FUNEX?

One of the great joys of hen keeping is having lots of lovely fresh eggs for breakfasts and baking. Last year we reared 10 chicks and since earlier this year the females have been laying. During the cold winter our hens conserved their energy but currently in the long daylight we're getting between 6 and 10 eggs per day. I've always been aware that the eggs produced here are large but hadn't ever investigated what the size categories actually mean. I was prompted to check after Molly came back from collecting the eggs with this super sized offering...

According to Omlet an extra large egg is over 73grams; so you can only feel sorry for one of our poor hens who laid this monster 120grams egg. Yes it had a double yolk and yes it made a very fine and tasty omelette for lunch with a few salad leaves on the side.

The title of this post? F U N E X - well if you're not familiar then may I take you back to the early part of January 1975, I believe, British comedy in the form of the Two Ronnies and their sketch which I remember being about M N X, that'll be ham and eggs.

Welcome Back

I made you a cake in honour of the East Cambusmoon return to blogworld. Partly inspired by the new BBC2 series The Great British Bake-Off, which was easy watching TV last evening, and partly by some thoughts of entering the Gartocharn Flower Show this weekend, I used Mary Berry's Victoria Sponge recipe from the TV programme and it turned out a treat. Now if I get my act together and make another one for the show I realise that putting cream into the middle is not going to cut it with the judges on Saturday, apparently thats a big no-no, but today is the last day of our school holidays, we've had a bundle of people around and this sumptuous wonder is just about gone. The man of the house suggested more jam would be appropriate....but he caveated his comments in advance with plenty of praise. Hereabouts its traditional to use raspberry jam - is that the same everywhere? Here is another new project for us - 9 chicks, this photo was taken when they were about 3 weeks old. More of them another time.

Thanks for those of you who keep checking back in with this blog. Your patience has been appreciated.

Ex Battery Hen - 7 weeks on

Apologies for posting this photo again of 'scabby hen' as she's known by the children. When we first got hens we sweetly named them individually but after a fairly short while to be quite honest it was difficult to distinguish one from the other so the practice was soon dropped. Anyway here is scabby hen 7 weeks ago, very pale, fairly bald and with a very red sore chest and undercarriage. ...and here she is now....with lots of new feathers and a good appetite for the worms, grubs and greenery in the recently cleared potato bed. Nice happy hen story but its still sad to think that 85% of all eggs used in cafes, restaurants and pubs etc still come from battery hens.
Glad they and we are enjoying some sunshine for a few days. We got 8 eggs today, hurray!

The Good Life

Meet one of our new hens. Yesterday we went to collect and rehome some more ex-battery hens via the Battery Hen Welfare Trust. This bunch were in quite good form with a bit of strength and 'perkiness' about them despite the sorrowful state of their bodies. We first rehomed 10 battery hens 2 years ago and I'm pleased to report that some of those are still with us and have enjoyed a good quality life with considerably extended life expectancy.

The girls below are just venturing out of their transport box, somewhat bewildered at the concepts of sunshine, grass and fresh air. Before too long their combs will change to a more healthy red and their feathers will fairly slowly come back too. In today's rain showers some of them noticeably shivered so we popped them into the hen house to keep warmer as their bodies start adjusting to the variable temperatures of the outside world.


Today's weather was so much better than the forecast of storms and humungous rain so a bit of gardening time was presented. We're currently picking salad leaves, spinach, chard, sorrel, peas, broad beans, radish, onions and new potatoes. Plus one courgette so far. Very exciting! Well we're pretty chuffed anyway. Not too long ago this area was a bleak concrete n mud mess so the change is very inspiring. Most crops are thriving although the french beans are looking a bit peelywally and something ate all but one of the young courgette plants (mouse?). Thoughts and plans already abound for next year - more peas to be grown as they're just totally gorgeous; the potatoes are going in the bed which seems to have an awful lot of weed seeds in it to help clear those out; more beds will be under construction before too long and as usual I haven't really got my head around succession planting.

It has rained since Sunday.

A bit of an update although I haven't taken any new photos recently. I'm sure the many many rainy days we've just had have limited such creativity. Actually we had sunshine at 5am this morning, a glorious start to the day, it held such promise!

