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!

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’:

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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!

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’:

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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:

• Keep a close eye on Butternut and those eggs
• Roll up our sleeves for more Compost Chat at the Chiswick House May Fayre
• Get ready for Tuesday’s school visit and Wednesday’s course Urban Hens – Keeping Chickens in London

Have a good week yourself…

Join us on the Journey!

This week has revealed lots of green growth in the garden (all that rain!), opportunity for some inside jobs, and preparation for next month’s courses; but let’s begin with another film in our series ‘Ten Top Tips for Keeping Chicks’:

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Going Green…

Mmm, after a wonderful warm and sunny March, we now have a quintessential April complete with showers of rain, every day. Whilst this is great for the lawn (which has recently been aerated and fertilized) unfortunately, it is also good for the weeds in the kitchen garden. I find myself dressed in my gardening jeans and running out for a quick five minutes between showers, resulting in the asparagus bed being only one-quarter cleared!!! The wet weather, however, does give us opportunity to catch up with some inside jobs and curling up with a good book (in the name of research of course!) is one of the country pleasures enjoyed from the sofa…

Most recently, I’ve read The Bad Beekeepers Club by TV presenter Bill Turnball. It is a collection of lighthearted stories that recount his journey of keeping bees. As a beginner, I identified with some of them and laughed out loud at others. Fortunately, other members of the Ealing and District Bee Keeping Association have read it aswell and enjoyed both the humour and the love of bees that is revealed page by page.

Heart of Herbs…

Fortunately, when it’s not raining, we’ve had some beautiful sunshine streaming into the conservatory that has helped the seeds from the Planting Plan germinate to reveal their first little leaves. This galvanized steel heart planter has four sections which is now home for two types of coriander, flat leaf parsley and a sweet basil. Other seeds that are germinating now are sweetcorn, pumpkins, squash and cucumber.

Another wet weather activity has been classroom based. I’ve trained with South West London Environment Network as a Compost Champion! Paul Richens of Blue Dome Synergies brought us in-depth information, all the top tips alongside the science of soil structure and the pros and cons of aerobic and anaerobic composting! Look out for us as we visit fayres and garden centres around West London in the coming weeks….

Other News:

• We’ve potted on some tomato plants and one is starting to flower
• We’ve put a ‘super’ on the bee hive in anticipation of collecting honey
• Hen Corner was featured in the local BRAG Mag (Brentford Recycling Action Group), Thank you!

Jobs for next week:

• Check the bee hive for honey stores, with this wet weather it’s more difficult for them to fly and forage
• Prepare beds in the Kitchen Garden ready for the transfer of baby plants from the cold frame into the ground
• Get ready for Wednesday’s course Urban Hens – Keeping Chickens in London

Have a good week yourself…

Join us on the Journey!

We’ve been living the country life in London, keeping chickens, growing food, etc. for several years now, but telling the story on HenCorner.com reaches its second anniversary this week. It’s been great to have so many of you ‘Join us on the Journey’, be that through subscribing to the email updates (box right), contacting us or coming along to one of our courses.

To mark this celebration, here is an interview with Johannes Paul, one of the founders of Omlet who came to visit us here at Hen Corner recently.

So what’s new since our last birthday?

Cheese making began under the careful instruction of Rachelle Attieh from Sydney, Australia and we hatched our first chicks under Broody Butternut…

We welcomed The One Show, The Wall Street Journal, The Telegraph and Olive Magazine as they came to film, interview and take photos…
The new colony of honey bees arrived last summer and we started working with a couple of schools, teaching them all about chickens…

Hen Corner took to the road for the Belsize Green Fair and we hosted our own Harvest Fare Trade…

Hen Corner TV was launched with Digitize Me, then most recently, we were thrilled to find an early harvest of honey!

So a busy, yet very exciting year. Thank you to my wonderful husband, Andy, and our children who have helped, groaned or cheered every time we tried something new. Thanks to Leppi, Ellie & Jonny who have ‘Digitized Me‘ and thanks to all the Twitter followers and Blog subscribers who have ‘Joined us on the Journey’.

Time for a glass of wine and a slice of birthday cake!

Have a good week yourself…

Join us on the Journey!

