New arrivals

Yesterday saw some new arrivals at Burrow Downs. A trio of mille fleur Belgian d'Uccle. Bruce has been after me to get some after seeing them at a Poultry auction a while back, and I finally managed to locate some nice birds to add to our menagerie.

They are now settling into the quarantine pen in the shed after their long trip, which gives us an opportunity for lots of handling while they are there for the next week or so.  Isolating new birds and stock when they first arrive helps reduce the chances of introducing illness or disease into the existing stock.

Belgian d'Uccle are such sweet, and quite quirky little bantams.  They are a 'true bantam' which means there is no larger form of them (unlike our Faverolles, which have both an original larger type as well as the bantams). Developed in the Belgian town of Uccle, they have beards and muffs and feathered feet. They come in a variety of colours.  We chose to get mille fleur as Bruce loved the colour. He calls them 'dot cam' birds as the pattern looks a bit like a military uniform autumn dot camoflage  pattern!

We are looking forward to having these little guys around.

Using what we have - part 2



We seem to have chickens everywhere at the moment! This has involved multiple pens and brooders as some are still too young to go in with the older age groups. Of course multiple groups means multiple drinkers and feeders.

The commercial drinkers and feeders are great, but after a while it can be expensive to buy them, particularly when you need quite a few of all different sizes to suit different aged chicks. I have tried just putting the feed into pans and dishes, but this way there is a lot of wastage.  The chicks stand in the feed and scratch it out into the bedding. I was going through a lot of feed this way, forever topping up the dishes.  That can be expensive too. I needed a better solution.

After searching around on the internet for a while I decided I would try and make my own. Well, I can tell you it was so easy and I am so pleased with the results! I now have much less food wastage, the chicks are happy and it cost me nothing to make.

I used an empty yoghurt container and cut four holes about 2cm square each around the sides at the bottom. The red arrows in the picture on the right are pointing to where the holes are. I then cut down a plastic container we had (about the size of an ice cream container) so that the sides were low enough for the chicks to eat from.  This was to be the base. I positioned the holes so that they empty out into the bigger corners of the base. The two are then held together with a screw which goes up through the base and into the bottom of the yoghurt container (it is inside so nothing can get hurt on it).  Fill it up, and you are ready to go.

Now to look around and see what I can find to make into bigger feeders.

Merry Christmas to all

Such a crazy time of year as everyone prepares for Christmas Day and the holidays.  I was shopping in town yesterday doing some final preparations and thanking the heavens I didn't have much to do.  We are staying home this year so things will be quieter than usual, but I think we will enjoy the break and the time to simply take stock and prepare for the new year.  This break I want to take the time to breathe, stop for a minute, look over what we have achieved, and look forward towards what we will do in the new year. I have so many plans for the next year and it should be exciting time if I achieve even close to the things I want to in that time. I am looking forward to sharing our progress here with you.

While I plan to take some time out, I also seem to have a list a mile long of things I want to get done!  There are garden beds to be weeded, a shed to clean out, new chicken pens to build. The chicken pens are my Christmas present! Call me crazy, but frankly that pleases me more than gifts of perfume, jewellery or other things that you use once or twice and put in a cupboard. After a long cold spell here (when will summer start?), the vegetable gardens are finally starting to make progress so there will hopefully be plenty of picking and some more planting to do as well. There is no excuse for boredom here.

Christmas day will be fairly simple for us this year, but will basically follow our usual format for a Christmas lunch.  Local ham, roast turkey and chicken, home made potato and green salads and Christmas pudding made using my mother's recipe. We eat lots of fresh fruit at Christmas time too.  Cherries, peaches and apricots which make the kitchen smell beautiful.  It is hard not to pick one up to eat everytime we walk through! A boxing day brunch of 'eggs benedict' with our own eggs, spinach from the garden and leftover ham with thick crusty home made bread carries us through. I am salivating just thinking about it.

