New digs for the pigs

The tools ready for the job in hand

We should have guessed that our plot to move Porky Pig into a separate area in the run wouldn’t quite go according to plan… On Saturday afternoon, we set to work sectioning off a portion of the land with posts about two thirds of way down its length. As we already had stock fence all around it, only strands of electric wire were necessary to segregate the well-fed porcine creature from his smaller siblings.

After sliding about in the quagmire-like conditions, James fixed the partition in place. As luck would have it, one of his customers was keen to re-home a small ark: the perfect dwelling for Porky, and James brought it back in a truck from work last Friday. With lashings of straw lining it and providing a veritable welcome mat by the entrance we just needed to perform the simple task of luring said pig into the bachelor-style pad.

The straw sticks to the mud and pig droppings on James’s boots a treat

However, what we didn’t reckon on was a distinct stubbornness and suspicion on the part of Porky. Not only was he not that peckish – we had drip-fed them during the afternoon in order to avoid getting bitten as we walked around their run – but he seemed to smell a rat. Whenever we shook the jar of pig nuts under his nose in a bid to draw him over to the new dwelling, he stood stock-still and refused to budge. The slimmest of our trio, Bully Pig (can’t help feeling now that this is a misnomer; we judged his nature too early on!), however, scampered in without a hitch – no doubt keen to enjoy a portion of food in the absence of Porky to knock him out of the way.

So, after a little debate, we decided to settle for the situation – at least it was a chance to fatten up the little guy. James then made a corrugated-iron enclosure off the main gate to the run so he could siphon-off Naughty pig for a cheeky extra portion of food. Seeing that Porky wants to stay put, this has proved quite an easy operation – apart from when, living up to his name, Naughty leapt over the enclosure to explore the garden. Now James keeps him company while he dines so that the escapee doesn’t get the chance to forage further afield once he’s finished his meal. So, hopefully, we’ll have three equally sized porkers by the end of the month.

Elsewhere at the Smallholdings, our chicken flock is diminishing, not due to Marek’s disease, which seems to have been killed off by the properly cold weather just before Christmas, but the sheer old age of some of our trusty and productive brown hens. We’re resisting the urge to draft in new girls until the Henmobile launched. Just a few jobs left to do on that, so after the recent distraction of separating the pigs, we’ll be back on the case.

Happy weekends all!

The joy of scrumping

The pigs have done very nicely out of the hundreds of apples friends and family members have donated to us over the past few months. The trio have benefitted from at least two each every day (and, ultimately, we believe this also gives their pork a sweet flavour) until the last couple of weeks when supplies have started to dry up and the lower parts of trees are bare of fruit. So when we used James’ work pick-up truck to collect straw from a local farm the other day, he seized the opportunity to drive down a nearby lane and stand on top of the bales to access those otherwise out-of-reach loaded branches. We gathered a fantastic haul – and attracted some startled looks from passers by.

The act of scrumping is rather moreish once you start, isn’t it? I suppose it gives us a sense of self-sufficiency and connects us to our ancestors to whom it was common practice. James and I picked up some lovely lengths of holly complete with berries on Sunday for use in our Christmas wreath this weekend and felt a similar enjoyment in the simple activity.

Odd how some years are great for certain fruits and terrible for others. There was barely a single acorn to give the pigs this autumn, but last year they feasted on them. Curiouser and curiouser. Has anyone else been foraging on behalf of their livestock? Would love to know what other wild foods pigs and chickens enjoy. In the meantime, happy weekends all.

Poultry in motion

Why is watching chickens so relaxing? No matter what else is on your mind, it seems that just a few minutes spent in their company dispels any other thoughts. Their gentle movements during activities such as eating, scratching about, preening, dust-bathing and, of course, laying, somehow mesmerise us, while the range of cooing and clucking sounds are surprisingly soothing. Is it because the sheer simplicity of their behaviour and purpose contrasts so starkly with those of our modern, complicated lifestyles?

