Shetland kale

We've been given some  Shetland Kale plants . Sheltand kale dates back to the 17th Century.  I suspect we may be growing it for 1 ) interest and 2) sheep feed.

So ive put the plants out

I really should build  a crub to protect them , but in the meantime some netting will have to suffice.

polycrub update

the polycrub has been quite productive so far.
We have had strawberries,  potatoes and peas so far.
And there is a bit more to come

and the sweetcorn is growing well.

and the curly kale is coming on .

And the trees are doing well

pears

apples

and the corner with courgettes and tomatoes are squeezing each other out . 

and cabbages

and carrots and onions  are coming on well.

and lettuces

and sweet peas

and peas


















and potatoes

letting out

The gosling that hatched back here , has been looked after by its hen amd has continued to grow - and its now bigger than the hen.

So its time it went out into the big wide world.
We already have a couple of geese , who have a gosling.

So they need to get acquainted. If we just let the gosling out , it may get chased away  , or run away , form the existing 3-some. So the solution is to make a pen and allow them to get acquainted but leaving enough space for the new one to avoid the older geese if necessarily.

 And we think the new gosling is male, so he has (provisionally) been named 'Christmas'.

an untrapped trap

We have had some problems with stoats. And so I made some traps , and we caught a stoat or two.

the traps have been set since then , but have remained empty .

But between 9am , whnwn I was passing and 1pm , whne i was passing again , something has disturbed the trap .

  And it looks as if something tried hard to get in to the bait, pushing aside the wire mesh designed to stop larger animals getting in .

And the trap has gone ,  presumably still attached to whatever set it off.

there is quite a lot of undergrowth - so the trap may reappear in the winter whne the vegetation dies back.

And this means that potential predators  are still around , so I'd better reset the trap.

We did buy a spare Fenn trap  - they are a decent size !

And the safety catch is an important bit of it - it stings  bit if it traps a finger .

And then the tunnel trap is back in action

incubatoring again

We started  broody hens on some duck eggs a couple of weeks ago .
We check on them daily to ensue they have enough food and water. And yesterday one of them had clearly had enough of this sitting-on-eggs  malarkey and was found  on a perch. With the eggs abandoned and cold.

We have been here before with cold eggs and so nothing ventures, nothing gained the incubator was brought into action.

We checked the eggs - if they arent fertile then 2 weeks in ,  you can hear fluid sloshing around when gently shaken. As it is a tight fit for all the eggs in our (small) incubator, we had to jettison one

it looks as if it has been fertilised. And development stopped.

So the remaining eggs  have been put in the incubator

And they need turning regularly. And the water  topped up to maintain the humidity.
And we shall see whay happens   around the 28th June.

The stoats are back

We had 3 goslings that were a bit big for the completely enclosed runs that we have so we thought the time havd come to put them outside  in the  hurdled-off run that has been used previously by the other gosling .

But 3 hours later when  i went out all we found were beheaded bodies. Stoats have some history as far as this is concerned . And rats would just kill and eat one at a time .

So  far weve got  one gosling and  no turkeys  poults


if you are of  sensitive disposition , look away now

2 down

We put a hen on a dozen eggs  on 19th May .

We chekc daily on the broody hens ( currently 3 of them) to ensure they have enough food and water within easy reach.
And today , there had obviously been a bit of bother of some sort

2 of the eggs are no longer under the hen. Instead they have ended up by the feed, and one has been p***ped on.
And the eggs are cold.

We could try putting them back under the hen, but if she thinks 12 is too many she could push ( a different) pair of eggs out.

So the decision is to use the incubator.
Hopefully not for many days . Of course the eggs may have been left out for too long and the chicks have died.

We will know by the end of the weekend.

Electric fence

We've moved  a small group of 4 rams. We dont want to give them access to all of a big field - they will just wander everywhere and eat down then good-quality grass. So if they are restricted to a smaller area they will have to graze the not-so-good stuff as well as the good stuff.

so we put up a temporary electric fence. Their fleece  will likely insulate them from the electricity if they brush against it , but the bits that havent got fleece will receive the small shock  - and we are told they learn very quickly to avoid the fence.

a problem can be vegetation   causing a short-circuit  when its all wet after rain , so this need cutting back.

 
 and the electricity - a fully enclosed battery and a live to the fence. And ensure there is a good earth connection 
 

More Ducks ( hopefully)

There appears to be  good market for duck eggs. Our ducks are very sweet, and stupid . And not very good at consistently laying . Indian Runner ducks are better at consistently laying. And we have another broody hen.
So we kept the broody hen occupied , and sitting, on a couple of false eggs,- -real eggs, blown and then filled with plaster   -

And you can order eggs  on the internet - and a few days later they  arrived. 

So we replaced te plaster eggs with the real ones.

And she continues to brood on them. And the incubation period is 28 days.

And 28 days from putting them under the hen will be  26th June
So watch this space