So we are now into the seventh week of flockdown since Defra announced that it is a legal requirement for all bird keepers across the UK (whether they have pet birds, commercial flocks or just a few birds in a backyard flock) to keep their birds indoors and follow strict biosecurity measures to limit the … [Read more…]
Housing measures for poultry come into force across the UK at 00:01 Monday 29 November 2021. Avian flu is back again. While it causes no threat to humans, it can rip through flocks of wild bird who in turn can pass it on to domestic fowl. This means whether you are keeper of two ducks … [Read more…]
From past posts, I imagine you are all au fait with the likes of chicken maths and then chick maths. This my friends is a totally different story all together. This is egg maths. It all stared with red mite which are pesky little critters who feast off the skin of hens. It ended up … [Read more…]
Say you’ve been homesteading, and you have gone from backyard chickens to goats or other small livestock. You have decided you like this farming thing. Now you want to take the next step and start to grow food that you can sell at a farm stand or market as a side gig or maybe even … [Read more…]
Spring time is lovely with the lighter nights and warmer days. If you keep chickens, you will know that these factors make for a very full egg basket. We sometimes get 14 a day and, with my menagerie of chicks growing fast, that number is set to multiply quite soon. What can you do with … [Read more…]
When I wrote the post Socially Distanced Animal Buying At The Farm last month, I totally intended to go and pick up the two rabbits we had reserved and nothing else. The people had told me that they had an incubator full of eggs but at that point, even though I had a little chuckle … [Read more…]
Wow what a month on the farm. If you remember in the May Farm Life, I said we had finished lambing and I was very pleased with my one Ryeland lamb. Well, nature has a habit of surprising you and imagine how surprised I was when the farmer beckoned me to the front field one … [Read more…]
Food insecurity, a shortage of eggs, hens being also in short supply and, the ones that you manage to get are only available at massive inflated prices. These are thing that have all happened since lockdown from Covid-19 in the UK and I admit, I am worried for the welfare of some hens. The amount … [Read more…]
Thinking over the last month, I think there is one phrase which keeps coming to my mind and that is thick as thieves. My three have really enjoyed spending time together. I know they have no choice but it still makes me all warm inside that they actually like each other. Obviously there are arguments … [Read more…]
I seem to have taken hundreds of photos of hens this month. I have a few fancy ones and their hilarious bouffants amuse me every time I see them. Photographing them though seems to be harder than it looks and I was happy with one photo until I went back and I had chopped the … [Read more…]
