Don't let the bugs bite!

I now know what will be my demise.

Let me introduce you to the dreaded red mite. Whenever the weather is hot, we get red mite in the hen house. They live in the corner of wooden houses, and come out at night and bite the chickens. They particularly like hen houses with felt on top as they live in the warmth in between the felt and wood.

We have had them a couple of times before, in the large hen house, and they usually take a couple of days to get rid of, following a good dose of jeyes fluid sprayed in the house a couple of times a day. They are very difficult to see, but I usually find them when I clean out the hen house and find three or four, on my arm. Often chickens will be reluctant to go in the house at night if there is an infestation, but ours have never bothered.

However, the other day the new young chickens didn't go into their house at night, and instead went into the bigger hen house with the others. They did this for a couple of days, so when I went to clean out their house, I wasn't surprised to find red mite. Instead of the usual 3 or 4, there were about a hundred all running along my arm.

Despite two doses of jeyes, when I checked this morning I could still see them running over the small hen house. I have now moved it out of the chicken run, so I can leave the bedding out and just keep up with the jeyes until they are gone. The felt on top of the house will also be removed at the weekend!

I also showered, but I still feel itchy, and everytime I see a little black dot, I think another one is on me. If this goes on for more than a couple of days, I shall be rocking in the corner picking imaginary bugs off my arms!

I am seriously thinking of saving up for a plastic hen house, as they don't get red mite... It's for my own sanity, as well as the benefit of the chickens!

I hope anyone reading this feels itchy just thinking about red mites, so you too can be part of my anguish!

No rest for the wicked

I took this photo yesterday, and as I took it I realsed I had taken a similar photo a couple of years ago when we first took on the allotment. We have done some work in that time. I have three beds dug, and there is a raised bed. But each year we lose the battle with the weeds.

So, this week Operation Allotment began. My hours have changed at work, and I now finish an hour earlier. I am taking the oportunity to go to the allotment on my way home and get in an hour or two of work. Slowly fighting the battle of the weeds.

Yesterday was slightly depressing as I checked on the onions in the raised bed to find most of the stalks had been eaten and the remaining onion below was pretty pathetic, more the size of a shallot. Last year, the onions did really well and I had a bumper crop of onions and shallots that were massive. I don't think I will be using the words "bumper crop" much this year!

The strawberries have been a disaster as well. I decided to put them in the ground rather than the usual strawberry planter. But the surrounding weeds overshadowed then, and the net tunnel I put over them didn't even let light in so there was nothing to protect from the birds! I took the netting off last night to reveal three small green strawberries from about 6 plants.

The potatoes were more succesful, and despite only getting about 3 potatoes per plant, there was more than enough for some of Matt's famous homemade chips!

I picked some garlic at the weekend, but was disappointed to find it hadn't split into cloves. I know the frosty weather is supposed to do this, and I can't remember if it has been cold enough since I planted them. I had thought that the wet weather would have really suited them. I am wondering if the soil needs a bit of a boost from some manure or green manure before planting next year.

I haven't given up on this year yet though. I am planning on putting some brassicas where the potatoes were, growing them at home from seed and then planting when they are established.

At home I have had my first tomatoes, which seem very late. Some plants have only just begun to get flowers.

Keeping up with the Jones'

The rain hasn't been kind to the chicken run, turning it into a slidey soup of manure, mud, and soggy grass clippings. The smell was not good!

The chickens were concerned that their frequent visitors would be put off, and wouldn't come to see them anymore. I discussed the limited budget, and we settled on a tarpauline! This covers most of the run, so with a bit of luck, the ground should dry out a bit, and stop smelling quite so much. The chickens themselves don't help. I put a load of straw down in the run on last Sunday which helped a lot, but they then spent Monday scratching at it, to reveal the squelchy mud below.

Not the most subtle colour! But B and Q don't have a great range of tarpaulines!

It's about time the new chickens were introduced as well.    I have discovered that chickens aren't very photogenic, they move around far too much for the slow digital click of my mobile, so as well as these picture, I have a lot of rather blurry pictures of chickens!

Our two youngsters are Ebony (on the left), and Freda (on the right). These two are only 2 - 3 months old, so won't lay for a few weeks yet, and because they are so light and small, are very good at flying over the lower parts of the chicken wire! When they are fully grown they will be the same size as the two warrens that we have, and much less likely to be able to fly over any of the boundaries of the run...hopefully!



Fiz, is our black and brown frizzle chicken, and daily lays a small white egg.  I have discovered that chickens aren't very photogenic, they move around far too much for the slow digital click of my mobile phone, so as well as these pictures, I have a lot of rather blurry pictures of chickens!

Digging in the rain!

 

Over at the allotment last weekend, Mark was disapointed to find that his strawberry patch had flooded, as well as another part at the back of the allotment where our weed pile is. He is contemplating rice and garlic growing now! Unfortunately, it seems this weather is going to continue for a few more summers, it might be a good idea...

We did well, and got some good work done moving the weeds we cut the week before, and clearing the path to get to the gooseberry bush and apple trees. But eventually, our luck ran out, and we hid under the trees at the back of the allotment. Beth isn't one for rain, and decided our shed would make a good dog kennel! It wasn't long before we had to join her as well.

I managed my first harvest of the year, and nearly all of it was fruit I hadn't actually grown. I picked a handful of gooseberries, a plant that was already in the allotment when we took it over. I also found a few ripe raspberries from the self rooted raspberry bushes that sprang up between the weeds this year. The only think I planted was a blackcurrant plant, which I got about a dozen blackcurrents off. Not bad really, usually I only get about 3!

At home I have had my first two ripe tomatoes, although they were barely big enough to be called cherry tomatoes! I have repotted the three plants I have in the mini greenhouse at home, so hopefully they will start fruiting soon.

The House That Rocked...

No chickens were harmed in the making of this blog.

I went outside to let the chickens out, and found the house had fallen off it's bricks in the night. Luckily it had happened when all the chickens were tucked up asleep, not when they were sat under the house sheltering from the never ending rain.

I don't quite know what happened, as it wasn't that windy last night. Maybe a fox tried to open the door and knocked it over in frustration!

Expect more photos tomorrow of me and Matt falling over in the mud, trying to balance the house on the bricks again!

People are strange...

As I mentioned before, we moved house. We moved in November and have a lot of families around as well as being on a short cut to a primary school. Although our fence is high people can see in and as usual, the chickens are very popular. I love that youngsters can see the chickens, but twice in the past few weeks we have found cooked chicken in the run.

I have checked them, and they don't have any bits missing! I just dont see why someone would think a chicken would want to eat chicken. I have been assured that it won't harm them, so maybe the weird joke will get boring and they will stop doing it.


On a lighter note I was going to add a photo, but this app is so poor, I can't do it. I will try again when I can use a pc.

I'm back!

It seems it has been a year since my last post. Bit I am back with a new app, so I can send updates from my phone instead of prizing the laptop away from Matt.

Things are a little slow at the allotment at the moment. I only have time to go on a saturday afternoon so have spent the last three weeks weeding.

In the ground are potatoes, onions, garlic and leeks. At home are some tomato plants and sweet potato plants.

Also at home, our black star chicken died a couple of months ago.  But we have three new additions, a frizzle chicken, a cream legbar chick and a legbar cross chick.

Speaking of home, we have moved. The chickens now have a bigger run,and our garden is enclosed so Beth can sun bathe to her hearts content.

That's enough catching up. I am off to plant some salad leaves.