And there was life!!

I can’t believe that it has only been a month since my last blog as so much has happened.

Using some of the scrap wood from around the place we have constructed a raised bed. It was filled with soil from around the garden and then filled with some of the many onions waiting to be planted out. This is part of my cunning plan to confuse the rabbits by masking the smell of other plants with a ring of onions. We aren’t really expecting many rabbits in the polytunnel but as the weather warms up, the huge sliding end doors seem to be more open than closed and it would only take one opportunist rabbit to devastate all our hard work. We have since added tomato plants, beetroot, radishes and spring onions to the bed. But of course, once you start planting things you need to start watering them too. We always had planned to have water in the polytunnel so that seemed to be the obvious next job to do.

The First Tunnel polytunnel came with an overhead spray water system which is fed by the mains. This is a necessity as we need good water pressure to achieve a good spray coverage. Pipes run along both side via the cropping bars and each quarter has an isolation valve to control which areas receive water. So we fitted the sprayers over our new raised bed. This is when we found the spray shadow is rather bigger than the bed and very quickly pots and containers populated the area in the middle of the tunnel. Two more raised beds have been created from some very nice wood purchased for the job but we now have the problem of finding enough soil/compost to fill them with.

Light Sussex and one Legbar egg

Now I don’t really think we can call ourselves smallholders without livestock. We have had chickens for seven years now but were looking to expand our flock. I was fortunate to receive an incubator for my birthday in March and the very next day it was filled with some fertilised eggs which we sent for in the post. I fancied Light Sussex hens so six were duly deposited into the incubator along with a blue Legbar egg from our girls, fertilised by Henry the cockerel. We waited, we candled and after 21 days three of the seven eggs including the blue egg hatched out. One of the fabulous things about Light Sussex is that they are auto sexing which means you can tell what has hatched out by the chickens colouring. 

Chicks in the brooder

We had another two cockerels. More excitingly, you can do the same with Legbars and the blue egg had produced a hen, which we have called Henrietta.  After a brief spell in the incubator, they were moved to the brooding cage which we created from a dog crate placed in one of the spare bedrooms. They have now moved onto outside in one of our spare chicken runs and are big and very white.

Lambs in a dog crate

Around the same time, we had an exciting email from the Essex Smallholders Group that Kit Speakman would have some orphaned easy care lambs up for grabs. Now this was an opportunity too good to miss. I phone Kit and placed an order for three lambs. I also ordered bottles and ewe replacement milk to arrive all in good time. It was around the Easter weekend  but the postal service let us down horrendously with the delivery of the order for lamb care items. Kit was very understanding but we came to a decision that we would drive to find the necessary items for sale and then pick up our lambs. This all happened in a bit of a blur and we were suddenly in charge of three lambs!

Lambs enjoying some company outside

Memories of bottle feeding babies came flooding back with Kit’s words still echoing in my ears that you don’t need to feed them at night as you could get them into the habit of expecting a night feed. It also soon became clear that I couldn’t feed three by myself and the family were recruited as extra hands when it came to feeding times. We collected them and then subsequently kept the lambs in yet another dog crate (very useful things) until it became clear that these lambs were growing fast. I purchased a heat lamb in case we needed it but also purchased an indoor sheep pen from Solar Recyclables. This is a clip together pen made from recycled plastic. It came with a heat lamb fixing and it all very cleanable. Superb! The lambs were moved from the crate to the pen and seem much happier. It also soon became clear that we were going to need straw, lots of straw. Luckily the homestead already receives a hay delivery from a local supplier and an order was placed for twenty bales of straw. Sorted!!

Ronnie the lamb meeting Petra the cat

All of this seems ages ago now. The lambs have consumed 20kg of ewe milk replacement. They are too heavy to carry around and are walked to their outside space using dog harnesses and leads. I think we may have found the new sport of lamb racing!Their tails have fallen off and testicles have been found dotted around the place. We have created a safe enclosure for them outside and they are now spending hours outside although they haven’t managed over night yet. We recently discovered that at night we have a predator entering our land. The hen house took an attack which resulted in two dead hens. The back door of the house had been ripped from its hinges and bits of bluebell were left strewn around the area. One of the legbars was completely gone. We would like to think that Henry the cockerel was on hand to fend off any further attacks but on further investigation, our attacker was most definitely a badger who only attacked hen houses for food. The bluebell had been partially eaten and he had taken the legbar for his young. It’s all part of the circle of life etc, but still annoying. The hen house was duly fortified and the electric fence, which was in place, is now fully operational.  All this said, I am reluctant to leave the lambs outside until they can defend themselves.

We have also had our first harvest from the polytunnel and a very proud moment it was for all concerned. It was two long pointy radishes which didn't go very far but were a welcome addition to the menu, but from small beginning ...