Posted by: hencorner | May 29, 2012

Good News, Bad News…. (between-post special!)

I know our last post was only days ago, but we wanted to update you with today’s events…

What a surprise to find this very young fox so close to the hens at 7.45am this morning…

Was he hiding, sunbathing or just waiting for the Eglu to be opened up for breakfast?

As I approached him, he jumped to escaped but I could see that he had got caught in the henclosure netting, so every twist and turn to get away tightened the wire around his waist. This picture was taken through the run of the Eglu Cube and you can see how close he was to the chickens and the netting he was tied up in. Fortunately, the hens seemed quite nonplussed that he was sitting only inches away from them and continued to eat, peck and fight the broody for a spot in the nest box. Their reaction to the fox confirmed my suspicions that they must be very regular visitors, but the hens have nothing to worry about when safe in their Eglu from Omlet.

I got on the phone straight away to the RSCPA and wondered who might be able to get into London, what their response to foxes would be and how long it would take…

In just over an hour I opened the door to Animal Collection Officer Jill Sanders. She was amazing! Calm and friendly, wanting the best for all the animals, she donned her thick gloves took hold of the fox and cut him free. Jill was pleased that I was happy to let him go free (some would ask for foxes to be killed). The foxes were in London before my hens were; we just need to find a way to live happily alongside each other. I was so impressed with the service from Jill and the back up team at the RSPCA, and as we all know they are a charity that, like many others in these times, rely on donations to keep their valuable work going. We may all require their help at some stage and they do a sterling job. Thanks so much!

So the bad news…

Whilst Jill was still here at Hen Corner, I was showing her the chickens, bees and strangely couldn’t find Spandau the new chick. I searched around Butternut’s feet, in her nest box and then sadly found Spandau floating in Butternut’s drinker. I don’t know how the chick got up that high to fall in, but I’ll know for next time to keep it even higher, or if low, to fill it with stones to reduce the risk of chicks drowning. Sadly Spandau was only with us for less than a week.

The silver lining of this tale is that we now have an empty nest box to try hatching again (maybe it’ll be more successful next time?) and Jill said that they regularly rescue chickens that need re-homing, would I help?

Lots to think about, but I’ll leave you with our film about foxes and how to keep your chickens completely safe in an Eglu from the lovely people at Omlet.

Have a good week yourself…

Join us on the Journey!

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Posted by: hencorner | May 26, 2012

Here Comes the Sun…

Welcome back to Hen Corner!

At last we have some sunshine!  We can’t believe that the weather has turned around so quickly, but we’re not complaining. Our fruit and nuts are coming on nicely, the bees are foraging well and we have a new arrival here at Hen Corner, but first let’s watch the next film in our series ‘Ten Top Tips for Keeping Chicks’:

By subscribing (box right) you’ll never miss a thing!

Welcome Spandau…

Our last post outlined our hopes for the fertile eggs that we put under our two broodies, Butternut and Ascot, sadly even after losing two eggs in the first few days, only one has hatched. Personally, I’m thrilled that it’s one of the Silver Spangled Appenzellers and I’ve even taken the risk of naming it (though we don’t know the sex of it yet). This chicken shall be known as Spandau as it will grow up to have a New Romantic plumage complete with funky hair do and flamboyant monochrome profile.

Whilst you can see that Spandau is doing well under the experienced wing of Butternut, my daughter and her curious friend, Alex, were determined to see what was inside the three last eggs that hadn’t hatched. You will be glad not to see photographs of one dead embryo, one creamy smelly mush and a normal unfertilized egg. So no new Orpingtons at Hen Corner just yet which is a shame as I quite fancied Jubilee Orps this year. We may try to hatch some more later this year, but I’m not sure how we’ll accommodate them whilst Butternut and Spandau are in the Eglu Go…

What do you think? Should we try again for some Black and Jubilee Orpingtons?

Almonds in Honey…

When we were featured in the Wall Street Journal last summer I made a throw away comment that I’d like to make some almonds in honey here at Hen Corner and with this sunshine, it just might happen! Our almond tree is doing so well this year. After the single but perfectly formed almond harvested last year, I’m really excited to count around eighty nuts that are making really good progress already, as you can see here. I chose to grow almonds as they are the nut that I use the most; they are wonderful ground into gateaux, chopped into cereal and baked into baklava.

Now we the have the sunshine, I’m hoping to put the super frames on the bee hive allowing the bees to store their surplus gathered nectar as honey, ready for us to collect in September.

Have you got any other suggestions for using almonds and honey?