So to everyone this holiday period, wishing you all the best for the season, however you celebrate it and reminding you to take the time in amongst all the craziness to breath and enjoy the simple things. I leave you with one of my favourite Australian carols which I hope you enjoy.

Poddy lamb update

The poddy lambs have been going great guns. They have grown well and are actually catching up to the Wiltipoll lambs who are a bit older than them. They are still loving their morning and evening bottle, though we have started the weaning process now.  Much to their disgust their morning feed has now been halved.  Soon their afternoon feed will be halved too.  They have plenty of grass in the orchard - it has been such a good season - and also have free access to sheep pellets to supplement.  In January they will be totally weaned and we will bring the Wiltipoll in from the big paddock to wean their lambs as well.

Of the two lambs, I have to say that Flopsy is may favourite.  She is the one that loves pats and cuddles.  Sox is more standoffish and flighty.  That is them in the photo - Flopsy is the one in front.  The photo was taken a couple of weeks ago before their tails dropped off.  They seem to have doubled in size since then!  Not bad for a couple of newborn orphans.

Love is a new chicken brooder

Forget perfume and jewellery, true love is when your other half makes you a new chicken brooder/broody box just because he thinks you might like one.


New chicken brooder box

This box is the ants pants. Designed to keep growing chickens safe from predators, it has solid sides and wire top and bottom as well as a fully covered section which can be closed off with a little door. Very important as around here we have our share of predators.  Its first try this afternoon with some chickens in it saw one of our local Nankeen Kestrels sitting on the fence screeching while it had a closer look. Uncovered little chicks are not safe around here.


The box under construction

The starting point for the box was a wooden shelf set - on special at $17.00 from the hardware store. The rest was made with bits and pieces in the shed. A couple of coats of fence paint and it was ready to go.  The chicks certainly seem to like it as much as I do!

Chickens enjoying their new home

Just like Cleopatra

Cleopatra is apparently known for hatching a chicken that she incubated between her breasts.  Luckily these days we have incubators, but the information came in handy when the broody hen left some unhatched eggs behind in the nest.  As the eggs had been laid over a period of time, and broody had been sitting on them from the beginning, the chicks hatched over several days. 

By the end poor little hen couldn't sit any more as new chicks needed to be out and about eating and drinking, so some eggs were left behind.  I took them up to the house to dispose of as they were cold, but candled them just to see how far along they were.  To my surprise one little chick had pipped internally and was starting to make its break for freedom! Not having any incubator space available, I remembered the Egyptian queen and tucked the egg down my shirt to keep warm while I set up another incubator to try and hatch it in. Little chick must have liked it's warm spot as before to long it was cheeping away happily in its shell. After about an hour or so, it was into the now warm incubator and hello world.

Interestingly enough, this little chick, while it has been living with some slightly older siblings in the brooder from the time it came out of the incubator, is actually quite bonded to me.  It loves to sit on my hand and snuggle in to my neck.  Fingers crossed it is a girl, as if it is I am bound to call her Cleopatra!

From farm to plate

For some of what we eat we talk in food metres rather than miles.  A rainy day today so I decided to do some cooking with all that spinach we have coming out our ears (Popeye would be in heaven). The result was a heap of spinach and ricotta pies, using our own spinach and eggs.  Very easy to make and I freeze them so I can take them to work for lunch or we can have them with a salad or veggies for dinner.

Recipe: wash, chop and blanch spinach so is soft and wilted. Dice an onion and fry in pan so it is soft (you can substitute shallots or chives here if you have them growing in the garden - I often do.  No need to fry them in the pan first if you use them instead). Combine spinach, onion, ricotta cheese and an egg or two in a bowl.  Add salt and pepper to taste. If using pre-prepared pastry sheets, cut into quarters. Push each square into a muffin tin or small ramekin (you can make one big pie too if you prefer). Spoon in some mixture.  Fold corners of the pastry down over the mixture.  Bake in a moderate oven until brown.

Hello world!

The eggs under the broody hen are hatching.  This little one popped out today to say hello.

