7 April 2008-04-07
Still no foal – and not much sleep either. It is so much better having a camera in the stable relaying to next to my bed than having to get up and check every two hours but I do still have to wake up regularly to check the (lack of) progress. It’s amazing what ponies get up to during the night. For all those books that tell you that very pregnant mares don’t like down, you’re wrong, they do. They lie down, they get up, they stare out the window, they eat and then they start the whole sequence again. Loudly and with snorting. I can see she is really fed up with being this big and cannot think what to do with herself. The only thing that totally distracts her is her feed (Happyhoof and sugar beet with a few carrots). She does prefer to be outside but I really cannot imagine searching round the field with a torch in the middle of the night to see what is happening so we have to compromise, stable at night and field from 8am until 8pm.
So tonight looks like another long night of checking the screen every hour or so and feeling totally wrecked in the morning. Oh and the other night was not improved by the addition of a spider’s web across the camera. Spiders do look quite large when they sit on small camera lenses and they obscure the view of everything else. I keep removing the web and the spider keeps respinning it. I’m very fond of spiders (and indeed most insects) and have no objection to her sharing the stable but I simply cannot see through her and her web so I have to keep removing it. My mother always said that you should not kill a spider as the webs are ‘hiding the cradle of the baby Jesus’. I’ve never heard that anywhere else and it might just be a convenient way to avoid housework. Has anyone else come across it?
Meanwhile we had some unexpected success with the Old English Game bantams. Mine are an exhibition strain and are very beautiful but useless at breeding. This spring (if you can describe the dismal weather as this), they have laid lots of eggs and had a go at sitting. Rather intermittently I have to say and last weekend I went through the eggs and was just removing them for being rotten much to the annoyance of the two hens co-sitting, when I realised that at the bottom of the pile were some good eggs. So I put them back and on Friday the grey hen hatched off a minute black chick. Because OEG bantam chicks are minute. They are like bumble bees. I have a Fornsham Cottage Ark and you can shut off the laying bit so I did this, excluding her co-sitter, a black OEG. She’s young and she’ll get another chance but in my experience whilst two might sit together quite happily, there can be only one mother and sadly for the black one, the grey hen had won the ‘hatching off chicks’ race. I made sure that the black hen couldn’t get into the house and it actually hasn’t taken her too long to stop being broody;she had lost body weight whilst sitting and I didn’t want a situation where she just carried on and on, getting poorer and poorer. I left the grey hen and the remaining eggs until Saturday evening with a small container of water (one from Regency Poultry that are designed for very small chicks so they cannot drown – you can read Terry Beebe’s final article on raising very small chicks in the June issue of Smallholder out soon), and a handful of wheat for the hen rather than the chicks (they are OK with their egg sacs for 24 hours or so). Both were within reach so she would not get off the eggs. Saturday early evening, I transferred the hen and by now, four small chicks, to a pen that I had got ready, an ark with a compartment that can be closed at night. One egg did not hatch so I disposed of it. By Sunday morning the tiny chicks and hen were in the run, eating the chick crumbs and drinking from the special drinker and they are progressing well. There are three stripy black chicks and a stripy red one. My OEG are grey (Blue), Furness and Spangled plus Black so we shall see what they turn out like.
Saturday saw Mick and I at the Huntingdonshire bee keeping course. This was the third part, hive products (that’s honey, wax and propolis) and bee diseases including varroa. You can read more about varroa in June Smallholder’s Bee Special. It is an increasing problem and requires continual monitoring and action at certain times of the year.
Mick was so carried away by the course that when I said I couldn’t attend the practical session next week, due to a family party, he said he would go. The entire course stared at him, as he had treated them to his views on bees previously, but he is still determined to go. One of the attractions is that the bee keepers are meeting at Monkswood and he’d like to take a look at it. If you go onto the website you will find the following;
CEH Monks Wood is situated in the intensively farmed arable region of East Anglia; and is next to the Monks Wood National Nature Reserve
As part of the ongoing restructuring of CEH, CEH Monks Wood will close on 30 January 2009. Project-based science activities will finish prior to this date. Transferring staff and continuing science will relocate to the retained CEH sites at Lancaster, Wallingford, Edinburgh and Bangor.
Science Focus
Research at CEH Monks Wood is part of the CEH-wide science programmes, covering the fields of Biodiversity, Water, Biogeochemistry, Environmental Informatics, Climate Change and Sustainable Economies.
A main focus at Monks Wood is understanding the processes that control biodiversity, so we can explain and predict how natural systems will be influenced by human activities - such as industry and agriculture
It just makes you wonder doesn’t it? Huge concern at the moment worldwide about pollination and the role of insects in agriculture and how does the UK respond? It closes (sorry restructures) sites that are producing relevant work. How did that happen? In the Summer issue of Smallholder we are going to take a look at the importance of insects, the role of bees and whether they are appreciated enough by the authorities. Life is not getting any easier for these creatures in times of climate change, chemicals, habitat loss and my all time favourite, indiscriminate use of garden pesticides and in particular slug pellets. In the June issue of Smallholder we investigate using beneficial pests in the garden which surely has to be the way ahead.
My own garden has had to take a huge back seat just lately. I’ve only just stopped feeling really ill and coughing and choking does not make you feel like spending time bent double in the greenhouse or garden. I noted tonight, while I was filling up the wild bird feeders, that last year’s wall flowers are in full bloom and the border seems to look very nice without any help from me. I was going to clear it last year for the winter and a gardener friend said to leave it as the foliage would protect the plants through the winter. As a result, it seems to have bloomed all over the place and just needs tidying up rather than ‘sorting’ and there are some nice gaps for bedding plants (er when I finally get round to putting some seeds in the greenhouse). My hanging baskets are legendary because I put all sorts of seeds into them and got the ‘take home’ message from Frosts Garden Centre course – plant them thickly. But as yet the seeds, the compost and the baskets are all in separate places which does not bode well for the summer. I must get on with it.
We haven’t even put our potatoes in yet (is there no end to our hopelessness?) and I was in hospital when I should have planted the peas and beans. I hope our gardening experts are right when they say crops can catch up because they are going to have to gallop along to get into flower and then produce vegetables before next winter. I will let you know.
Mick is now twitching about his hay making equipment – it’s not easy getting it ready round a full time job and as the total age of his tractor, cutter and wuffler is probably twice our combined age, it is a bit of a challenge. But it has been heaven to have so much hay to use this year and we should have some left over for once. It’s been lovely hay too and the ponies have loved it. Normally we have to soak hay to stop them coughing but this has been fine to feed dry, apart from to the Exmoor stallion who had a very bad start in life which means he has a horrendous dust allergy. Even so, only a light sprinkling with water keeps his breathing under control.
Did anyone see New Landowner on Countryfile on Saturday talking about getting started in smallholding?
You know, it’s difficult fitting in smallholding round full time jobs. Sometimes we get, well snappy with each other because there is simply so much to do. People are always coming to the house and saying ‘oh you are lucky’ and yes, we are, very lucky. Lucky to have bought at the right time and to be able to live our dream. But it is hard work especially at certain times of the year. Haymaking is especially stressful as is the middle of winter. I find mid winter difficult because of the short days. No sooner have you fed in the morning and it is time to do the evening round before the light goes. Thank goodness for the summer months ahead! And please let my foal come soon and be healthy!
