Farming Friends

Butterflies seen in July and August on and around my farm are;

Peacock Butterfly

Comma Butterfly

Wall Brown

Red Admiral

Cabbage White

Small Tortoiseshell

Speckled Wood

TopVeg have started a name the tool competition, so can you name this tool?

I had two guesses and both were not correct and I have even tried searching for the tool on the internet but couldn’t find it. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack! Anyway I am intrigued to find out what this tool is called and what it was used for, so if you know, have a go!

During the dog chasing my hen and guinea fowl incident on Tuesday, one of the offending dog walkers claimed that there was nothing to worry about when her dog chased my poultry as they were only hens and we were going to eat them anyway.

I personally feel that the dog walkers comment on Tuesday was both disrespectful and unjustified not to mention the fact that the behaviour of her animal was inappropriate and unlawful. The Countryside Code states that, “By law, you must control your dog so that it does not disturb or scare farm animals or wildlife.” Being chased, pinned down and having your feathers pulled out would frighten any human, (if we had feathers, that is!) let alone a bird.

Since this incident I have been wondering just how many people have the same attitude as the dog walker.  (more…)

Yesterday my guinea fowl and Hatty the hen were chased by dogs. By the time I arrived on the scene, as I had been recuperating in bed from a 24 hour sickness bug, 26 free ranging guinea fowl and Hatty the hen were scattered all over the farmyard.

Pasting up on keets is when the keets droppings get attached to the vent area which if not dealt with can quickly form into large clumps. If the clumps are not removed the keets will not be able to pass their droppings from their body and this can result in the keets dying.

Three of the nine guinea fowl keets from the last hatch became pasted up and although I removed the attached clumps from the three keets, only two of the keets have survived. I feel so sorry for this poor little keet.

It is very important to regularly check the keet’s vents are not pasting up and re check once clump are removed that the pasting up does not recurr. I have found that if you do not remove all of the droppings then the pasting up often returns.

Signs to look out for. (more…)

In June I was lucky enough to visit the Farming Memories website written by John (Farmer Giles) where I was able to look at John’s old farming photographs, find out about traditional farming methods and read stories of John’s farming memories. The story you are about to read tells of the time when John was 16 years old and he and some friends walked twenty cows eight miles from one side of Bradford to the other side. So if you are sitting comfortably I will let John ’walk’ you back in time to Bradford…………….

I am going back to 1944 when my father farmed at Bank Top Farm, Eccleshill Bradford, which is now all houses. At that time we were having a lot of vandalism on the farm, such has hay set fire to, walls and fences broken down not to mention gates left open and stock let out. So my father took the tenancy of a fifty acre farm at Hill Top Birkenshaw, which was about eight miles away on main roads skirting the busy center of Bradford. Well we had to walk Twenty Cows along these roads as my father could not afford the carriage. So we set off at five am on February the second, it had rained during the night and when we set off it was dark and frosty but very little traffic that time in the morning. To drive these cattle there were my-self and two frends all three of us around Sixteen years of age we also had a dog Judy (what a name for a cow dog) but she was a very useful dog and knew her stuff. As we were driving one of us would go on ahead shutting garden gates (A marathon) there were also road ends to watch, all went well until half way when the lead cow decided it had enough sliding about on the ice on the tarmaced road and it turned down a narrow passage way between two houses which lead to a dead end full of dust bins belonging to quite a few houses. Well a few of the cows followed and you can imagine the pandemonium at six-o-clock in the morning when the cows tried to turn round in such a small space. We eventually got the cows turned round and left behind crushed bins and spilled garbage to be on our way again before all hell let loose. Things were going well until we got to a hill - Dudley Hill, here it was so slippery on the road with the ice that the cattle were having a job to stay on their feet, and a car was coming towards us from the top of the hill, he put his brakes on and no way could he have stopped as he was sliding down the hill, how he missed every cow I shall never know, any way after a struggle we arrived at the top of the incline and continued on our way with out much trouble. Were we glad to enjoy a hearty breakfast when we arrived at Hill Top Farm. Well we were only young and enjoyed the adventure.

Driving Cows - By John (Farmer Giles).

If you have a farming story that you would like to share then please send me your story and I will happily include it on a guest appearance post.

Last year I started collecting seeds from my garden and have successfully grown sunflowers, marigolds and aquilegia from my own seeds. Over the last couple of weeks I have been busy collecting more seeds.

I have collected the seeds of the following plants;

• Aquilegia (latin name) - Columbine. Purple and Pink varieties.
• Dianthus (latin name) - Rockery pink. White variety.
• Nigella (latin name) - Love in a mist. Light blue variety.
• Primula japonica (latin name) - Candelabra Primrose. Yellow variety.
• Primula variabilis (latin name) - Polyanthus.Yellow and red varieties.
• Viola (latin name) - Pansy. Mixed colours.
• Helianthus (latin name) - Sunflower. Yellow and ruby eclipse.

Last year I started to make my own seed packets so that I could give the seeds I collected as gifts to friends and family. This year I am going to take part in a gardenbloggers seed exchange so I will be very busy making my homemade seed packets.

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Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As The Garden Grows for more information.