Using what we have

It is so tempting and easy sometimes to just go and buy what we need. So many things these days come ready made or in kit form. you don't need to think, you just go buy it and install it. With a little thought and sometimes some lateral thinking though, you can build what you need with what you have and it will do the job just as well, and often better, for much less. When we moved in here, I needed hooks to hang things on. I wanted lots of them in the utility cupboard under the stairs and on the wall outside the door for hanging hats, outdoor coats and dog leads. My dear other half raided the workshop and came up with some pine offcuts and some dowel. A few coats of leftover stain from doing the windows on the house and it looks fantastic. Better than a bought one!

Sheep shelters here get the same 'use what you have' treatment.  A few wooden pallets, some star pickets and some leftover colorbond from building the shed and we have a very solid and practical shelter. To build, stand a pallet on its side and drive a star picket down through the gap at each end.  Do the same with the other pallet so they are facing each other to make the ends of the shelter. Lay about three beams across between the pallets to make a support for the roof and nail/drill/tie them to the pallets.  You can use wood - we used some metal cross beam offcuts from the shed. Screw or nail your corro/colourbond or other roofing material to these beams. We also put colourbond across the back and screwed it each end to the pallets.  It didn't need supports and the whole structure is very strong, even in our high winds. If you wanted to be sure though, you could add cross beams or simply use a couple more pallets for the back.  The shelter in the orchard has an addition made to it, as well.  A few more pallets at the back, a bit more colourbond, and we have another shelter that provides a bit more protection from the weather and is perfect for lambs.  We have built our lamb pen around this. The chickens love hanging out in it too. 

Eating local and sharing with others

I had someone from my work contact me this week.  They heard through the grapevine that I grow vegetables and wanted to know if I would be able to supply them with fresh produce each week.  We often have surplus of certain things so I decided I would be happy to share what I have, when I have some to share. That is part of what it is all about, after all - building a strong local community network for the production and consumption of local home grown foods. When you have excess that can't readily be stored, why not share it. This week they are eating some of our lovely oak leaf lettuce, baby spinach and parsley, picked fresh on the day of delivery. Theoretically it cost nothing to transport as I was not making any extra trips to deliver it. To me, this is how our food should be grown and sourced. Fresh, local, seasonal and shared.

Chip, chip, cheep!

Today is day 21 of incubation. The theoretical 'hatching day' for chicks.  In reality we started hatching at day 18 and chicks have been emerging at regular intervals ever since.  As I type we have chicks in the process of emerging from their shells. It is such a long slow process so on advice I am trying not to look too often! Easier said than done.  I know some people make a point of going out on hatching day so they don't get too impatient. 

Something I didnt know before: When the chicks begin to hatch they still have the yolk attached to them.  They need to absorb it before they hatch completely.  One of the reasons why you shouldn't try to help a chick out of the egg.  It will come out when it is ready. 

Some of the early chicks were getting just a bit too impatient and rowdy after being in the incubator for 36 hours and were pecking at each other and the emerging chicks, so I took a risk and took them out.  So far so good and both the chicks in the brooder and eggs and chicks still in the incubator are doing well. The chicks in the brooder have now had a drink, have started eating and are much happier, having settled in under the heat lamp.  Not long and the rest will be joining them!

Fresh from the Salad Bar

One of the things I like about growing our own vegetables is that I can walk outside and pick something from the garden and within minutes can be eating it for lunch or dinner. It is early in the season for us here but already we have a 'salad bar' of lots of leafy greens and herbs to pick. Frankly I have lettuce coming out of my ears at the moment and there is no way we can eat enough salads to use it all!

We have artichokes too.  I picked some this morning and now have to decide what I am going to do with them. I have Maggie Beer's book Maggie's Harvest which is a wealth of information on preparing and using different ingredients and one of my favourite books. I will probably pull that out to get some ideas.  I am thinking we will eat these ones fresh.  The smaller ones coming on now I will try preserving. 