After great angst on the hen front we may well be back to normal service as we've had a few days of unpecked eggs. I can't lay claim to any secret weapon, we checked the eggs so frequently that the number of pecked eggs reduced which may have helped break their bad habit, we kept the hens to their pen rather than give them completely free range around the farm, we moved the grit closer to their house just in case they weren't getting enough. General experience from others indicates that you can't always cure them of this habit but we're hoping the bad spell is over...

Last weekend I went to the Wee Green Market in nearby Killearn, this was recommended by Caireen of the patchwork dress who I met through the blog but who lives just down the road. The WGM is a monthly market held in a village hall, partly for community fundraising and partly as a means of supporting and promoting local businesses. There were some super crafters such as Lynn of My Baboo who I have met before so it was really lovely to catch up. I'll certainly go again - especially for birthday presents.

Inspiration and 'eggsaperation'

We've had a great Easter holiday trip to Cornwall and return home with lots of inspiration from the Eden Project and the Lost Gardens of Heligan as well as having well-earned time out and larks as a family. As the weather warms up we can get on with some garden creation of our own....always remembering how long it actually takes to create these things. Our growing season is quite a few weeks behind the SW of England so the only thing I've put in the ground so far are fruit bushes. The main thing for us this year is to create the framework of our gardens, particularly the fruit and veg areas but also the entrance which still looks like a derelict farm and the little jungle which currently sits between the house and the office. In that area of overgrown shrubbery lurks a vast ground elder mess. The area is surrounded by buildings or hard landscaping so I'm hoping we can contain it and maybe even eradicate it (over a few years!). With lighter evenings and better weather we're in that optimistic phase of Spring gardening. And we've had our first flurry of rhubarb crumble making from the patch. wonderful Victorian rhubarb forcing pots at Heligan


pigs made from cork at Eden

Eden Project

The hens are infuriating at the moment. Their egg production has plummetted; this has happened before and we've usually found an alternative nest somewhere (hay barn or under a large shrub) where they've layed their eggs. However, after a couple of days at home and observing their activities it would seem that the birds are eating their own eggs. For the last 3 days we've had one egg per day from 9 hens and today I've found remnants of 3 other eggs in the hen house. Advice on various websites ranges from a cull (paradox given that these are rescued ex battery chooks) to blowing out a good egg and filling it with mustard/pepper or similar. What I've done today is put 2 plastic golf balls in the hen house in the mild and probably vain attempt to dissuade them from pecking their eggs. Web advice basically indicates that when one discovers how to get into the egg the others soon learn. Despite checking the eggs really frequently today we're not getting to them before they've been destoyed. This evening we used our last 3 eggs in a carbonara sauce. Giant's Head on the woodland walk at Heligan

and finally for today here's a photo of a juvenile sparrowhawk which found its way into my garden shed, perhaps it could have a word with the hens.

Spring Lambs & Other Creatures

The first phase of 5 raised beds took a bigger step forward this weekend with the final joinery and positions completed. Then followed the task of filling then wheeling lots (around 20 me thinks to fill the smallest bed) of barrows of well matured horse muck up the slope - Steve kept using the phrase 'the green gym' to keep me/us going! We popped a couple of hens into the first bed who worked diligently to create a finer till, the rest of the hens soon joined them in a frenzy to grab a few worms from the thousands wriggling in the muck. Later this week I'll be planting 3 blackcurrant bushes (Ben Lomond variety), 3 redcurrants (Jonkheer van Tets), 3 red gooseberrys (Red Dessert) and 3 green goosegogs ( Careless) in that particular bed. We'll also be putting a rabbit/hen proof wire around the perimeter to protect the crops. Next weekend will see a few more wheel barrows of muck shifting to fill the next beds

Quite a few lambs have already arrived but this weekend the children were around to witness the birth of triplets which was quite exciting. Initially they were engrossed but after number 2 arrived they got bored and wanted to go back to trampolining! Next weekend is the start of a busy lambing week with most of the remaining ewes due, so far there've been a couple every few days but the majority are still to deliver

An finally...we visited our friend's new pigs. They are tamworth x vietnamese pot bolly I think. Very amusing creatures.

Fine days

Last week our good buddies from Norfolk came for a holiday. As always it was lovely to catch up with them and it was also fun to have the house busy with the noise, mess and activities of two families. This marks one of those transitions between this place being a home rather than a house. Other self-builders have commented on the time it takes to settle in after designing, planning and constructing a house. Tamzin and her family bought us a beautiful handcrafted box for collecting apples from the orchard in years to come and some herbs for the garden. The herbs are being planted in the beds we've created between the top of the stone wall and the hen enclosure until we have formed our raised beds. The trailer in the picture above is full of plants ready to be put into the bed.

