We have hatched some eggs this spring as a trial. We used eggs from pure breed Cream Legbars and a Ludlow Legbar Cockerel because I love the blue eggs and the Ludlow Legbars have been excellent egg layers, both in terms of quality and reliability. We hatched seven chicks; four hens and three cocks. This is one of the cocks with one of the hens. Two of the hens look like Cream legbars and two like the one in the photo. To date they are laying beautiful blue eggs and should supply us all winter and into next year.
All posts by dumblehole
Sheep Update
We’ve got two small flocks of sheep; a pedigree flock of Coloured Ryelands and another of the white Ryelands. To retain the pedigree of both flocks means that they need to be kept separate during tupping and a separate ram for each flock. To compound things even further we have ram lambs(or tup lambs) that need to be kept away from the ewes so that they can’t mate with them and ewe lams that need to stay away from all the rams as they are too young to be tupped. To make matters even more complicated I decided that the tup lamb we bought for next season is too good not to use this year on a couple of ewes. All in all 5 groups that need to be kept separate from each other. To compound things we’ve only got four fields so it’s a logistical nightmare as they need to move to new ground when they’ve eaten the pasture down. Much use of temporary fencing to split the fields up.
However it’s all gone smoothly so far. Sam our white Ryeland tupped all the white ewes in the first couple of weeks. A couple of the girls he covered again, hopefully they’ve taken this time, we’ll know in 3 weeks. Sherlock has covered all the Coloured Ryelands bar one, Trillian.
She got her name from the ‘Hitch Hiker’s guide to the Galaxy’ as her tag is T42. Ubi our coloured tup lamb has covered three ewes, our two elders Twiggy (always skinny) and Manx (tail was docked very short) plus Snowflake who we bought at the Ryeland show and sale.
You may be wondering how we know when the ewes have been tupped. Each of the rams has a sticky paste of colouring and oil put on his chest. The colour gets transferred to the ewes back when he tups them. We change the colour every 17 days, which enables us to see if the ewe is tupped again. In th
e photo you’ll see most of the ewes have a bright yellow bottom. Yellow was the first colour used. The ewe in the foreground has a greeny coloured bottom, that’s because the second colour used was blue. The last colour we use is red. If they aren’t covered after 3 cycles then it’s not going to happen.
Time to tackle the Massey
The draught control on the Massey isn’t working . It’s the draught control keeps the implement (e.g. plough) at a constant depth independent of the tractor’s ups and downs as it travels over the ground. Very clever system invented by Harry Ferguson some 80 years ago. Anyway mine isn’t working so armed with the workshop manual and a phone, to call a friend, I’ve started to dismantle the Massey. Minor problem the Massey came off the production line in 1960 and so all the nuts and bolts are imperial and all my large spanners are metric. Tracked down some large spanners and I’ve got the offending part off, it’s off to the mechanic tomorrow.
Whilst the tractor is in the shed I’ll try and fix the fuel leaks. Got the fuel tank off to sort the drip from the tap and clean out 50 years of muck. Need a few washers to sort the rest of the leaks out, all in all no biggy. As you can imagine the old girl is not looking at her best.
3 weeks old
The piglets are scampering about sticking their snouts into everything. One escapee managed to duck under the electric and through the stock wire. We couldn’t find it and with the light fading we had to leave it to it’s own devices. ‘It should find it’s way back, that’s what piglets do’ we told ourselves!
Headcount check at first light, 8 are you sure? After a double and triple check all eight present and correct. Sultana remains her laid back self keeping the little ones and herself fed.
The most adventurous piglet has a white blaze on it’s forehead shaped like Harry Potter’s scar. Not a good name as she’s a gilt, maybe we’ll shorten it to ‘HP’.
Inquisitive little fella (video)
Tea Time (Video)
Kiwi’s back with us, she’s been away for the last 5 weeks with the boar, hopefully she should farrow in February. Her last litter are coming on well, they’re just about 4 months now which is when they get boisterous, they’re like delinquent teenagers pushing and shoving each other. Pigs have a talent for turning good grazing into a mud bath in double quick time. These Six are black belt ninjas hopefully we can keep them there for another month and then it’s off to the butcher.
One Week Old
Sultana’s litter is a week old and pretty lazy if you ask me. Only two have come out of the ark, the rest are happy to stay inside all warm and cosy and wait for Sultana. We think the two adventurous ones are the same two that were out on day one. Today however another two have braved the outside world, take a look at the video.
Sad news unfortunately we lost one piglet yesterday, we think Sultana sat on it, so we’re down to eight. The others are doing well though, fingers crossed.
Sultana has her first litter
Sultana, had 9 piglets yesterday. All fit and well. Two ventured out of the ark somehow and I found them under huddled up together underneath it. It’s Sultana’s first litter and she’s chilled about the whole event.
Scaring the crows
In April we had a serious problem with crows or magpies stealing eggs from one of the hen houses. So out of desperation and a desire not to put a net over the whole run (33m x 16m) I decided to recycle some old clothes. As a friend said “that’s really scary but not the best scarecrow I’ve seen.” Sadly the crows agreed with her and I then resorted to using a radio tuned to BBC radio 4. That stopped their thieving activities!
Mike’s improved hen house
Mike has made some houses with plywood but then decided to make a ‘pretty’ one and this is it. The hens have been underwhelmed but are gradually getting used to it. It is designed for large hens and we have used it for our pure breed hens (Welsommers, Light Sussex and Cream Legbars), although the smaller Ludlow Legbar hybrids like laying their eggs in it even though it’s not their house. They even fly over the fencing to get to it, so it has an appeal that eludes us.
Dumblehole 