A few more weeks and the garden should be going full steam. The bean and pea seeds have sprouted, the tomatoes and capsicums are growing well now there is less chance of frosts, and I planted cucumber, zucchini and yellow squash seedlings this morning. The bok choi is well on its way too so we will be eating them soon as well.

Tag, you're it!

Today is a big day for the poddy lambs. Today they are getting their ear tags, having their tails banded and are being vaccinated. The older Wiltipoll lambs were done weeks ago, but as these little ones are younger, they are getting done now. At three weeks of age they are growing strongly and putting on lots of weight.  These two are out of the lamb pen during the day now, learning how to graze in the orchard and having a fun time running, exploring, and chasing the chooks around the yard.

We tag the sheep on the ear to identify them so we can keep track of individuals and bloodlines.  It is also now a requirement that all sheep be identified and traced in accordance with the National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) .  Each property must have its own Property Identification Code (PIC).  Amazing how much paperwork and red tape there is to comply with these days, even for a small farm. On our tags we have our PIC, plus a number to identify the individual sheep.  Each years lambs get a different colour tag. This year they are green.

Like a mother hen - part 2

One of our hens is broody.  Seriously broody.  Usually I try to break their broodiness early if possible so the egg supply doesnt reduce too much, but there was no stopping this determined little hen!  She is sitting tight and fluffing herself up with an angry look and peck if you get too close. I have decided I might as well make use of mother natures incubator and set some eggs under her so tonight she and the eggs will be moving to the broody pen and we will see if the move agrees with her and she stays sitting.

The sooner we move her out of the main coop the better.  One hen sitting on a nest box can prompt the others to go broody too and yesterday we had another try it on for size.  She decided this morning that she wasn't serious though and after a bit of indecision went off to follow her pals hanging out in the lamb pen.

As for the eggs in the incubator, they were candled at 14 days yesterday and all looks good for most of them.  I am happy as we have had storms this week and lost power a few times.  Lucky not for more than an hour or so each time, but it can still affect the eggs.  At least I have a broody hen now, so if we have any more blackouts I can always pop them under her.

Preparing for a rainy day

We have been a bit slack lately and have let our supplies get a little low. Maybe not low by some peoples standards - we could probably live a few weeks on what we have here with a little creativity and a lot of monotony - but it is not as organised as I would like it to be. So, at the moment I am working on restocking and making sure we have a reasonable amount in reserve for that proverbial or literal rainy day.

Last year during all the floods I was reminded how important stockpiles can be.  We are in a good position here on a hill so our biggest problem is being cut off rather than washed away. As we have quite a few low creek crossings on the road to our place though, that can happen fairly quickly, so it pays to make sure we have enough supplies here to last should we need them.  Last year we were cut off for a while and in reality it didn't really affect us much - apart from having to stay home - as we had what we needed right here.  I must admit to being aghast, however, when the radio reported that food drops were being arranged for people living in a rural 'lifestyle block' area a bit closer to the city as their properties had been cut off from town and they were desperate for supplies .... after only two days!  Are some people really that unprepared and undersupplied?  Particularly those that live out of town?  How long could you last on your supplies?

Other events have reinforced my belief that being prepared is practical.  The eathquakes in New Zealand and the experiences of friends and family there brought the need to be prepared for the 'unexpected' back home to me. I was reminded of that again this week by a friend in the US who has lived for over a week without power and running water and limited road access after major storms. Remember that no power may also mean no ATM access and no money to buy things - if you can get anywhere to buy it in the first place. So, we are stocking up again so that a shorter term emergency at least doesn't become more stressful that it needs to be.

