Far Lands

I've finished digging the second tree nursery bed, but only with a little help from Sarah. I unearthed a monster, and then together we pulled it out. I think it weighs 200-250kgs. It is ridiculously heavy. Meanwhile in the hatchery it is Day 18 . . . hopefully things are about to get interesting. The first sign is the sound of pipping which is the noise made by a chick as it starts to break into the air sac at the flatter end of the egg. It then starts to breathe with its lungs and then starts to break out through the shell and into the world! The egg tooth that chicks use for pipping drops off soon after they emerge. All quiet at the moment . . .

. . . and we're getting nervous. Since the 2 broken eggs I have stopped lifting her (our broody bantam who is now sitting on 6 eggs) off her nest in the mornings. I was doing this to ensure that she ate and drank. Now, however, I heap her food in such a way that I can tell whether she has eaten any. The other sign is whether she has left some droppings. If she has I know she has at least stretched her legs! Incidentally, broody poop is different to normal poop. In the photo below the 3 poop balls on the left are normal (carefully collected from the chicken house and brought over for comparison purposes to the Hatchery), whereas the one on the right is broody poop - runny and browner. I knew you'd like it!

In March 2012 we planted 20 hazel hedging trees aiming to coppice them and become self-sufficient in pea and bean sticks etc. A friend from the NFG (Northern Fruit Group) suggested reducing every other plant to a stool to encourage useful (ie straight) growth.  So, this year we have reduced 4 plants - some of the growth is 8 feet long but much of it is not that straight. On each stool we have left nothing except small and ramrod-straight new growth. The plan in subsequent years is to reduce a similar number of trees. And so to the hatchery . . . . . . sadly, when I took our broody bantam off the eggs to eat something I found that 2 eggs were broken. I removed them, cleaned up and put her back. So, she is now sitting on 6 eggs. She is over half-way (today is Day 11 of 21) and we are getting increasingly excited / nervous! On inspecting the eggs I found nothing much left in one of them - just some yoke - but in the second one I found the foetus. In the picture below it is the

(Not Sarah.) But our white bantam. Having sworn at her for years about being a broody cow, we are now delighted. So, she went broody on Friday, and on Saturday we prepared the Hatchery for her. (The Turkey House in another life.) Scrubbed it and added a nesting box. On Saturday evening at dusk we moved her in. Along with 5 eggs. And then on Sunday we added 3 more eggs. (They are all Sussex eggs as we don't want some random bantam-Sussex breed.) And now she just sits there, impressively plumped-up, and appearing completely comatose. She does have jobs though - she has to ensure that all the eggs are warm enough and she moves them about to do this. She also turns them several times a day to ensure that the developing embryo does not stick to the shell and cause abnormal growth. In the mornings I lift her off, ensure she eats something, and check that she has not rejected any of the eggs (ie that she can fit 8 underneath her). In 21 days (Easter weekend) we shall see!

Regular readers will know the background (blogs 60, 116, 117) but briefly . . . in 2012 I bud grafted a pear ( Beurre Hardy ) onto our Hawthorn hedge. Sarah said that she would eat her hat if it grew. Well, it did grow but Sarah changed her story to eating her hat if it grew a pear. Well, this year (2 years old from when it started growing in May 2013) it's got fruit buds! I've pruned it to two good laterals and tied them down to encourage more horizontal growth. Of course, fruit buds do not necessarily mean fruit but we will see . . .

Our rose-garden is like a speed-boat - it seems a great thing to have but actually the ownership is a great deal of mither (that's hassle for you Southerners). For a speed-boat that means painting, licensing, storing, lugging about, (even) feeling that you should use it etc. For a rose-garden it means weeding and after 3 complete weeds last year, we said 'enough was enough'. So, this weekend we weeded it for the last time (we hope), manured the existing roses and then laid down a weatherproof membrane and covered it in wood chipping. More roses (thank you, Mum) arrive next week. We shall see if it works.