Morland Road Allotments

A clean hen is a happy hen – or so you’d think. Chickens are not naturally clean creatures, they’ll poo in their house and they’ll poo in their nesting box. They’re not one for a clean house, unlike a pig, chickens will happily live in their own poo.

It is however not recommended as this is how pests and diseases are spread. A weekly clean and then a thorough monthly clean is what should be on order.

Some people pick poos daily, others weekly. What I do is remove the top layer of the bedding once a week and refill. Every month I remove the whole lot and make a full fresh bed. It is almost like a deep litter system but not quite the same.

The nesting boxes should never have poo in them. If poo is in contact with eggs for any amount of time, it can cause problems with the eggs. If you are going to eat the eggs then it’s bad but if the eggs are for incubation, it’s disastrous! The cause of poo in nesting boxes is nine times out of ten due to chickens roosting in the box. This should be a definite no-no. Chooks should roost on a perch or on the floor.

Mites are another problem. Many people think that mites only appear if the chicken house is dirty. Wrong! Mites, similar headlice like it clean, dark and warm. Concealed spaces and nooks & crannies are their preferred hiding places. The easiest way to solve this is with a tube of solvent based silicone. Go around and seal the gaps up, every single one – simple! It is not a cure, only a prevention.

Your chooks will soon tell you if there’s a problem. Signs will usually be along the lines of them not going into their house at night and egg production grinding to a sudden halt. If it is really bad, deaths can occur.

The prevention and treatment is a big tub of Diatom (diatomaceous earth) from any good smallholding supplier or animal feeds supplier. Simply follow the instructions and it will usually solve the problem. Some people resort to burning and rebuilding their chicken houses and enclosures if the problem is serious.

Finally, there is no trick or secret to keeping chickens clean. It just takes time and patience. If you let it build up, it will take longer. Done weekly – it is easy!

I was awoken by some very loud clucking noises this morning… Chooks in distress!

I flew down the stairs and out the door, I then saw why… Snow! Poor little things couldn’t get out their door. They’d been snowed in

So I went back in and mixed them up a big bowl of warm water and layers mash, lovely. I defrosted their roof and cleared their door but they still won’t come out. They look set on staying in all day.

Just a quick update! Ruth Goodman, Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn are back on the Acton Scott estate in Shropshire to recreate a traditional Victorian Christmas.

Victorian Farm Christmas has started on BBC 2 on Fridays I believe. I caught it last night on BBC iPlayer.

Defiantly worth a watch. Features some sheep, flour making, hay making and butter making laden with the usual facts and history notes.

I think it’s a 3 part series so it’s not on for very long

In this cold weather we’re still getting quite a few eggs everyday. The pure breed Cochins have put their knickers on for the winter and are not bothering but the Light Sussex seem more than happy to lay one each a day.

I took the plunge today and hard boiled a load of eggs for pickling. I finished a couple of jars with eggs to spare!

Who said the government was crap? Well, back in the in 1940’s anyway!

A new project for spring 2010 will be to begin to re-create a plot from the 40’s. Using original Dig For Victory literature published by the Ministry of Agriculture, sourced by a friend. Traditional British grub including ‘Doctor Carrot’ and ‘Potato Pete’ – no nonsense, just real hearty food.

So how are we going to pull this one off? We hadn’t had much luck the first year on the plot, the second year saw the chooks killed and shed broken into so the third year will work! How do I know – don’t they say 3rd time lucky?

Unless the murderers (2 legged or 4) or thieves are reading this… I think we should be in for a good one The seeds are ordered and netting is up. We’ve just got the bean poles and pea sticks to sort.

For the last week the blog has been down.  I’ve just moved a rather large database over to a new server to hopefully avoid the slow loading problems that were happening.

Posts over the past few months have been thin on the ground but as usual… I have been busy  We’ve had lots of brassicas from the plot though! Baby carrots are in abundance as well.

For quite a few weeks now we have been picking and eating runner beans from the allotment.  Very nice!  There are still signs of a lot more to come and we may end up freezing a load if we end up with too many to eat.

I know that we need to plant a lot more plants next year so we can share with friends and family.  We’re learning all the time and it is all fun!

We are having some today with cockerel, spuds, stuffing and gravy.  A bank holiday dinner… yum!

It is the question that a lot of people ask and very rarely get a useful response to.  There is the old trick of using washing up liquid or chilli powder and soaking sponges in vinegar to deter most pests.  Do they really work?

From experience I can safely say… No!

The only way I found of protecting my brassicas from little creepy crawlies was by using a good dosing of Bug Clear.  It works a treat and so far I have had no issues with pesky caterpillars.  I have the odd issue with snails and slugs but that’s not too bad.

The first lot of sprouting broccoli and sprouts I planted in the old chicken run were decimated in about 2 days by caterpillars but I now know – spray them or loose them!

I’ll soon have the brassica protection cage put up if all goes well.

Everyday has been another working day… Hardly any allotment time although it doesn’t look too bad!

We’re starting to get a few runner beans on the plants, not many sadly but that teaches me for buying seed from a man in a shed!  I’ve learnt and will buy seed from a garden centre next year.

The carrots I’ve planted haven’t come up as of yet.  I’ve kept them weeded and watered this time and they still won’t grow.  The beetroot are now starting to show their little leaves – we’ll use these for christmas pickling!

Lots of spring cabbage, sprouting brocolli, etc have been planted.  Leeks are growing well and we’ve dug up all of the early spuds.  We’ve a few tomatoes in the greenhouse – not as many as I’d hoped for but never to worry.  It just leaves maincrop potatoes and tomatoes to harvest in the near future.

We have also eaten one of our 4 garden cockerels.  Very nice!  3 more to go  I might fire up the incubator again soon and see if we can get some more chicks hatch.

Things haven’t been awfully productive this year.  With all the hassle of attacked chickens and the shed being broken into – I’d much rather plough my time into something that I know will work out for me – work

It is with a tinge of sadness that I write this article, the last I reckon before I do the deed. Ever since the eggs went into the incubator, the rule was that any cockerels would be eaten. I’ve wrung necks before but this is a little different – I hatched these myself.

Anyway, I am planning on doing it Saturday morning after the French students have gone. I’ll hang them up for a day to let the blood drain into the head and then as before, cut the whole head off = no blood! Then they’ll be plucked drawn and frozen.

I am actually looking forward to it, the last one we had was very nice and he was quite an old bird. The ones I have now are about 17 weeks so they should be lovely and tender. It really is the best meat you can get providing you cook it properly.

I’ll let you know how it goes……..