This evening was Day 10, Candling and decision day.
An interesting result
We had in each incubator almost exactly 33% infertile (clear) eggs
7 out of 20 in the Covina incubator we have borrowed and 8 out of 24 in the Rcom.
Unfortunately that turned out to be all of Liz's Silkies and 5 out of the 6 Wyandottes I bought for Karen.
We also took a chance with a couple of the Welsummer and Aracuana eggs, the shells are so dark I can't see anything through them.
One dark shelled egg got a reprieve I thought it was no good but took another look and saw something moving so back in the bator it went .
We then, as we are still beginners, cracked open all the apparently infertile eggs just to be 100%
they were all as we suspected
So now we have 29 give or take a couple eggs on the way to hatching....
In 10 days we will know how successful that will be.
Saturday, 11 May 2013
Pastures New
I decided to approach a few of our neighbours to see if we could get some extra grazing because with the arrival of the little lambs my idea of doing a bit of pasture rotation within our own paddocks temporarily went out the window!
There is an heck of a lot of land around here that is hardly ever used and some of it is in pretty poor condition as a result but finding out who owns it let alone getting in contact, well that proved pretty difficult.
We do need to rest our fields otherwise there will be nothing for later in the year.
It was a case of success with the second people we asked and our neighbours Pat and Brian opposite can be thanked for suggesting I ask them!
We now have the use of an odd shaped Acre or so of field surrounding a back garden down the lane about half way between our house and the School so Alden will be able to check on the Ponies morning and afternoon :)..... Oh yes you will!
It has (currently) lots of tasty new grass for the Ponies. It has road side access and a real bonus, mains water.
I have temporarily split the new field in two. The Ponies are in an area nearest the road and we have a some work to do in the other bit mainly improving the boundaries and clearing up anything lurking in the grass left over from a few household Bonfires etc.
We spent the day clearing and making good the fences and then took the Ponies down, they were very happy to have something substantial to munch on
This new lush grass will lead to a risk of over eating so now I need to buy a battery for my electrified fence, we have 400M of the stuff which I bought to surround the Pond when we bought Teaser and Opal. It worked on Teaser but Opal just took the shocks and still got in to and then stayed in the pond!
We will use the electric fence to strip graze the field.
This is a view from the centre to the road
Here from the Centre towards the owners rear garden, on the left.
This is taken from standing under the raised shed (playhouse).
Kids playhouse I think it would make a brilliant Chicken coop!
Munch, munch munch munch!
Pinch point in the centre with temp fencing to keep the ponies in one half!
My trailer was used to haul out mangled bit of iron railings and what looks like the partial frame of an old greenhouse that we pulled out from one corner, if they weren't so mangled I could probably make use of them somehow but instead I will take them to the local recycling centre
Worn out David! he worked hard today.
Peter was excused as he has two A level exam on Monday.
There is an heck of a lot of land around here that is hardly ever used and some of it is in pretty poor condition as a result but finding out who owns it let alone getting in contact, well that proved pretty difficult.
We do need to rest our fields otherwise there will be nothing for later in the year.
It was a case of success with the second people we asked and our neighbours Pat and Brian opposite can be thanked for suggesting I ask them!
We now have the use of an odd shaped Acre or so of field surrounding a back garden down the lane about half way between our house and the School so Alden will be able to check on the Ponies morning and afternoon :)..... Oh yes you will!
It has (currently) lots of tasty new grass for the Ponies. It has road side access and a real bonus, mains water.
I have temporarily split the new field in two. The Ponies are in an area nearest the road and we have a some work to do in the other bit mainly improving the boundaries and clearing up anything lurking in the grass left over from a few household Bonfires etc.
We spent the day clearing and making good the fences and then took the Ponies down, they were very happy to have something substantial to munch on
This new lush grass will lead to a risk of over eating so now I need to buy a battery for my electrified fence, we have 400M of the stuff which I bought to surround the Pond when we bought Teaser and Opal. It worked on Teaser but Opal just took the shocks and still got in to and then stayed in the pond!
We will use the electric fence to strip graze the field.
This is a view from the centre to the road
Here from the Centre towards the owners rear garden, on the left.
This is taken from standing under the raised shed (playhouse).
Kids playhouse I think it would make a brilliant Chicken coop!
Munch, munch munch munch!
Pinch point in the centre with temp fencing to keep the ponies in one half!
My trailer was used to haul out mangled bit of iron railings and what looks like the partial frame of an old greenhouse that we pulled out from one corner, if they weren't so mangled I could probably make use of them somehow but instead I will take them to the local recycling centre
Worn out David! he worked hard today.
Peter was excused as he has two A level exam on Monday.
Tuesday, 7 May 2013
Monday, 6 May 2013
Marigolds Glove
Marigold did it!
Lamb number 3 arrived early this Morning, she ( I think she is a she) is a darker brown than the other two more like Mars.
Meet Marigold and Glove (temp name!)
The other two lambs are a lighter brown and noticeably larger enen though they are only a couple of weeks old themselves. The now have to kneel down to feed.
They are also starting to take an interest in and eat the grown ups food!
In this picture Rolo is tucking in to some that I left on the edge of the trough. In the background is the rear door to the new Chicken Tractor, the entire thing can fold down, and further back is this weekends project, more fencing to create a separate area for the Birds from the Ponies during the day and hopefully allow some of the grass to recover as it is not doing very well.
It also should keep the sheep out of the birds food as well but we won't be able to test that for a while as we don't want the Lambs being trampled by big hooves so the sheep will remain in their little paddock for now.
Lamb number 3 arrived early this Morning, she ( I think she is a she) is a darker brown than the other two more like Mars.
