All go at Compost Mansions!

Yesterday it was all go at Compost Mansions!

I have been looking at the Broody Ark for the last few days and thinking the ever growing chicks have less and less room in it and wondering what to do.

I can't let them out to free range in the Orchard as they are too small and vulnerable to the cats catching them:- at least 2 of our cats happily catch pheasant chicks each year and the Sweetie Six DO look just like pheasants at the moment!

The Orchard is fenced off with electric fence wire, but it isn't electrified, so is not a barrier to the cats.

I DO let the Chicks and Sweetiepie out regularly throughout the day; I take a mug of tea and drink it whilst they all have 10 - 15 mins roam around and also if I am doing any chore in the general area of the Orchard I let them out.

BUT we decided the time had come to DO SOMETHING about it all. Compostman is making a bigger run for them, but in the meantime I have had a swap around of all the hens and the hen houses.

We moved the Eglu to a fresh patch in the Orchard and I have put Sweetie and the Sweetie Six in there;

It has a much bigger and taller run which allows the chicks to stretch up and flap around much more!











This has displaced Babs and Goldie, but I decided not to just let them take their chances in Cluckingham Palace with all the others: I decided, instead, to break up the group so as to " wrong foot" the pecking order...

So Genghis and Henny ( main culprits) have been moved into the Broody Ark and Babs and Goldie have gone in with Ginger, Attilla and Cathy.

I HOPE that this will give them time to settle down in Cluckingham Palace and let Henny get over being such a bully!

Someone asked me recently how I kept the food dry in the feeders, well I have a tarpaulin fixed over the end of each run which keeps the rain off the food and provides some shelter for the girls.

A chilly night

We had a temperature of 1 C last night at about 1 am, but then a lot of cloud came over and warmed things up! So no frost...but its only a matter of time...

As a result I have harvested today lots of stuff which will spoil if it gets below freezing outside, just in case...and I couldn't resist posting some pictures!


In the middle are Turk Turban squashes, behind are some shallots which were drying in the polytunnel, also the last of the peppers and tomatos. The few apples were picked when I went out to the hens and what is left of the Sweetcorn harvest.


The colours on this Turks Turban! I love these and grow them every year. They are good to eat and keep very well also!

Nearly all the sweetcorn is like this to a greater or lesser extent, it tastes delicious BUT the kernels have only ripened part way up...lask of sun because of the weather I suspect.

Such fabulous colours! an autumnal palette....

September produce round up

I decided ( why?) to tot up all the stuff I have picked and weighed from the garden in the last month...its NOT an exhaustive list ( though growing and picking it was a bit exhausting!)

but I feel like doing it so just move on a page if you are not interested!

Courgettes 30 Kg
Tomatoes 16 Kg
Purple Beans 20 Kg
Green Beans 10 Kg
Peppers 4 Kg
Aubergines 4 Kg
Marrows 6 Kg
Sweetcorn 8 cobs

plus assorted herbs, salads, spinach etc...

AND Apples, but I am counting those in the 100 Kg plus range !

Eggs ...138

Thats a LOT of produce! I need to expand the stuff I grow so we have more autumn harvest carrots, turnips and salads. I also now need to get the garlic, overwintering onions and broad beans in !

It never really stops you know.

September egg round up

Well another month has gone by at Compost Mansions and I shall bore you all witless with my egg tally ;-))


Henny has laid EVEN fewer this month, she is no longer broody but has begun to moult so has laid only 19 eggs in September ( and none during the last week)
Ginger continues to lay well, she laid 24 eggs but in the last few days she, too has gone into moult.

Attila and Cathy have laid 22 each, not bad especially Cathy as she is still a baldy girl and an ex batt as well!

Sweetipie is too busy being a good mum to the Sweetie Six to bother with egg laying and Genghis Hen is too silly.......and has laid precisely NO eggs at all......

But yet again, the absolute stars of the Eglu are Babs and Goldie! yep the new girls laid the most eggs! Babs laid 25 ( and remember she WAS ill the first week and went off lay for a few days whilst on the antibiotics) and Goldie laid a magnificent 28 eggs out of a possible 30!

THANK you all girls, you are all a bit of a trial sometimes but I wouldn't be without you!

Hmm where has the week ( and September!) gone?

Hmm where has the week ( and September!) gone?

It hardly seems a few days since I posted a Mabon related post....(!)

I have been very busy preparing for my second Forest School session as Leader with Year 1 children from my local Primary School...the first session was SUCH fun! We played hiding games in the copse and made wood cookies...slices of wood ( from our wood at home...Cherry actually!) which the children decorated and hung around their necks, learning to tie a reef knot in the process.... :-)) I LOVE doing this sort of thing with children, showing them how they can learn to do things outdoors, helping them to learn about the wonders of our beautiful world..... :-))))

Unfortunately, however, I have aggrevated a longstanding back injury and have been considerably incapacitated all this week, JUST when I need to be at my most efficient and busy, harvesting, preserving and generally preparing everything for the soon to come winter months! I guess moving bedroom furniture around was NOT the brightest idea I have had recently.....( roll eyes...)

Compostman is much improved after his operation BUT still has 3 weeks minimum before he can go back to anything like "normal" levels of a activity/lifting etc. So I am still on "lifting stuff " duty, however much he protests I am *NOT* letting him undo all the good the operation will eventually do him, by letting him lift stuff before he should.

At the moment we are picking the apples and it means *I* am having to do all the lifting of the full big baskets of apples we have just picked..ow ow ow my aching back!

Ah well....I can rest in a few weeks time as by then the apples will have been stored ( if blemish free), turned into chutney, cider, dried or eaten and any left will be on the ground and the Hens will be eating them ( they LOVE Apples!)

Its all go here at this time of year!