Farming Friends

Each side of the hut has uneven edges as the wood is rotting in places. A few days ago I decided to put by carpentry skills to the test and saw off the uneven edges and make the base of the chicken hut level so that the hut sits on the ground with no gaps between the hut and the ground. I have managed to saw all the edges successfully and the hut now stands on the ground without any gaps.

I have painted the outside of the hut a medium oak wood preserver that is safe for animals and the hut is beginning to look like new!

I have also nailed parts of the sides together where they were coming apart.

The job is to replace the wire netting on the front of the door and then decide what to do with the floor. If I add wood to the floor then it might be heavy to move about and may rot over time but the wood would stop any predators from burrowing under the hut and attacking the poultry. A wire netting floor would not be so heavy and would allow the birds to peck at the grass under the hut but there is an increased risk of predators getting into the hut as the wire netting is not as secure as the wood. Decisions, decision!

If anyone has any advice they would like to give about the flooring of the poultry hut then I would like to hear it, so please leave a comment.

On Monday Lightening The II didn’t look very well. She was reluctant to come out of the poultry hut and spent the day sitting in the same place unless I got abit too close for her and she reluctantly moved to a safe distance. I noticed that her droppings were a little loose so I checked out my guinea fowl books and decided that she had every guinea fowl ailment in the books.

I made sure that she had access to water and I actually saw her drink which was a good sign, although the books did say that drinking too much was a syptom of various illnesses, so this was also a potential worry.

On Tuesday Lightening The II  looked a little better and although she wasn’t rushing out the door with some of the other guinea fowl she did make her way outside and ventured further than the previous day, although she did stay relatively close to the poultry hut.

On Wednesday she appeared more spritely and she wandered about alot. I saw her eating grass and she started to call out to the others which she hadn’t done for a few days.

She is still keeping to herself but she no longer looks poorly.

I am not sure if Lightening The II is poorly. Initially I thought that she might have coccidiosis, but now I am not sure if she is broody or being bullied by the other guinea fowl. I don’t know if it is true but sometimes poultry can pick on a bird if they are a different colour so this may be what is happening as she is my only white guinea fowl. I only question this as I have one pearl guinea fowl and she is certainly not bullied. 

I will let you know how Lightening The II gets on over the next few days.

Hatty the Hen was recently egg bound. Unfortunately I had been out all day and when I returned and went to put the poultry away Hatty was not behaving normally. It looked like she was repeatedly trying to go to the toilet. As luck would have it my father-in-law was around and I asked for his assistance. He went to pick Hatty up and with that an egg popped out. The problem had been that the egg shell was not hard and this was making it difficult for Hatty to pass the egg. I am pleased to say that Hatty recovered immediately and is now back to laying her eggs as usual, although she has just moved her nest site and it is taking some finding! I’ll let you know when I have located it.

I put 38 duck eggs in the incubator on Sunday. I got a dozen khaki campbell duck eggs from ebay. Half a dozen Aylesbury and khaki campbell duck eggs in an exchange for guinea fowl eggs from iaf on the river cottage forum and 24 khaki campbell duck eggs from the rare breed sale in York. If you do your calculations then you are right to think that not all the eggs have gone into the incubator, this is because some of the eggs were broken or cracked, so I put 38 eggs into the incubator. The duck eggs take 28 days to hatch so I’ll let you know how the eggs get on.

Are guinea fowl eggs a speciality egg or just a small egg? I have been pondering this thought recently as I have decided to sell some guinea fowl eggs for eating at the farm gate. As I made the decision to sell my eggs, the next question to answer was how much to charge?

I did the usual search on the internet and checked all the major supermarkets to see if they were selling guinea fowl eggs but couldn’t find any. After a discussion with my husband I decided to sell 6 fresh, free range guinea fowl eggs for £1. With this price chalked up on the chalk board at the farm gate, I had decided to market my guinea fowl eggs as a speciality, free range egg. I think that guinea fowl are a speciality breed as they are not widely found in the UK. My guinea fowl free range daily and I have noticed that the yolk is a rich yellowy orange colour with a superior taste to other eggs purchased from the supermarket.

A family member however, pointed out that the guinea fowl eggs are small and that they need to use 3 guinea fowl eggs for every two ordinary hen eggs and that the price of hen eggs is cheaper, so buying my guinea fowl eggs would not be cost effective for them.

I can see both sides to this debate. What are your thoughts on guinea fowl eggs? Do you think that they are a speciality egg and therefore worth paying more for or are they just a smaller egg and therefore more are needed for baking and eating and therefore should not cost as much as the free range hen egg? Let me know your thoughts.

Click on the image below to visit Amazon.co.uk to find out more about this book or visit one of the Farming Friends Bookshops.

It was four years ago to this date that I found Snowy the cat in the heifer barn with four kittens. My friend Izzy took two of the kittens and we kept two, who became Tigger and Fluffy (two beautiful white and ginger tom cats). Tigger used to follow me everywhere Fluffy followed Tigger but unfortunately Tigger became ill in October and passed away. For a time I thought that I might lose Fluffy as well as he really pined for Tigger. I missed Tigger too so I knew how Fluffy felt.

Fluffy was a cat that used to keep his distance when Tigger was alive but over the last four years, I have spent lots of time chatting to Fluffy and carefully petting him. In time Fluffy has changed and become a very friendly cat who I love dearly.

Happy Birthday Fluffy!

Here are a few photographs taken on the day that the piglets were born (Thursday 10th April 2008).

These are British Saddleback piglets that are less than a day old.