Titch the poorly Hen

Titch the last Ex battery Hen has been looking slower, and frailer as the Autumn progressed - not ill exactly but slow moving and tired. 

A few days ago I found her hunched in the run, not wanting to move, with her friend Bunty standing close by.

Top Ginger Hen Babs was not showing any concern though - she was off digging in the newly cleared raised bed!

I decided to bring Titch in for some warmth and care so went off to set up a cat carrier inside. But  when I went back to collect her she was not in the run - and I could not find her anywhere. I looked around the wood but could not see her and it was not until the next day that I found her, caught up in some undergrowth and very chilled. I am amazed she survived outside over night!

As soon as I spotted her I picked Titch up and oh, how light she felt! And she sounded a bit wheezy. So I started her on some Baytril and took her down that evening to see Mike the vet, who gave me more Baytril and said to keep her warm and try and get her to eat.

I have a poorly house Hen at the moment :( Not sure if she will survive, but am doing my best to help her recover. So far she is still alive and looking a little brighter. .

How to draw a Hare - by Jackie Morris

Thanks to Jackie Morris I have managed to draw a recognisable Hare - first time I have ever managed to do a recognisable animal!

It is not much good ( being honest, here!) BUT it looks like a Hare to me and also to my family - so for me that is a huge step forward!

Thank you Jackie for such a great "how to" and I am, yet again, so impressed with your skill and creativity

RIP Nutmeg Hen - who laid down her life in defence of her chicks.

I write this post with enormous sadness but also enormous admiration.

Nutmeg Hen, the elderly "generic ginger hybrid"  hen, all broodiness supposed to be bred out of her, went broody for the very first time a few months back and, as regular readers may remember, I put some fertile eggs under her. And they hatched! 

She was the most attentive Mother Hen I have ever seen, really astonishingly devoted to her two chicks and her devotion showed in their rapid growth -

they look at least two weeks older than they actually are, due to her good feeding and care.



I took this photo of them all on the chicks 7 week birthday, and am very proud of it.

But it is a bittersweet feeling as later that same afternoon I found the two chicks cowering under a bush crying disconsolately for Nutmeg, who was nowhere to be seen or heard. The Younger Hens were squawking and scanning the skies nervously, in a way that I knew meant "airborne trouble" -  they do this for planes, crows, buzzards and hawks in general. The old ex batt Gang Hens (now sadly down to just two members, Babs and Bunty) were muttering worriedly, whilst hiding deep under a Rose of Sharon bush - their favourite place to flee when scared.

I looked around and eventually found a pile of ginger and white feathers near the Broody Ark along with a few black feathers from Blackie the Copper Marans chick.

Nutmeg was gone.

I am guessing from the feathers ( and a bald patch on Blackie's back) that a Buzzard swooped down on Blackie and Nutmeg tried to defend her chick and so was taken, instead.


As I posted on my personal Facebook Wall

"RIP Nutmeg Hen, brave and loyal girl, last surviving member of the original Spice Girl gang of five, survivor of 5 fox attacks, Top Hen who ruled with a velvet claw and a kind "cluck"

who gave up her life today to defend her two chicks."


In the aftermath the chicklets were very distressed, crying out and looking around for Nutmeg, and I had the problem of where to put them to be warm and safe without her.  I could not give them to one of the other hens to foster as hens do not work that way, instead of mothering them, they would attack the chicklets. So the rest of the afternoon was spent re arranging various runs and houses and the chicklets were moved into a large run with the Eglu attached, as it is the most insulated house. 

I think it was one of "our" Buzzards who must have taken Nutmeg  as I heard a lot of commotion earlier on, then went out and found the two chicks calling in distress and no Nutmeg, just the few feathers. All the other hens were all hiding under things and this makes me think Buzzard rather than Fox, as when it is Fox all the hens tend to go up things.


At least the chicklets know how to feed themselves and are so big and strong and well feathered that they are ok without a Hen to brood them any more.

 Nutmeg's legacy of strong, healthy chicklets. But, such a shame :(

h Energy marketplace event, Hereford

Sat 12th Oct was the start of h.Energy week -, a week long (12th - 20th October 2013) celebration of low impact lifestyles in beautiful Herefordshire

I was there doing my Master Composter and Gardener stuff, along with fellow Master Composter Martin.

I actually got to High Town at  8 30 am to set up the stall and spent all day there, manningthe Compost stall, doing a bit of shopping, looking at the other h. Energy stalls and also looking at the usual Sat market stalls

As usual I had display boards, compost samples, leaflets, information, seeds and seed planting stuff, and some games as well as my Bug eye glasses. These were VERY popular!

This is what it looks like to see the world through insect eyes :)

Same place without the bug eye glasses.

Lots of different campaign and information groups were present. Greenpeace were there, seeking support for the Arctic 30, unjustly imprisoned in Russia 

There were a variety of different events on during the day and it was really good to be involved. The hula hooping was excellent!

The h Energy event opened at 10 am and closed at 4 pm but I got there at 8 30 am and by the time I drove the car round to the square and packed up at the end, it was 5.30 pm so a very long day!

But, I spoke to over 70 people and had a really great time promoting composting, organic gardening and sustainable living. I was also given lots of tea and cake to sustain me during the day by the organisers :)

We are also hosting an Open House as part of h Energy so lots of tidying up is going in here!

Apple picking - a bumper harvest!

In common with many who have apple trees, we have a bumper harvest of apples this year

We have been picking them over several days, this week. The platform I got from Argos is really helpful!

Compostman does most of the picking  - he goes up the ladder; I pick from the ground. I also grade the apples and pass him the newly emptied buckets to pick into

The air is scented with appley-ness   as we are surrounded by cider and juicing orchards here. All our neighbours are doing the same as us, although they do it on a much larger scale.

Still, we enjoy how we do it here on our small scale and love to drink the fruits ( ha ha ) of our labours -cider for us and juice for Compostgirl and friends ( we drink the juice as well and it is lovely to be able to give a bottle as a gift, but we prefer cider!)

We are still drinking cider we made from the 2011 harvest and very nice it is as well - 6.5% abv, so a tasty alcoholic tipple, and free!

 So far this week we have picked more than 300 lb of assorted apples - with loads more to come. This should make around 40 bottles of pasteurised juice and more than 30 l of cider, if yields are good. I will also be dehydrating a load and we will be cooking and freezing some as well as making chutney and jelly with the windfalls.

We have also done a swap with a friend - a large quantity of his assorted cider apples for a similar quantity of our eaters and cookers  so our cider this year will be a rather more balanced mixture rather than our usual "whatever we have to hand to juice". We only have one cider apple tree so this arrangement is a great one and I hope we can continue it in future years :)

I have ordered some more bottles from Vigo for juice and washed all our saved wine and juice bottles again, ready to sterilise. Compostman has got down the scratter and press from the loft and I have washed them and the garage is FULL of boxes and buckets and tub trugs of apples.

Just need to make some time in the very busy next week, to do some pressing :)