Lavender cuckoo Araucana Margot is now a firmly established character at The Smallholdings

Whatever it is about observing these charming birds, it works a treat. Perhaps time with a flock could be made available on prescription. Or as part of British Airways new in-flight entertainment initiative Slow TV, it could treat its long-haul passengers to videos of hens carrying on with their daily business. Currently, it includes a seven-hour train journey through Norway with footage of the landscape, villages and towns filmed from the side of a carriage, someone knitting and garden birds feeding. I’m pretty sure that my amateur efforts would end up on the cutting room floor, but I thought I’d share them with my fellow poultry enthusiasts here.

I still harbour ambitions to one day set up a hen-cam to record them while we’re absent – it would be fascinating to see if there’s a difference in the way they interact without humans around. We could also catch on camera whatever creature is gnawing holes in our chicken wire fences. We suspect it’s a fox wanting to feed cubs, but haven’t had this problem before due to, we think, the scent of our three dogs around the plot. Anyone else under siege at the moment?

The great Araucana acquisition

Our little lavender lad – buy four chickens, get one free

Mission accomplished. We’ve now found a fellow lady Araucana to keep Audrey company, with the help of blog follower Karen, who recently kindly introduced me to the breeder via Preloved (thank you, Karen!), and a browse on the British Araucana Club. Both websites pointed me in the direction of an enthusiast based on the edge of a Suffolk village near Newmarket. So off James and I drove (via one of our favourite market towns, improbably pretty and thriving Clare) with a cardboard box to collect the pure-breed beauty. We arrived at Wendy and Alan’s delightful smallholding to see an impressive collection of fancy fowl divided into a variety of pens and runs.

Wendy with a black Araucana

There were Malaysian Serama bantams and pretty Marans running about the place as well as dozens of lavender, black and white Araucanas at different ages. Wendy showed us to our lavender cuckoo girl, who has a pretty stripe through her plumage, like her namesake, and we were smitten. Naturally, we took up Wendy’s offer of showing us around the other pens (we love to learn about fellow henkeepers’ set-ups) and were next introduced to the black Araucanas with their iridescent feathers and elaborate headgear, as is true to type. Five minutes later and we’d chosen three young point-of-lay ladies. Moments later and we’d fallen head-over-heels with a sweet seven-week old cockerel, who – being surplus to requirements – was thrown in for free. Those Araucanas are so moreish! We stopped at a total of five (having intended only to buy one chicken!) – and needed to borrow Wendy and Alan’s proper plastic poultry crate in order to transport them.

Our three ladies in black

Once we reached home, we placed them all in the dog kennel and run until we could clip their flight feathers and settle them into their respective new residences under the cover of darkness. Not only are they most docile and therefore easy to handle at night, but if the incomers are already settled into the coop when the others wake up in the morning they are generally thought to be more readily accepted. Unfortunately, any chicken introduction generally results in the youngsters getting a bit of a hammering – and squawking and mounting – as the pecking order re-establishes itself. And this one was no different: on Sunday it was all kicking off.

We also took the opportunity to introduce our two Ixworth pullets (naturally, there are twice as many cockerels from our brood) that we hatched out to the gang of layers down the end of the garden

We decided to keep the tiny young cockerel in a separate coop to give him a chance to get a little bigger before he faces the rest of the flock.

Our fledgeling cockerel

With him and our own homegrown Ixworth boys we like to think we’ve laid the foundations of a future breeding programme, which may even see us attempt to mix East Anglia (where the latter originates) with South America (homeland of Audrey and our five newbies). An Ixworth x Araucana anyone?

Love at first sight: Audrey and her new mate were inseparable as soon as they were introduced. More about that next week…

Confessions of a poultry fancier

 

One of our White Star hyrbrids enjoying the June sunshine

I’m still on a lonely hearts-style quest to find Audrey a fellow lady companion. It’s highlighted that a) there’s definitely a gap in the market for Araucana breeders in East Anglia, and b) To my horror, I’m a bit of a poultry fancier, ie quite fussy about the look of our new recruit. When it comes to hens I thought I was pretty laid back. But this week I’ve surprised myself by reeling off a list of must-have criteria that I would usually guffaw at. It reads…

– Barely visible pea comb
– Fully crested head
– Plenty of muffling around the face
– Upright tail

I made this alarming self-discovery last weekend when I was fully prepared to drive beyond Ipswich, around an hour from the Smallholdings, to collect a ‘Red Splash’ (ginger and white) pullet that I’d tracked down on the internet until her picture came through on an email from the breeder. The said bird had none of the features that I now realise I adore in Audrey – crucially, it was missing the pom-pom or top-knot.