We officially had one rainy day in May.

We are in!

No news is good news..and also reflects the lack of an internet connection.

We are in! Hurrah. The recent glorious weather has provided the best of starts with the sunshine emphasising how fabulously light this house is right through to late evening. Its not properly dark for many hours in this part of the world as we approach midsummer so the changing light outside is a constant delight.

Lots of building info to convey but the detail will have to wait a few more days, as will photos. Time and attention is devoted to our business and family needs at present. Unpacking is a slow process but we have everything we need. Having lived in a caravan for 9 months it is clear that our lives don't need most of the 'stuff' we have packed away in boxes so there's no urgency in that area. We've been concentrating on making sleeping and eating areas comfortable.

Quick info for today's blog;
1. We are SO pleased with our house. Satisfaction and feel good factor is high.
2. The quality of the architecture and the build is superb.
3. 3 points to resolve for building control i) one step on the patio is of a different height to others, ii) lashing eyes are to be provided for a window cleaner to clean the large first floor bedroom window and iii) on the same window there is ongoing discussion whether an internal barrier/rail needs to be put in front of the window - its a fixed light but the building control officer is considering this point, more later on that
4. Externally we live on a rather rough looking plot - plenty of work in the years ahead.
5. The apple trees are in blossom and look stunning.
6. The poorly hen has recovered completely and the hens are completely free range now that the chances of being run over have diminished. About 5 eggs per day are being produced.
7. The temperature in the house is pretty even despite it being hot outside and the MVHR is at its lowest setting.
8. The slate floor is particularly terrific in terms of appearance.
9. There is some snagging but not much except relating to the windows which have a good number of small issues to resolve. The supplier is currently proving slow to deal with them despite our first contact being around 2 months ago now.
10. Phone line being connected on Friday allegedly.

News Update

Optimism over realism. We'll be in this caravan for a while longer!

The electrician has been here all day and has just about finished his remit which is terrific. Steve helped him fit the extractor hood this afternoon while I cleaned the childrens' rooms. A kind friend entertained the offspring for a couple of hours which was a great help indeed, thank you. This evening Steve is fitting the dishwasher while I tackle the last 100 pages of Hemingway's Farewell to Arms for book group tomorrow (well, I've had a lot of other things going on).

Yesterday the valuer from the Valuation Joint Board came to assess the house for Council Tax purposes. Although its not quite finished we'll find out which band we'll be placed in shortly. Last year I met the same guy as we had demolished the old house and were living in a caravan. Caravan living put us into band A which in this district amounts to around £850pa, the concept of which I really struggle with especially as our council has one of the worst Council Tax recovery rates in Scotland.

One of our hens has been fragile of late and we've thought it has a tumour but today it really seems more perky so hopefully it'll recover. Its difficult to say as hens tend to fade fast it they're not well. Bearing in mind these are ex battery hens we still have 8 out of the original 10 and have good egg production. Now that they are less likely to get run over by site traffic we let them roam free outside their pen so giving access to the field and, unfortunately an area where I have planted some bulbs which are now scrached to the surface.

Some of the apple trees are coming into leaf which is encouraging.

Hens eat fries!

The apple trees in position - if you look closely you can see 2 McDonalds fries on the cardboard, the scaffolders thought the hens might like a snack

Photos

One happy hen, good to see the sunshine again. Although freezing at night time. One house with vapour membrane complete. Imagine the condensation and damp here without a ventilation system in place. No draughts though.
One gorgeous view from our bedroom window.
One selection of electrical tagliatelle feeding into the utility room.One snapshot of infrastructure to the master bedroom en-suite. Heat recovery ventilation, hot and cold water feeds and returns, underfloor heating and soil pipe.

Rambling catch-up

Have realised that I haven't taken any new pictures in the past few days...sorry! Lots happening though so here's a random list....

