Broody at Last????

We may finally have a goose going broody on us but the question marks in my subject title are because she (Black Feather) does not seem at all convinced that she should sit there all day. She announced this possible intention by not coming out of the goose house this morning at 8-ish when I let George the Gander and our other female (Smudge) out and went to shepherd them across to the orchard. She has done this before, mind; she often seems to lay her every-other-night egg very late so you have to leave her sit till she's quite finished and then shepherd her across the 'gap' to find her chums.

'Spare' eggs. Black Feather only needs 12 to sit on.

But today she sat and sat (and also seems to have pulled some of her belly feathers out to line the nest, which is another sign). We wondered if we were on, Day 1 of 31 (-ish). We know that geese, even when in the 'heat' of incubation will leave the nest and go for a wander and a wash for up to 30 minutes so, the way we are currently laid out, we have to leave the goose house door open for her and just keep an eye, as she'd then be completely free range, the big pond, veg growing areas, flower beds etc. All being well she'd only be out for the 30 minutes, so wouldn't be able to do too much damage.

First rose of 2014, a 'Dublin Bay'.

Well, she came off after lunch but then seemed to stay off. I wondered if she was trying to 'talk' to her chums, so at one stage I opened the orchard gate and let them all 'commune' but , no, they all three just wandered about eating the nicer grass outside the orchard and bathing in the big pond. At least I had a chance to nip in and steal the 'spare eggs' again - we have being following Anne's instruction to date mark the eggs and then steal the oldest each day, leaving the nest with only 12. Eventually I got bored with watching them stroll about and shepherded all 3 geese 'home' thinking that Black Feather, on being led in there might see the nest and 'remember' her responsibilities. She did. She went to sit and the other 2 wandered back to the orchard. We saw her off the eggs again later in the afternoon too, so I am worried that she is not yet 100% convinced as a broody. Watch this space, I guess.

Keyhole bed fortified with chicken wire.

At this time of year that all our perennials and the tulips start to emerge from the soil with plenty of young, tender, green shoots, very attractive to chickens. They growing tips are turgid with April rain and quite brittle, so that a chicken pushing through the clump, even if she is hunting grubs rather than greenery, will snap off all your tulips and trample down the new green stuff. We go into defensive mode, and can hear Anne telling us when we first met, that there is a big difference between fencing chickens into an area, and trying to fence them out! My ring of sheep fence round the keyhole bed which worked 100% last year was perceived with scorn this year by the new ladies and I had to add 4 feet of chicken wire on top. It's not beautiful but the galvanised mesh is old and dull and if you squint you can ignore it and see the lovely safe tulips coming into unbroken bud inside.

Liz in a cage. I let her out when she's done enough weeding.

We also decided this year to encircle the entire new raised bed with 40 metres of (4 foot high, 2 inch mesh) chicken wire, in this case supported on canes, just because it was going to be a temporary structure. However, Liz so enjoyed weeding without assistance of the chooks and found some more chicken-damage which we had not spotted, that this encirclement may become permanent. If so, we will probably make it more beautiful, all this fencing is starting to look like Guantanamo Bay. The official story for this picture is that Liz has shut herself in. Some might suspect that I lock her in this cage till she's done enough weeding and then let her out!

Flowering currant (Ribes)

There is not a great deal else going on. Broody Betty shows no sign yet of following Black Feather down the 'broody' road. We chug on with our Bee School - Lesson 5 was last Monday. I have 'Piggy School' on Saturday, my training course for Pig Rearing down in Tipperary. I think I will just leave you with some nice 'macro' pics of garden flowers which are currently doing the honours. Enjoy them.

Vital bee food in April - the humble dandelion. 

A new one on us. Coltsfoot (Tussilago)

Pulmonaria (Lungwort)

Doing very well here in 2014. Primroses.

Chicken Commotion

Tuesday 26^th June is an easier day for us with none of the dramas of the weekend. It's a "soft" morning (i.e. drizzling) so much of it is indoors. The half doors for the utility room get more coats of paint, with Mum applying bright post office red. Dad makes some wholemeal bread using recipe from some friends on the internet (50/50 wholemeal and strong white flour, shorter first rise time, longer proving time and he is delighted when it turns out to be light, elastic and softer than the dense brick he has been creating up to now. Dad digs some more soil out of the piles surrounding the hay-rake-in-a-hedge and discovers (inevitably) more buried plastic bale-wrap sheeting but also (pleasingly) another stash of "sausage" turf. These are olde style, hand-dug peat 'sods' but cut (or reconstituted/extruded?) like thick sausages, 3-4 inches in diameter. These have probably been buried in this shallow grave for 30+ years but hey, peat is peat; it's not going to spoil for a few more years underground, so we bring some in tonight and chuck it on the fire and of course, it dries out and burns. Proper peat-smoke! Very Irish!

An early bit of drama is provided by Ginny the rabbit on Weds 27^th. Dad and I have come downstairs at the usual 06:30 and done the rounds of the livestock, releasing chooks from their shed and rabbits from their hutch. We are back indoors sitting down when we hear a commotion from the chooks. Dad nips round to check and finds Ginny up on her hind legs just outside the chicken run introducing herself to the Lovely Girls and they, having never seen a rabbit before are quite alarmed! Dad is in dressing gown and slippers. There is no way he’s going to catch Ginny (even if he was in running spikes) but Ginny is reasonably steerable by gentle persuasion. If you get behind her you can mush her in the rough direction you need but she’s picked up her skirts and is loving the freedom to run around the acre-age! At one stage she’s up through the allotment pausing to sample cabbage and sprout leaves. She is eventually rounded up. Dad discovers that where I’ve been pulling and and biting on the 2 inch mesh chicken wire, I have made bunny sized holes. He resolves to add a 2^nd layer of one inch mesh as belt and braces. He is kind of glad we do live in a quiet area, not overlooked.

 

We have no TV but Mum and Dad are enjoying evening's entertainments through t'internet with combinations of silly R4 stuff like "The Now Show" and "Sorry I Haven't a Clue", stories like the currently running "Chamomile Lawn" and recently finished "Night Watch" (Terry Pratchett), plus a BBC-shop DVD of the Griff Rhys-Jones series "Britain's Lost Routes". The latter was bought mainly for the Thames Barge episode, but proves to be good throughout. Also a Birthday Present boxed set "Frozen Planet" (Dad can't get enough Attenborough.) When those run out I guess it'll be back to Dad’s current gently slog through ‘improving History book "Ireland Since the Famine" (FSL Lyons).