Audrey sunning herself among the dandelions

I’m sure I would have come to love her once she settled in, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to drive all that way for a chicken that I wasn’t smitten with. I sheepishly replied to the owner and continued my search. I’m now crossing my fingers that I’ll be able to collect a lavender number located in Newmarket – which ticks all the boxes – this weekend, but the breeders haven’t yet committed to selling her. If the purchase falls through, I’m tempted to hold out until James and I visit Chagford in Devon at the end of the month when we could make a trip to see Gillian Dixon at South Yeo Farm East near Okehampton, the origin of our young Ixworth flock, as she also breeds Araucanas. Are there any other henkeepers out there on similar chicken crusades?

James has been strimming the nettles that have almost taken over the inner chicken run. We hope that by keeping them clear we can encourage the grass to grow back (note our German Shepherd Darcy trying to blend in with the flock, top right)

Gorgeous, fun-loving white hen seeks fellow lady Araucana for a lifetime of companionship and free-ranging

Following the loss of Mabel last week, Audrey’s been living alone, which is far from ideal, so I’ve begun a search for a hen of her breed with whom she can cohabit. It’s not so much that she could only be with a fellow Araucana, but that – from our limited experience – they are so docile and sweet-natured that we think one of her fellow kind is likely to be the best match. However, I’ve also heard that Silkies have gentle natures and, no doubt, other henkeepers could suggest similar types with which Audrey is likely to have a harmonious friendship (if you have any suggestions, please get in touch). So far, it seems Araucanas are few and far between in our patch. Being Essex-based, I am looking in Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire or Kent, but am beginning to think I need to widen my search. If anyone knows of an Araucana pullet or hen for sale in the area or slightly further afield, please could you let me know? Either by commenting on this blog or Tweeting @CLchick – Audrey and I will be most grateful.

Audrey (left) and her mate Mabel, who died last week (note German Shepherd Darcy’s legs in the background)

Acquisitions are the theme of the week on the Smallholdings, as we’ve also been plotting our next porcine purchase and will again, introduce the weaners to the smallholding in late summer/autumn when we can feed them plenty of acorns and apples. We’re thinking of buying three, rather than just a pair as we did last time, and trying out two Oxford Sandy & Blacks (OSB) with one Gloucestershire Old Spot. And both happen to be classified as minority types on the Rare Breeds Survival Trust Watchlist, which is even more reason to keep them. Although we were delighted with the Old Spots and had high praise for their meat, I’m rather smitten with OSBs, affectionately called Plum Pudding pigs – and met some more fine examples at Walnuts Farm (featured in a Country Living series this year) last week – so thought this way we coud do a compare and contrast, both in terms of the animals’ temperament and their meat. I’ve since contacted a breeder nearby who confirmed this morning that he is expecting piglets any day now and invited us to visit once they’re born. Irresistible, no?

A somewhat portly Oxford Sandy & Black piglet

The Full English

The bacon has arrived! One month after we picked up the pork chops, sausages and belly from our two Gloucestershire Old Spots, during which time it has been cured and smoked, the rashers were ready for collection. James declared that we are ‘bacon-rich’ after he picked up the giant box of magnificent-looking packs of streaky and back. There’s enough to sell and we’ll probably be self-sufficient in pork meat for the rest of the year. But the most exciting aspect of collecting the goods was receiving the compliments of the butcher-cum-farm shop owner who processed it for us – she even compared the quality to that of her own pigs. And this made James’s month. I’ve taken two large bagfuls into Country Living HQ for those colleagues who placed orders and today I am heading in with both eggs and bacon! I haven’t organised the breakfast deliveries I dreamed up months ago when we first took on our pair of Old Spots, but all we need is someone to be growing mushrooms and for CL’s Jackie to bake some of her wonderful artisan loaves and we’d be able to offer up a full English.