This week has brought us our first schools visit to Hen Corner, some Spring planting and we successfully managed the Shook Swarm; but let’s begin with the next film in our series ‘Ten Top Tips for Keeping Chicks’:

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Tip 6: Where and when to buy your hens

Come and join us…

We were delighted to invite the youngest children from St Paul’s School to Hen Corner during their last week of term to look at all the new life that is around the garden in Spring. We started by looking at the chickens and all the children were certain that baby chickens were chicks that hatch from eggs, I then went on to explain that because we don’t have any boy chickens our eggs are just for eating not for chicks. As it was a morning visit, the girls were queuing up to lay their eggs; the children also lined up nicely to peek into the nest box and were delighted when eggs were laid while they waited! Whilst we didn’t get too close to the bees, I explained that there was one ‘mummy’ bee, the queen, who was busy laying lots of eggs that would hatch into larvae and then develop into baby bees (a bit like caterpillars and butterflies), we then walked past the spring flowers and blossom over to pond. Fortunately, probably due to the netting that is protecting the pond from the heron, our family of frogs and their offspring are safe and happy this year. With small groups of children we clustered around the pond and examined the frog spawn in several stages; we didn’t see mummy frog, but we did see some tadpoles…

We had a lovely morning together and the children left with the eggs that they had collected and an invitation to come back if we hatch chicks again this summer. A couple of days later I was given a folder of thank you letters from the children; so precious and hopefully the beginning of many more visits!

Shaking all over…

Well, we did it! The shook swarm, that we have been planning for weeks and that had kept me awake at night has been performed, safely, without incident and my lasting memory was Pat Turner (very experienced beekeeper) exclaiming many times how calm and gentle the bees were… Here you can see me lifting the frames from the old hive before shaking the bees from it into the new hive. The old frames, stacked in front of the hive were all to be burnt as a precaution against both the Varroa Mite and European Foul Brood (both could be disastrous to the colony). A real highlight was seeing the queen for the first time, she was considerably bigger than the other girls/worker bees and, as promised by Andy Pedley who had given them to me, she was marked with a blob of orange nail varnish!

This next picture shows a brood frame that has been the home to eggs, larvae, capped pupating larvae and stores of pollen that the nurse bees use to feed the helpless larvae. If you look closely you can see soft furry bees start to emerge from their cells and walk across the frame.

Whilst it was very sad to burn the old frames, most of which contained brood, we were delighted by the surprise of four frames, at either end of the brood box, quite full of honey stores as a little early harvest of our first honey.  I can’t tell you how sticky I got trying to extract it from the frames, but 5lbs of  Hen Corner honey and 400g pure beeswax was a real bonus, and did I mention no stings?

Other News:

• We’ve planted the chitted Anya potatoes in the rubble sack, like last year
• We’ve planted the baby pea plants (from the cold frame) into this year’s ‘Legume Bed’ and sown some extra pea seeds around the base of the wigwams for a longer cropping.
• We’ve replenished the codling moth traps and replaced the glue bands at the base of the apple and pear trees

Jobs for next week:

• Continue to follow the Planting Plan and plan to water by hand with the imminent hosepipe ban
• Transfer the onions and leeks from the cold-frame seed tray into the ‘Allium Bed’
• Tune into BBC2 each Wednesday at 8pm for Our Food. Giles Coren, Alys Fowler, James Wong and others journey around Britain discovering how our history, landscape and climate have influenced what we eat. Looks great!

Have a good week yourself…

Join us on the Journey!

This week has brought us our first spears of asparagus, sore thumbs (as we’ve been making frames for a new beehive) and a lovely group of people for the first of this year’s courses; but let’s begin with the next film in our series ‘Ten Top Tips for Keeping Chicks’:

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Family Feathers and Fun!

