Smallholder shows I have known! (From Smallholder)

Smallholder shows I have known!

1:50pm Thursday 8th April 2010

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As I compiled the now huge annual listings diary for 2010, it brought back memories of time spent at agricultural shows up and down the country over the years. Even as I typed some of the show names I could either feel the heat of a long summer day or the squelch of mud and that strange feeling of wearing waterproofs in a warm but wet summer. There was the show where we almost lost the Smallholder stand to a gale force wind and we quaked in our bed and breakfast, hoping it would still be there in the morning. Then the famous wet shows where you end up buying another pair of wellies at the show because you really didn’t think it could rain as hard in August so you didn’t bring any with you. There are shows which are remembered for winning rosettes, not so successful shows where I took a pony who fidgeted all day and tried to kick the judge, shows where my chicken eggs won first prize against professionals and that embarrassing show where my cake was so outclassed in the cake class that it didn’t even get cut by the judge. Last year I won a cup at our local horticultural show with my herbs but also experienced the wettest weekend of the year at a native pony show where we discovered, too late, that we hadn’t taken enough gas to boil the tea kettle. As the show diary moves into Autumn, I can feel the nights drawing in, the autumn shows where you leave in the dusk and its chilly when you get home. By December we are at the two big poultry shows of the year and I can almost hear the crowing and the cackling in the big sheds in the week before Christmas. Hang on a minute…… I want to have summer first. I hope you get as much pleasure from reading and using the diary as I did compiling it and do let us know of any events we have not included, particularly smallholder club events.

Here on my smallholding, we looked at the bees to find we had lost one hive and again I have to ask myself, what could I have done better? It’s impossible to put all bee losses down to a syndrome; many of them are still due to lack of food, inadequate management and unforeseen but natural circumstances. It’s the job of the beekeeper to try and and identify what the cause was of the loss and rectify it the following year. I was so pleased to find the other hive was thriving and to keep it going through this cold, cold spring and I am providing food for them until the plants and flowers get going. The new ducks have finally settled in and now go out to range in the day time, returning for me to shut them in safely away from the fox at night. Well almost. In the torrential rain that we had recently, they decided on two nights running that they would stay out on the “pond” which had appeared in our field. This meant struggling through the rain, mud and flooded field to get behind them to drive them back down towards the yard in the semi-dark. Lovely. Still no eggs as yet either, they are going to have to get on with it pretty soon if they are to achieve their breed average of 200 eggs a season. The old hybrid hens are laying two eggs a day between four of them with good hard shells and at a decent size so I think that’s admirable for their age (at least four years old). I’m going to raise some day olds to Point of Lay later on this year but really wanted the weather to improve before I bought in fifty young chicks.

Meanwhile we had a chimney fire which almost resulted in having to call the fire brigade and did result in having to bring in the hose that fills the troughs and buckets outside through the house to the fireplace. The cause? The jackdaws had taken advantage of the one day and night that we did not have a fire to throw sticks down the chimney to try and start another nest which promptly lodged in the chimney and then caught fire. We will need to fit a cap to this chimney so they cannot nest in it – we have several other unused chimneys that they are welcome to but they don’t seem so impressed by these. Back in the greenhouse, the £2 heater purchased from a local boot sale has come into it own, keeping tender over wintered plants and seedlings alike warm through the late spring frosts. April is a great month for seed sowing – finally the days are long and the seedlings react with enthusiasm and the sun is also gathering some heat which is warming the soil. Most smallholders will be surveying their grass land with some despair – only if no livestock have been anywhere near it will it look green rather than that rather nasty mainly brown with green speckles that is most people’s fields. Don’t give up. Find some grass somewhere else for the livestock, roll the field and give it a few weeks to recover. An organic fertiliser may well be needed too. It won’t be as good as new but nature does have a great way of repairing itself though I suppose the next thing to happen is that we will experience a drought just when we need some water for growing plants.

Don’t forget that from now on until end of July, under the Wildlife and Countryside Act you must not cause harm to nesting birds which means not cutting hedges – but there are plenty of other jobs to do now the spring is here so that’s one thing less to worry about!

I’m really not sure what to do first, I want to spray my poultry houses (having moved the birds) for red mite to try and get on top of it before the summer, I want to get into the greenhouse and sow, sow,sow, I need to clean and organise my bee hives and have one ready for a swarm and then there is the little matter of repairing the ravages of the winter such as we now know for sure which roofs leak, which fences are in need of attention and that our drains need some tlc if they are to get through another winter. We’ll also need to replace our boiler which has limped through to the end of the year but I don’t think will go again. And I really, really want a polytunnel. I think this spring is going to be very busy here on our holding and of course we shall want to fit in going to an early show or two – where no doubt we will get new ideas that we want to try! We are looking forward to the RWAS Smallholder and Garden Festival at Builth Wells, Wales on the 15 and 16th May – hope to see many of you there!