We've taken deliveries of towel radiators (Molly had requested a purple one for their bathroom but thankfully B&Q haven't realised there's a market need out there yet); three Grohe showers purchased online from Bathrooms365; we've also purchased two bathroom units from B&Q, with slightly adventurous acid lime coloured fronts; and there is a shower tray on the way which should complete all purchasing for the bathrooms except for flooring and tiling;

The kitchen design is being tweaked hither and thither but we are hoping to be making a decision by the end of next week, essentially the decision is between Magnet and John Lewis; both have been good on customer attention so far and both have well manufactured products, the latter have a slightly better selection of unit sizes which is a plus point but we haven't had the final quotes yet!

The search for slate floor tiles and hardwood flooring is next (Steve's job) and also for sliding wardrobes for the bedroom and hall (my job); when we finish this house build we should have so much spare time...I wonder?

On site the work on installing the Heat Recovery Ventilation system ducting has commenced. Steve spent a bit of time with the electrician as the system was new to him, I don't pretend I can explain the detail so will let the engineer expand on that soon. The principle is that the house is so well insulated and airtight that ventilation is an important requirement, and the system we are installing continuously extracts stale, warm, moisture laden air from the house and replaces it with fresh air from outside, transferring the latent heat from the former to the latter in the process . Other electrical work is largely complete for this stage with the positions for electrical sockets and other outlets for lighting, telephone, DAB, SAT/TV, RJ45 (computer network - CAT5e cabling) all firmed up. Thankfully we'll be having some of those neat multimedia sockets so the house doesn't look like an electrical showroom.

I have been striving to get quotes from landscaping firms to undertake some tree planting around the perimeter before the current planting season is over. I am submitting an application for a grant scheme which the National Park operate and although the rules are numerous I hope to get some help towards improving the local landscape. In addition I have been perusing the website of Butterworths which is an Ayrshire based organic apple nursery. Last year I missed the planting season but want to get 12 apple trees planted shortly with a mix of eating and culinary varieties. The hens currently occupy the orchard plot in its bare and bleak state so I'm sure they'd welcome the trees. Butterworths is a really specialist and very well regarded small nursery and they have many old Scottish species which I hope we can have here. I shall include a cider variety too so that we can dust off Steve's Vigo apple press in future Autumns.

And finally..we did watch some TV this week and were pleased to see the Hugh FW and Jamie Oliver programmes on chickens. Obviously we are pleased to have our own former battery hens which have flourished and are still laying eggs through the winter. We don't have chicken very often because organic is expensive (but delicious) but we are wondering whether to get some chickens for the table as well as for their eggs.

5 more nights in the caravan ('til mid March anyway).......

Wild Weather

Last night was a hideous experience. Scotland is suffering from a deep low pressure system with wild hairy winds which buffetted us yesterday evening, through the night and only this afternoon is easing. Gusts were 60-80mph and I didn't sleep more than 30 mins last night. The children did well sleeping til 3am and 5am before coming to find Mum (Dad being ensconsed in a London hotel!) We cuddled and snoozed, wondering if it could get much worse.





As daylight arrived there was debris all over the place but no obvious significant damage. The house has little building paper remaining and the roof sheets were off which means water penetration yet again but these are remediable. A friend phoned to see if we needed rescuing which was very thoughtful. The notable shock was that the hen house was on its side about 4metres from its previous position. I opened the door with trepidation expecting some unpleasant scene and can thankfully report no casualties. Poor devils must have got a bit of a shock. We've put the house back on its feet and replaced the bits and bobs.



This afternoon the storm has abated but there are some very active clouds with an awful lot of wind still blasting around. If it gets worse then we're staying at a friend's house tonight!

After refixing some of the building paper the joiners were inside today continuing with the roof insulation. The barn load delivered the other week is rapidly disappearing and the house is getting 'cosy'.

Saturday morning

Its just turned 9am on Saturday and we've taken a further delivery of Pavatherm Plus insulating board so the joiners can finish off the external insulation layer. There was relatively little activity on site yesterday as we were waiting for this delivery and the sliding door sets (3 off). The latter is now likely to be next week, but apparently has arrived from Penrith. I think these are around 6 weeks overdue and it's dissappointing that the windows from Norway arrived some four weeks ago and are now installed having been ordered at the same time as the patio doors! The main front door is also late and is sourced from Sweden.
The other happening this morning relates to the lame hen. Although it had a couple of better days in the past week it has now gone lame in both legs and is incapable of independent movement. So we had to wring its neck. I thought I could do this yesterday when it probably needed to be done but hen started clucking at me and I just couldn't so now that Steve has returned from working away he did the deed this morning. No, we're not eating it. There's no meat to speak of anyway but as we're not sure what's wrong with it it seems the best move....anyone with greater knowledge please advise!
We've got a fox prowling around. I need to repair/replace a bit of wire at the bottom of the gate to the hen pen before we go out this morning. There are fox prints on the top of the nesting box and on the roof of the hen house so we need to be sure to lock up quickly at dusk.I wonder if that explains the dead hares and rabbit the other week although I thought there would be more damage to the prey?
Rural living!......... we're off to Edinburgh today to see Santa, reindeer, lights, ice sculptures etc.