Book of the Blog Post: RHS Allotment Journal: The Expert Guide to a Productive Plot

Back in January I told you about one of my favourite Christmas presents, the RHS Allotment Journal. It’s both a handy guide and notebook in one. It reminds us of key jobs to be done each month and encourages us with tips and recipes. You can use it to plan ahead and record what you did when. I even keep copies of my Planting Plan and Bee Keeping records in the front. I expect I’ll ask Santa for another one for 2013 and learn from this year hoping to improve for next! It’s available with many of our other favourites books from the Hen Corner Shop!

Other News:

  • We welcomed another school group as they visited Hen Corner to complement projects on farming and habitats
  • We had a couple of meetings with a magazine and a book author; hopefully more to tell soon…
  • We’ve planted seedlings and sown addition seeds into this year’s brassica bed

Jobs for next week:

  • Keep a close eye on Spandau, though I’m sure Butternut will do a fab job
  • Peg in some strings for the climbing beans to cling to
  • Get ready for Wednesday’s course Urban Hens – Keeping Chickens in London

Have a good week yourself…

Join us on the Journey!

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Posted by: hencorner | May 11, 2012

Jubilee Preparations!

Welcome back to Hen Corner!

What a week!  We’re excited about hatching new chicks, we’re worried about our bees and we’re expecting another schools visit but let’s begin with another film in our series ‘Ten Top Tips for Keeping Chicks’:

By subscribing (box right) you’ll never miss a thing!

Cluck, cluck, oops…

Probably a bit later than in previous years, but at last Butternut and Ascot have gone broody and this year, however, we are ready for them!

We moved them into the smaller Eglu Go and started tracking down some fertile eggs on Twitter and Ebay so that the broody hens could hatch baby chicks again!

Within hours we had received a well-packaged polystyrene box that contained six eggs. We were keen to get some more Orpingtons (like Butternut and Bunty) as they have the loveliest nature and are so soft and cuddly. My husband, Andy, wanted some iridescent black ones (that’s the first two), however, I wanted something more unusual and discovered Silver Spangled Appenzellers (next two)… The final two eggs are a very appropriate choice for this year, Jubilee Orpingtons, a breed first developed especially to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria!

Above you can see Ascot (Silver Laced Wyandotte) watching the eggs and ready to sit on them. Unfortunately, we tried two hens together on six eggs, but guess there was a bit of snatching as one of the eggs has broken and another disappeared! Ascot has now been removed and experienced Butternut is meticulously keeping them warm, rotated and at the correct humidity….

Our countdown to hatching can be seen in the column, right, and we’d like to open a poll to guess what results we’ll get from our last two eggs, please do vote, below!

Hungry Baby Bees…

We’ve been quite concerned about the bees recently. After a successful Shook Swarm back in March, the bees began to furnish the inside of the new hive by creating thousands of wax cells for both storing honey as a food supply for the whole colony and as individual cubicles for the queen bee to lay her eggs in. It takes a lot of food and energy for bees to produce wax; 800g of honey is needed to produce 100g of wax. Unfortunately, with all the wet weather that we’ve had for the last six weeks, the bees have really struggled to fly and search for food. I followed the advice of the Nation Bee Unit and have been feeding them sugar syrup so that there is a constant supply of food within the hive. Earlier this week, I discovered about 100 very young bees on the ground in front of the hive, I think they had attempted to venture out in search of food prematurely and just dropped into the dust unable to fly. A few made it to nearby posts, as above, but couldn’t find food or the way home. Today’s quick check inside was a bit more positive and the busy bees are starting to store some food supplies for the whole gang, and if the weather changes for the better, they might eventually make some honey for us!

Book of the Blog Post: River Cottage Veg Patch…

We’ve got seedlings galore ready to go into the raised beds though I’m a bit worried about all the slugs that are slipping around… I’ve been busy weeding and preparing the soil ready to receive the baby plants and will probably use old jam jars as individual cloches to help them as they get established. The best book to have to hand is Veg Patch: River Cottage Handbook No.4 it’s an A-Z of crops that like our climate complete with planting plans and recipes. It’s available with many of our other favourites books from the Hen Corner Shop!

Other News:

  • We braved the rain and helped staff the Compost Stall at Syon Garden Centre
  • Many of the fruit trees have been pollinated and have baby fruit growing: pears, plums, almonds and figs
  • We’ve sown a selection of both dwarf and climbing beans

Jobs for next week:

Have a good week yourself…

Join us on the Journey!

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