Tuesday 31st January 2017
Strawberries!
We managed to get hold of a load of cauliflower scraps for the poultry and hidden amongst them were a few strawberries. These proved to be a monstrous hit with all the birds to the point where scuffles and chasing and stealing totally took over the run! The turkeys were the worst although the ducks were a close second. Banana took hers to a puddle: strawberries and mud obviously being this year’s duck delicacy!!
In the last week there have been FOUR more Avian Flu outbreaks, three in the same area of Lancashire, resulting in a ’63,000’ cull of pheasants, partridges and ducks. It is all utterly heart breaking and for the commercial poultry keepers involved, quite possibly an end to their businesses. Rare breed poultry keepers up and down the country are worried that lifetimes of work are under threat and a lot of people are also now worried that the 28th February will be extended (us included). More and more people seem to be giving up or contemplating giving up poultry keeping altogether which will then have a knock on effect across the industry for breeders, feed producers, general poultry suppliers, magazine publishes etc.
Back amongst our flock, eight out of Queenie Baby’s fifteen chicks have turned out to be cockerels (a good ratio) and at four months, many are now crowing loudly and starting to pounce on the females. IF all the birds were outside, this would not be too much of an issue as the young poults and chickens could escape, BUT inside the confines of their stall and run, we are starting to hear and see too many unwanted matings (and some of the poults REALLY can scream). We have therefore decided to bring forward our dispatching date and so Stephen Burrows (our licensed poultry slaughterman) is coming over on Friday to do the deed. The carcasses won’t be as big as if we took the birds to six months and beyond but that’s okay. To make it worth Stephen’s while we have also asked him to dispatch three of our four turkeys too (the fourth is going to a friend to be her breeding male this spring – lucky chap). Again, we will get smaller carcasses but with these 11 birds in total gone, there will be a lot more room for the rest and it will be a whole heap quieter.
It is all a bit sad that these birds have ended their days indoors – it is NOT how we like to run our smallholding at all and we take huge pleasure from seeing the birds outside, able to explore wherever they want. The turkeys in particular are very inquisitive and the youngsters we bred at the start of the year went walkabout so much, we often had them knocking on our study patio doors, having come over into the garden and found their way up to the house!!!
It’s all for the best though: running a smallholding IS about the ‘whole’ as well as each individual animal and tough decision do have to be made when circumstances demand it!!
Back amongst our flock, eight out of Queenie Baby’s fifteen chicks have turned out to be cockerels (a good ratio) and at four months, many are now crowing loudly and starting to pounce on the females. IF all the birds were outside, this would not be too much of an issue as the young poults and chickens could escape, BUT inside the confines of their stall and run, we are starting to hear and see too many unwanted matings (and some of the poults REALLY can scream). We have therefore decided to bring forward our dispatching date and so Stephen Burrows (our licensed poultry slaughterman) is coming over on Friday to do the deed. The carcasses won’t be as big as if we took the birds to six months and beyond but that’s okay. To make it worth Stephen’s while we have also asked him to dispatch three of our four turkeys too (the fourth is going to a friend to be her breeding male this spring – lucky chap). Again, we will get smaller carcasses but with these 11 birds in total gone, there will be a lot more room for the rest and it will be a whole heap quieter.
It is all a bit sad that these birds have ended their days indoors – it is NOT how we like to run our smallholding at all and we take huge pleasure from seeing the birds outside, able to explore wherever they want. The turkeys in particular are very inquisitive and the youngsters we bred at the start of the year went walkabout so much, we often had them knocking on our study patio doors, having come over into the garden and found their way up to the house!!!
It’s all for the best though: running a smallholding IS about the ‘whole’ as well as each individual animal and tough decision do have to be made when circumstances demand it!!