Hens and Hedges

We've had company in the office today as one of the hens can't walk. At this stage we don't know if its a temporary state or permanent injury. Despite the impression created by this photo the hen's left leg has no power or weight bearing ability. So for today the hen has been in the warmth of the office in a box of hay with water and food; we're hoping the easy life will assist recovery but will see what tomorrow brings.

On other matters I spent some time last weekend drafting a brief for tree and hedge planting around the farm. I've had good chats with the National Park landscape officer and trees person and a local contractor so hope to get some prices back soon. The planting season for bare root stock lasts until March time. The other element of this is really to get some trees growing - as to quote the original farmer's son "he didn't like trees" so there aren't too many round here. I'm keen to get a small orchard planted to reap fruit in years to come.

Daily Changes

The two joiners erected much of the ground floor on Monday and Tuesday which has been really exciting. Its terrific to see the rooms take shape and we are really pleased with the size of the window openings, particularly as we spent a long time last winter working through that element of the design. The joiners can't progress further until the steel arrives, this is delayed but due next Wednesday. In the meantime the scaffolders have been taking delivery of their kit and today have erected scaffolding on the west and south elevations. This photo is taken through the caravan window.

By and large we've had good weather since the start of the build, it is very mild at present which makes life comfortable for early mornings in the caravan.....however the past 2 days weather have included a large amount of rain and the area at the back of the house is somewhat muddy. Thankfully the caravans are on a concreted area.

Final photos today - 2 days collection of eggs and a piccie of Dora; generally the hens are laying 4 eggs per day which is quite good I think for ex battery hens and for the time of year. We've no idea if some hens are not laying at all but those that are have been using the nesting boxes. At this time of year with the daily reduction in light levels we can expect them to lay fewer eggs but at the moment our hens seem quite consistent.

Hen House Happenings

The hens have flourished in the past week. Their egglaying is quite haphazard, some are using the nesting boxes, others are more random. Some days we get several eggs, some days one or two. We've probably had around 25 eggs in the last week. In the past few days we've kept them in the henhouse for longer periods as, apparently, that is how they learn where to head for at dusk. Hens, especially battery ones, have to learn 'stranger danger' ie to keep out of the reach of foxes at night. This evening only 2 needed lifting into the house whereas last week we were chasing the little devils around their enclosure (immensely hilarious if anyone was watching!). Rather bizarrely they crowd into the 3 nesting boxes, this evening 8 of them were squashed into the 3 small boxes.

We've now named 3 of them - Amanda, Dora and Maisie. Amanda is the one with most attitude also the one which has 'oven ready' areas of no feathers; Dora and Maisie have the darkest feathers, with Maisie having crops of white to differentiate.

The photo is of Amanda.

Chooks

Our chickens have arrived! On Saturday we took ownership of 10 rescue hens from the Battery Hen Welfare Trust and they seem to be settling in well. The charity essentially comes to an arrangement with a battery egg producer to rehome hens which have reached the end of their maximum production cycle. They still have plenty of eggs to lay (the breed is Isa Brown which is a hybrid known for good egg production) and in our first 2 days we've had 10 eggs from them. Before too long we'll be selling them locally.

The hens have had 2 sunny days to get used to the big wide world, what a contrast to their previous living conditions. Some are distinctly more adventurous than others and are exploring their new environment, so far they have not ventured very far from one corner of the enclosed area. The children are throughly enjoying their new responsibilities and helping with looking after our new pets.

On the building site - the men have finished laying the surface and rainwater run-offs into the lower field and the main house related activity is placing the 200mm of Jablite 70 polystyrene insulation board which is one of the key elements in keeping the house warm from the ground up. The sun is bouncing off the brilliant white polystyrene, its quite dazzling. Hopefully tomorrow the underfloor heating team arrive to attach the pipe circuits to the grid.