As our subscribers know, we love to live a little bit of country life here in London and encourage others to ‘Join us on the Journey’. This weekend, we were pleased to welcome three adults and four children to join us for the first of our new season of courses. Whilst we covered all the topics of our Urban Hens course we made sure that the youngest delegates enjoyed egg hunts and crafts as well. It was a relaxed, sunny afternoon and everyone had opportunity to cuddle a chicken before wrapping up as usual with ‘Any Questions’ over tea and cake. If you are considering keeping chickens and would like to visit Hen Corner, ‘Of course you can!’ We’d love to see you…
When the course had finished,

Andy very kindly finished assembling the new hive that we are going to shake the bees into. The plan is to find the queen bee (who I haven’t actually seen yet) and make sure she is safely in the new hive before shaking the rest of the colony in after her. We are doing this to eliminate European Foul Brood and any Varroa Mites that may have sneaked into cells of developing larvae (this can really damage the bees as they are forming). It’s an annual job to give the colony a fresh start on new clean frames. We needed to make up eleven frames for the brood box (where the queen shall lay her eggs), the first couple were a bit wobbly, but we soon got the hang of it. Eleven nails are needed in precise locations for each frame and hammering late in the evening was both loud on the ears and sore on the thumbs, but it’s all done now!

Other News:

• The asparagus season has begun at Hen Corner; four spears already this week
• The rhubarb is ready for first pickings; pink, tender and perfect for a syllabub
• During our course on Saturday, we found nine fresh eggs; every girl had laid one… Spring is definitely here

Jobs for next week:

• Check the Planting Plan and see what needs to be sown
• Pot on some of the seedling in the cold frame, they are getting big now
• Replenish the codling moth traps with pheromone to catch the male moths before they mate; we’re after a bumper apple harvest this year

Have a good week yourself…

Join us on the Journey!

We had a fantastic surprise this week in a free delivery of wood chips for the ‘Henclosure’ and have been experimenting with a new variety of cheese using ingredients from the garden; but first here is the next film in our series ‘Ten Top Tips for Keeping Chicks’:

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Why do chickens like chips?

Well I promise it’s nothing to do with ketchup! Here at Hen Corner, we have given the girls a large ‘Henclosure’ made of Omlet Netting allowing them to have a good amount of space for free-ranging outside of their Eglu Cube without have access to the whole garden, especially the veg patch… Chickens love to eat grass and scratching around looking for worms and other such treats is a real favourite pastime. However, it doesn’t take long for them to trash parts of your lawn if they get half a chance. Hence their designated area is pretty clear of vegetation; dusty in the summer and just plain swampy when it rains. A good covering of woodchips helps to keep the area less muddy (and the eggs cleaner) and doubles up as a giant litter tray for all that chicken poop! Last year we spent over £100 on woodchips from the garden centre (for both the chickens and the garden borders) so when an offer of a free delivery came my way, I jumped at the chance. The only problem was that it was 4 tons dropped outside our Victorian Terrace House an hour before dusk and only me, my son and one wheelbarrow to move it all round to the garden. A big task, but well worth it, especially when rewarded with pizza!

We’ve been trying out a new style of cheese. We love to holiday in the British countryside and have visited the Lynher Dairies Cheese Farm in West Cornwall on a couple of occasions. Whilst they now make a great selection of cheese, their most famous (and a real favourite of ours) is Yarg. This is unique due to it’s flavour that is given by the nettles that the cheese is wrapped in before it matures. The nettles allow a natural mold to develop which ripens the cheese bringing a mild, clean distinctive flavour to a stunning looking cheese. Here is our first attempt of trying this at Hen Corner using nettles that we picked last year and froze for this very purpose, it sits with a Camembert style cheese that we’ve made several times before using the Home Cheese Making recipe; it’s another mold ripened cheese that is wonderful and creamy served best at room temperature.

Other News:

• Thanks to Alchemist on the River Cottage Community for telling me that it’s not the chickens eating the parsnip tops, they tend to die back over winter – so hurrah! We might get some after all….
• We’ve been forcing rhubarb with an old bottomless dustbin and the young pink stems are looking nearly ready, hopefully we’ll have a supply from March through to October.
• We are now collecting an average of 7 eggs a day, so cakes all round…

Jobs for next week:

• Take the mouse guard off the beehive giving the girls free access to the spring sunshine.
• Sow the Cucurbitaceae (pumpkins, squash, cucumbers and courgettes); we held off a bit on these
• Use reclaimed slate (from a roof replacement down our street) to mulch under the beech hedge and around the herb bed. This suppresses weeds, retains water and looks really smart!

Have a good week yourself…

Join us on the Journey!

