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Liz WrightLiz Wright is Editor of Smallholder Magazine, which she compiles from her smallholding in the Cambridgeshire Fens.  In her spare time, as well as keeping bees and growing fruit and veg, she works with her Exmoor ponies, which include a stallion, and sometimes even gets to ride her Welsh cob.  She also covers Cambridgeshire for the Donkey Sanctuary, which is based in Sidmouth.  She's a parish councillor and a school governor for a local secondary school and her friends say that she clearly spends more time outside than inside to judge by the state of her unfortunate house!  Liz says she doesn't mind if one of them offers to clean it for her but so far no one has!  Liz really enjoys visiting other landscapes and is very fond of Wales where she has always felt very welcome during her time of involvement with the RWAS Smallholder and Garden Festival held in May.   Her really big vice is second hand books - she collects farming and gardening books from the pre and post war years - and sadly ebay has fuelled this rather space occupying habit so that the books now have more room than the family!

This picture shows Liz with Duckle.  Her book, Choosing and Keeping Ducks and Geese (available from Amazon), is dedicated to Duckle.

An archive of Liz's articles is available.  Read on for her latest news...

 

March 2010

Spring Time Promises

March doesn’t always deliver weather wise but the clocks go forward on the 28th and British Summertime begins which has to be a positive step forwards.  At least the days are longer and lighter and despite chilly weather and sometimes snow (I know how to be cheerful!) plant life, bird life and animal life begins to wake up and think about a new breeding season. 

My ducks have not yet come into lay which I would have expected them to usually but it has been so very cold and dark.   It’s their first year and they are Abacott Rangers, bred in the mid twentieth century to challenge the Khaki Campbell as a meat/egg bird (dual purpose).  Although they are amazingly attractive with their brown and fawn hoods and silver neck rings, the breed didn’t really get near the impressive egg laying performance of the Campbell but still do have a respectable expectation of around 200 plus eggs in a season.  So they need to get going if they are going to achieve this!

My elderly hens began to lay in January and then were clearly frightened off by the bad weather and have just come back into lay, two eggs a day from four, four year old hybrid hens which I don’t think is bad, and the young bantams are laying too now but their eggs are a bit difficult to find.  They like to lay in the hay shed but I am neither super athletic or thin these days and so tracking these eggs down is getting more difficult.   The down side is that if I don’t, the bundle of fluff that laid them (Silkie cross) will return with several more bundles of fluff behind her – and she may do this two or three times a year.

In the April issue of Smallholder magazine out now, we are looking at how to take care of a broody hen and her chicks (www.smallholder.co.uk).

Chicks are very appealing but you really can have too many of them and then there is the down side of dealing with the cockerels.  I reckon that most hatches are half cockerels and it’s not kind to pass them on in sales or as pets so they have to be despatched as quickly and humanely as possible.  If you can’t do this then get someone to help you do it and do it at night when they have gone to roost as chasing them round is terrifying for them.  I hate it, really hate it, but you cannot have too  many cockerels running around as they do injure the hens as do drakes with ducks – in fact drakes can and do kill ducks through over mating.  Neck dislocation with pre stunning is best but go on to the Humane Slaughter Society website for practical advice - www.hsa.org.uk.  They have a booklet that covers all aspects.

At this time of the year I like to do a thorough spring clean with the poultry.   Now is the time to get on top of red mite – move the poultry temporarily and spray the housing inside and out after a thorough clean and disinfect – there are some excellent products on the market for this.  Mend any housing – foxes will be hungry with cubs soon and so housing needs to be fox proof.   If you are hatching eggs or encouraging broodies make sure you have your chick penning or broody pen ready and waiting.   You’ll need to be prepared with heat lamps if hatching without a broody and you’ll need chick drinkers that are safe, in that they cannot get into them and get wet or drown.  You’ll also need chick feeders – have more than you think necessary as there is always a pecking order and the weaker chicks won’t get any food if you don’t. 

Watch out for overheating – they try to get away from the heat source – and chilling – they huddle together and the faeces get sticky round their bums.  Actually, do watch out for that because worse case scenario is that they cannot pass any faeces because of the cap over the opening.

I like to put a soluble vitamin into the water of a sitting broody and into the water every few days for my top laying hens as well as, of course, choosing an appropriate feed such as laying hen, duck breeder, chick crumbs – whatever the situation there will be a balanced ration to keep the bird healthy.  Do not expect poultry to live solely from wheat and scraps unless they are a very hardy pure breed and you are not expecting many eggs.

The bird has as many eggs as its ever going to lay minutely within its body and to bring them all to fruition, it needs good nutrition with correct vitamins and minerals. Free range will help them to find inverterbrates especially in the case of ducks but it won’t compensate for an inadequate diet.  Geese require good, clean grass that is not so long that it balls up within their gizzard.  All poultry requires grit for the gizzard (don’t use oyster shell).   If runs are a mess after the winter then close them and provide an alternative – don’t allow poultry to paddle on and on in a dirty, grass- and weed-free run. 

I also like to check for scaly leg and apply one of the new products on the market if there is any sign of it and to sort out a louse powder that can either be dusted on the bird or put in the nest box (check the label for correct useage).

Finally consult your vet or SQP in branch about worming and follow their advice. It’s possible now to obtain comparatively small amounts of poultry wormer.

Then there is the problem of what to do with all those eggs……  Make sure you store them in a cool, dry place and in date order.  They do keep for ages and you can pickle and even freeze to use for cooking if you remove the shells.  There are no regulations to stop you selling at your gate (if you don’t grade them) or to your friends but you do have a responsibility to sell safely; that is clean, uncracked eggs that are fresh and not stale so it’s a good idea to keep some records. Find egg boxes, complete with an explanation of grading codes inside the lids, here.

Otherwise you may think you will start to look like an egg as we do at this time of the year having a minimum of two for breakfast and then perhaps some for dinner as well.  Thank goodness it’s now thought there is no link with increased cholesterol! (I’m told that breaking one on your hair and allowing it to sink in is a great conditioner but I haven’t actually tried that yet!).

Words and photographs by Liz Wright.
Liz's latest books, Keeping Pet Ducks and Self-sufficiency: A Practical Guide for Modern Living will be published in the Spring.  They are available to pre-order from Amazon.

 


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