stable was that Red and White have finally discovered the shallow bucket with sand in it that I put in there over a week ago. They were very happily have a dust bath in the nice clean sand. These two little birds are such a pleasure to spend time with. I suspect that if Lisa wasn't 100% sure whether she wanted to keep chickens before that, the two young birds sold the idea to her.

 

If you'd like to spend a day with us on the smallholding exchanging ideas, enthusiasm and energy, please get in touch.

Hatching chickens VIDEO

It's been another few days of learning faster than I'd like. I've been experimenting with some video software and, for a beginner who hasn't really played with anything like this before, I am quite pleased with the result. Hopefully my editing skills as well as my shaky camera work will improve in time!

So, here it is, a vlog of our latest hatchings. And if it won't play from the link above, you can find it on YouTube here.

Hatching day UPDATED

Yesterday was day 21 of the eggs being in the incubator, so it was hatching day. It's amazing that new life can grow in just 21 days inside eggs, they really are very clever things. Despite having promised myself that I wouldn't sit by the incubator for the better part of the day and that I'd just get on with tasks and ignore the incubator, I didn't manage to get through the day without returning time and again to the snug, where we have the incubator to see how the hatching was progressing.

As a reminder, we have 16 eggs in the incubator, although we started with twenty-six eggs, ten of them were not fertile (9 of the Australorp and one Jersey Giant), so we are hoping for three Australorps, eleven Jersey Giants and two hybrids. The two hybrid eggs from our smallholding were laid by Diesel (fertilised by the bantam cockerel that is with us at the moment).

By early evening, one little chick had hatched, it was one of the hybrids and although it's very small, it's feisty and loud which I am taking as a good sign. I stayed up rather later than I normal in the hope that I would see another chick (or more).

I was in that place where 'expectation meets reality' and having to accept that I can't make those little eggs pop open by sheer willpower or by being hopeful. I can't understand why the others didn't hatch yesterday, but perhaps the incubator was a little cooler than it was for the last hatching (which we did in a different incubator) or perhaps because the eggs were put into the incubator later in the day than the first batch. Who knows, but I did go to bed feeling rather despondent.

This morning the first chick is still alive and looking strong and, to my delight, three more eggs have pipped. I can see the small holes in the eggshells made by chicks getting ready to hatch. So it seems that today I will be in and out of the house again, checking for developments in the incubator. Typically, as I am writing my blog I can hear that there is movement in the incubator! The second chick has hatched, it's one of the White Jersey Giant eggs, which is delightful as it means that Little White will have a companion.

By mid afternoon today (Wednesday) a third chick had hatched, it's very tired having spent the better part of the day trying to release itself from the shell. And now I will have to wait to see whether any of the other eggs that have pipped will hatch a chick. I've been advised that hatching can be any time up to thirty-six hours after pipping, so I won't give up on the eggs left in the incubator just yet. I find it disappointing to have hatched only three so far from sixteen eggs and can't help but wonder if I've done something wrong. I will update this post again if more chicks hatch.

 

The next task for us is to make sure that everything is ready for the chicks to be moved into the brooder area once they are dry and fluffy. So Mr J and I have turned on the brooder which will keep them warm and put a small dish of chick food and grit and also a water dispenser filled with water, apple cider vinegar with garlic and honey. This mixture should provide some energy, help their gut health and promote their well-being.

 

There are changes afoot with the small flock outside. The cockerel that we have at the moment will being going to his new home on Sunday evening. He is obviously fertile as we have just hatched one of his chicks and I am sure that he will enjoy living with Helen on her smallholding and looking after her girls. We gave that small cockerel a home as we wanted to have some fertile eggs while we were waiting for the Cream Legbar cockerel that we have been promised by a well-respected Cream Legbar breeder. The new laddie is now ready to come to us and we will be collecting him at the weekend. The timing is perfect as we can keep the new boy in quarantine for a couple of days before he joins the girls in the field by which time the current cockerel will have left.

 

I've just checked the incubator one more time and we still have just the three chicks but on the plus side, they all look strong and healthy.

 

THURSDAY - UPDATE

It was somewhat of a surprise to come downstairs at 5am today to find another chick just pushing the last of it's shell off and looking big, strong and healthy. This is an Australorp chick, the only one to hatch and I am delighted that at least we have one now. It is the largest of the chicks that have hatched and certainly seems very robust. Within an hour of hatching it was up and running about in the incubator, steady on its feet and cheep-cheeping merrily.

 

Later in the day I spotted that another egg was trying to hatch but having difficulties breaking the shell. A while later and it was in trouble, so I looked online for information and sought advice from friends on social media (who have kept chickens) and then tried to help the little bird. It's now been several hours since we helped it and although it seems to be out of the shell, much of the membrane is still stuck to its feathers and it is desperately weak. I suspect that it is just a matter of time before the struggle to live becomes too much. Part of me wants to put it out of any misery it may be in, but the other half says to give the little fella (or gal) a chance to fight for survival. It's very hard to know what it is the best thing to do in this situation. So for now, we are going to leave it to rest and keep our fingers crossed that it will survive. I'll update again when I have more news about the fifth little chick.