This week we have started hardening off the peas in the cold frame, choosing which breeds of chickens we’d like to hatch this Spring, and chitting our potatoes to grow in a rubble sack. Here is a reminder of last years harvest and why it’s such a great way to grow spuds!

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So far we are on schedule with our planting…

We planned the schedule back in December, sorted our seeds and started sowing in propagators on the windowsill in January. So far we have all our ‘Night Shade’ plants safely established (tomatoes, aubergines, chillies and peppers). Our peas and mange tout are hardening off in the cold frame with the onions and leeks and we’ve sown 49 brassicas in a fantastic new Plug Plant Trainer (7 in a row of 7 varieties). We’ve also replenished our strawberry bed with 30 new crowns of three varieties that will harvest over a long season; earlies, middles and lates!

Now about those parsnips… I know that they are tricky to germinate and take ages to grow, but last year we had at least three rows growing nicely in one of the raised beds. I planned to leave them in the ground for a frost to sweeten them only to discover that they had disappeared altogether. Great! I thought until when sowing carrots directly into the soil last week I noticed new sprouts of foliage coming from baby ‘snips; they were hiding under the ground after all I think it was those cheeky chickens just pecking the leaves off…

Most of the hens are back in lay after a winter break for the pure breeds. It was great to discover that last year’s chicks, Bunty the Bantam (Chocolate Orpington) and Barnie the Barnevelder, also started laying their first eggs in recent weeks. Whilst Barnie’s eggs are a rich dark brown, the bantam eggs are smaller than the others and three poached on toast make a perfect lunch.

The good supply of eggs means cakes, omlettes and kedgeree all round!

Talking of chicks, we’ve decided, as we are still in our first year of bees, to leave hatching ducklings until next year. So when Butternut is broody again (could be next month) we’ll sit her on some fertile chicken eggs again, hopefully two of each of the following breeds: Polish, Araucana, Indian Game. Watch this space…

Other News:

• We have joined Big Barn, a website that links people to local food producers
• We are enjoying all the signs of Spring; buds on the almond tree, frogs in the pond and daffodils under the apple trees
• We’ve got our bikes out and are cycling where possible for day-to-day life around London

Jobs for next week:

• Sow the Cucurbitaceae (pumpkins, squash, cucumbers and courgettes)
• Collect all the parts to construct a new bee hive ready to transfer the whole colony
• Hard prune shrubs that have grown too big or spread too far

Have a good week yourself…

Join us on the Journey!

This week we’re giving porridge to our hens, enjoying our first bantam eggs and are pleased to be included in Olive magazine (March), but first here is Tip 3 in our series specifically looking at how easy it is to keep chickens in an urban environment.

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As you can see from the film, it’s important to keep a special eye on chickens in extremes of temperature…

Fortunately, the water isn’t completely freezing in their side bucket drinker, but it does need checking throughout the day. As we’ve had snow on the ground for nearly a week now, I thought I’d warm the girls up on the inside with some jumbo oat porridge (made with water), they absolutely loved it and I’m wondering whether they’ll be demanding it more often! When it’s really cold, I lock them in the Eglu coop overnight just to give them extra protection from wintry drafts but after 14 hours locked up in the dark, they’re squawking to be set free in the mornings…

As it’s too cold to be working  in the garden this week, it was great to enjoy a magazine with a cup of tea. The interviews and photos from before Christmas have now been published in Olive Magazine (March). The article is called ‘No such thing as a free lunch?’ and looks at people living and working with food. A tutor from Leith’s School of Food and Wine, a restaurant critic from The Independent, the chef that brought Heston’s  orange-in-the-middle Christmas Pudding to Waitrose and little old me!

Other News:

• Bunty the bantam has started laying eggs; three poached on toasted tomato bread was a lovely lunch this week
• The seedlings are doing well, but run the risk of growing too quickly inside – yet it’s much too cold to transfer them outside
• We’ve been pleased to help volunteer at the local Winter Night Shelter; so valuable at this time of year

Jobs for next week:

• Sow some brussel sprouts, cabbages and cauliflowers indoors
• Sow some carrots directly into the raised beds
• Start getting organised with a new bee hive for next month’s ‘Shook Swarm’

Have a good week yourself…

Join us on the Journey!