Our other project – Operation Hatch – is going well. I’m weaning our little chick (in the short video above) and onto more of the chick crumb that his older siblings are devouring at a rapid rate in the hope that he’ll increase in size. In the other brooder, I increasingly wonder if all five of the bigger chicks are cockerels. They’re ferocious eaters and showing signs of extreme competitiveness in the brooder – knocking each other out of the way to get some hard-boiled egg (don’t get me wrong – they may be boisterous, but they’re also incredibly cute). Call me sexist, but I’d say this is more likely to be male behaviour. Any thoughts?

Khaki eggs and new recruits

Mabel’s first egg of the season

Hurrah! At last, it’s a full house when it comes to laying. Little Araucana Mabel has joined forces with her sister Audrey and is now producing her exquisite pale khaki eggs, every other day. I know you’re not supposed to have your favourites, but both James and I are rather partial to these sweet little offerings. Their shells are stunning, of course, and the yolks are huge compared with the white. I had one – poached, naturally – for my tea last night. Well-worth the six-month wait.

Another lovely occurrence this week was seeing the girls before we headed out to work. It’s now light at 6am so when we open the pop-hole to let them out they emerge to greet us rather than staying in the warmth of their coop until long after we’ve left home.

Audrey greets me with her lovely chirruping tones

Regarding new recruits, I’m hoping to hear back from the Rare Breeds Survival Trust about Ixworth chickens (James is keen to start a table-and-laying flock) and my search for Marsh Daisy hen is proving tricky. Fellow blogger Nessa got in touch this week to say that she keeps the delightfully named Scots Dumpy. Here is a list: Ancona, Andalusian, Australorp, British Faverolles, Brussbar, Buff Orpington, Campine, Cochin, Cream Legbar, Croad Langshan, Derbyshire Redcap, Dorking, Hamburgh, Indian Game, Ixworth, Legbar, Leghorn, Malay, Marsh Daisy, Minorca, Modern Game, Modern Langshan, Nankin, Norfolk Grey, North Holland Blue, Old English Game, Old English, Pheasant Fowl, Orpington (non Buff), Rhodebar, Rosecomb, Rumpless Game, Scots Dumpy, Scots Grey, Sebright, Spanish, Sultan, Sussex and Welbar. Take your pick!

I must also pay tribute to our wonderful hybrid flock. Felt sorry for them at the weekend – just when they thought winter was on its way out…

Limited edition hens and eggs

At last. I lifted up the nesting box on Sunday and discovered a stunning pale-blue egg. More than a fortnight later than usual – and is traditional for pure breeds like our lovely Araucanas who are meant to begin laying again around Valentine’s Day – it was even more keenly anticipated than in previous years.

A slightly rough shell suggested production was a tad rusty after the long autumn and winter period off and since then we’ve had some smoother offerings. But never mind the packaging – the beautifully orange, large yolk more than made up for this. As soon as I saw it I knew which of the girls had laid – a rounder shape and deeper blue told me straightaway that it was Audrey’s. Mabel still hasn’t followed suit sadly, but I’m hoping any day now that her diminutive, pointier, paler eggs will be waiting for collection in the nesting box.

It’s that time of year again when drafting in some new birds is most tempting. The flock of hybrids are doing great – I’ve another dozen eggs to sell today – but we’d like some more pet chickens like the Araucanas. I’ve had my eye on a pair of Silkies for a while now, but during my research for an article I’m writing on rare livestock breeds (see the June issue of Country Living, on sale 3 May!), that I realised I should be seeking out some of those endangered native kinds and helping their survival (see the list from the Rare Breeds Survival Trust by clicking here). The Marsh Daisy (pictured below), developed in Lancashire in the 19th century,  is one of those most under threat. Of course, the trouble is that obtaining hens of this kind is difficult due to their scarcity. I’ve emailed the Marsh Daisy Breed Society secretary and am hoping she can suggest a source. Anyone else keeping rare breed chickens?