Monday 27 January 2014

And so another year begins

Every time we start a new year we always promise that we will try and be more proactive this year, but within days we are already on the back foot. The list of essential jobs are endless but definitely hindered by the wet weather. A big job this year will be to try and repair the damage the pigs done to the field, which now the heavens have opened and no let up is in sight, has created a muddy mess that only the geese are enjoying. The chicken pens in the field need repairing and moving, the turkey's made sure they broke all the panels with their antics and Bruiser has eaten his house door. So it's going to be busy.
We welcomed four new furry arrivals. Old English Spot Rabbits from show stock, which don't make the grade. Two black coloured does.










And two Black and White spot bucks. This has meant that our rabbit population went from three to twelve and they haven't even started to breed like rabbits! So we need to get rid of some. The five babies have another 3 months to go before they are fat enough to eat. Jacko, our first buck has been re-homed to some friends and sadly Spot the mother of the babies had to be dispatched as she wasn't well. So now we are down to ten. In order for them not to breed like rabbits Diz has had to make and convert chicken houses into rabbit hutches. The orchard is now full of rabbit. I had a feeling this venture was going to get out of hand.
We have also been sorting out our flocks of chickens. We are running three pens this year, Light Sussex, Barnevelder and Indian Game. We have also re-homed some of the older hens and replaced with home grown youngsters.







The Barnevelders are our winter layers and the five hens have started to lay lovely dark brown eggs. If it wasn't for the Barney's we wouldn't get many eggs a day at all. We have gained two different hens which we hope to use as brooder hens. Golden Brahma, they are large docile birds and like nothing better than sitting on a large clutch of eggs at every opportunity. They are only 12 weeks old at the moment but should be 'working' in no time. Time will tell.



I was asked at short notice to produce a cake for a 16th birthday. So I finished work and got home at 20:00 and made two cakes for decorating and delivery the next afternoon. I had fun creating a 2 tier teddy bear cake, keeping it fairly simple otherwise I wouldn't have had time to finish it. I was feeling a little under pressure to have it finished on time, but I was very happy with the result. Thankfully the client was very happy as well.

That's all for now, another update in a bit.
Take care all.
Stell & Diz
xx