Meet Marigold and Glove (temp name!)
The other two lambs are a lighter brown and noticeably larger enen though they are only a couple of weeks old themselves. The now have to kneel down to feed.
They are also starting to take an interest in and eat the grown ups food!
In this picture Rolo is tucking in to some that I left on the edge of the trough. In the background is the rear door to the new Chicken Tractor, the entire thing can fold down, and further back is this weekends project, more fencing to create a separate area for the Birds from the Ponies during the day and hopefully allow some of the grass to recover as it is not doing very well.
It also should keep the sheep out of the birds food as well but we won't be able to test that for a while as we don't want the Lambs being trampled by big hooves so the sheep will remain in their little paddock for now.
Saturday, 4 May 2013
Casualties of war
Not the Birds but the kids this time!
Both David and Peter have been helping me grub out the remaining damn stubborn Leylandi stumps from the front garden today and they have the scratches and bruises to show for it so well done Lads.
Now we will feed the soil with compost and horse poo etc. over the next few months so we can plant a replacement hedge in the Autumn or next spring.
Out the back tomorrow I will start on creating a small paddock in the main field this is so we can segregate the birds from the Ponies and especially the Sheep as both have been raiding the bird feeders. The Sheep can easily get into the run and probably the coops if they tried.
It will also allow me to do a bit of pasture management and I can keep the Geese and Ponies apart if needed
Plan is the birds get the top of the field which I will be reseeding as we still need to grass the old veg beds and they will have clear access to the pond. The Ponies get the bottom as well as the long run down the side of the Pond from their Shelter. We will still let them in the rest of the field later at night once the new grass seed begins to establish.
It may also prevent a future accident in the making as the Ponies love to gallop around the pond, they treat the surrounding brick path like a mini racetrack and eventually some emerging feathered traffic is going to get trod on :)
And it will contain the Ducks in wet weather as their drilling over the winter really cost us a lot of grass.
Both David and Peter have been helping me grub out the remaining damn stubborn Leylandi stumps from the front garden today and they have the scratches and bruises to show for it so well done Lads.
Now we will feed the soil with compost and horse poo etc. over the next few months so we can plant a replacement hedge in the Autumn or next spring.
Out the back tomorrow I will start on creating a small paddock in the main field this is so we can segregate the birds from the Ponies and especially the Sheep as both have been raiding the bird feeders. The Sheep can easily get into the run and probably the coops if they tried.
It will also allow me to do a bit of pasture management and I can keep the Geese and Ponies apart if needed
Plan is the birds get the top of the field which I will be reseeding as we still need to grass the old veg beds and they will have clear access to the pond. The Ponies get the bottom as well as the long run down the side of the Pond from their Shelter. We will still let them in the rest of the field later at night once the new grass seed begins to establish.
It may also prevent a future accident in the making as the Ponies love to gallop around the pond, they treat the surrounding brick path like a mini racetrack and eventually some emerging feathered traffic is going to get trod on :)
And it will contain the Ducks in wet weather as their drilling over the winter really cost us a lot of grass.
Friday, 3 May 2013
Egg count
This weeks egg count is as follows -
Chickens - 35
Ducks - 21
Geese - 0
Catherine is getting more inventive in finding a nesting spot. Today she was in the chicken coop and found the nest box with four eggs in it and tried to sit on them. I managed to get to her before she did otherwise they would almost certainly be squashed. As she was hissing at me I held her by the neck (even though you are not supposed to) and the back end and eased her rather sternly back through the hole, grabbed the eggs before she could turn back and bolted the lid down. She was in there again tonight, much to the chickens disgust and ejected the same way.
Chickens - 35
Ducks - 21
Geese - 0
Catherine is getting more inventive in finding a nesting spot. Today she was in the chicken coop and found the nest box with four eggs in it and tried to sit on them. I managed to get to her before she did otherwise they would almost certainly be squashed. As she was hissing at me I held her by the neck (even though you are not supposed to) and the back end and eased her rather sternly back through the hole, grabbed the eggs before she could turn back and bolted the lid down. She was in there again tonight, much to the chickens disgust and ejected the same way.
Thursday, 2 May 2013
Surrogate hatching!
We had nine eggs left over that would not fit in the Rcom, Incubator. so this morning Karen asked in the playground if anyone had an incubator we could borrow.
And fortunately thanks to Liz we were offered one of these which unlike the automated Rcom is a regulated temperature manual turn model so it will be down to us to get the Egg turning and humidity all right.
We were also given 12 eggs to hatch for the owner as well, including some Buff and Gold Laced Orpingtons and some Silkies.
I candled the foster eggs and one looked cracked so it was discarded which means we now have 44 eggs in total on the go. Even with a 50% hatch rate they will be a fair few Chicks of which half will probably be Cockerels! it is going to be a very interesting end of the month.
Unlike the first three chicks which we promised Alden we would not eat, the next batch, if some are Cockerels or just plain ugly.......may well be for the pot around Xmas but don't tell him!
And fortunately thanks to Liz we were offered one of these which unlike the automated Rcom is a regulated temperature manual turn model so it will be down to us to get the Egg turning and humidity all right.
We were also given 12 eggs to hatch for the owner as well, including some Buff and Gold Laced Orpingtons and some Silkies.
I candled the foster eggs and one looked cracked so it was discarded which means we now have 44 eggs in total on the go. Even with a 50% hatch rate they will be a fair few Chicks of which half will probably be Cockerels! it is going to be a very interesting end of the month.
Unlike the first three chicks which we promised Alden we would not eat, the next batch, if some are Cockerels or just plain ugly.......may well be for the pot around Xmas but don't tell him!
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