There are lots of tips on the net about how to stockpile.  One of my favourite forums Aussies Living Simply discusses this quite frequently and there is lots of great advice there on how to go about it.  The bare basics though are really a decent safe water supply and a decent food supply.  For us water is not such a major issue.  We rely on tanks so have a ready supply right here.  I do keep a supply of water in bottles and containers in our pantry too though. Food wise I have been trying to keep a supply of drygoods.  Flour, rice, pasta, salt, milk powder, dried beans & peas and so on.  Then there is a supply of canned and bottled goods. Canned goods that can be eaten cold in an emergency or used with things like rice to bulk them out. Oil and vinegar and canned vegetables like tomatoes and corn and such.  Surplus from the garden that has been preserved.  I really need to do more of this, but we have a few things. One of my aims this year is to grow enough to put away as well as eat fresh. Our wood heater has an oven and stovetop, and we have a gas BBQ and portable camping stove, so we can boil water and cook.

Our garden, chooks and other livestock also provide us with supplies too and should help in a longer term situation as well as the short term. The more self sufficient we are the less we have to worry that we can't run down to the shops because the road is cut or there is no fuel or power or the supermarket will be closed for the day...or longer.  I just don't want to be like those people who need foods drops just because they can't go shopping on a rainy day.

Responsible livestock guardian dog breeding

Anyone involved in breeding livestock for profit or purpose will know that to improve your chances of success you need a plan and you need to pay close attention to your breeding program. Type and structure is important and they need to be able to do the job they are designed for. Have a plan and you have a better chance of success.  Why oh why then don't many of these same people understand that this applies to dogs as well?  The same people who are so careful breeding and raising their livestock are happy to go out and buy a livestock guardian dog from anywhere  - a dog often produced with no care or plan in relation to its breeding and raising.  Then they wonder why it doesn't work out or write all livestock guardian dogs off as useless. It simply doesn't make sense to me.  It you are going to invest in an animal to protect your quality and valuable stock, why would you take your chances on a possibly inferior animal?  Investing in a good livestock guardian is like investing in a good ram or bull.  Sure any old scrubber might get results, but they may not be good ones, or the ones you want. You want an dog that can work with you as an important part of your farm team. They are there to protect your investment and livelihood so it can pay to treat them as the valuable asset they are.

Breeding and raising a good livestock guardian dog starts well before the dog is born.  It means carefully choosing the best breeding stock, paying attention to genetics, to health, to structure and to breed type.  Basically it means making sure that you start with a good foundation of healthy, structurally fit animals, with a known pedigree of healthy and structurally fit animals, that have the inbuilt ability to do their job.  To do this you need to choose a breeder that pays attention to these details - who breeds according to a well thought out and researched plan.

But those dogs advertised on your local for sale site were 'bred on the farm' so 'will make good livestock dogs', right?  Wrong. Let me tell you that being bred on a farm doesnt guarantee anything. Just like every ram lamb born on a farm is not going to be your next top stud ram (or even a decent flock ram).  All it means is that it was born on a farm - nothing more.  There is much more to choosing a good dog than the place it was born and while some good dog breeders do own farms, some don't.  Even in their country of origin some of the better breeders of working livestock guardian dogs don't necessarily live on farms.  But they know what traits they should have, they know how to raise them properly and they know how to help choose one that has a good chance of being a good livestock guardian with the right management. And the right management can be just as important too, but that is a whole other topic.

So, where do you go to look for a good breeder? A good place to start is with a breeder who is registered with one of the State member bodies of the Australian National Kennel Council. Just as you have societies and associations for different livestock breeds, this is the one for dogs. A good place to find a list of some registered breeders is the Dogzonline website.  Click on the 'breed pages' link to go to a list of breeds.  The livestock guardian dog breeds currently in Australia include Anatolian Shepherd Dog, Central Asian Shepherd Dog, Komondor, Kuvasz, Maremma Sheepdog, Pyrenean Mastiff, Pyrenean Mountain Dog, Spanish Mastiff and Tibetan Mastiff.  To learn more about these different breeds and livestock guardian dogs in general visit the Livestock Guardian Dogs website. I highly recommend a visit to their 'Library' page.

The Tyranny of Distance

There are lots of benefits to living in the country, and I wouldn't change that for the world. One of the things we have to deal with though is the fact that to get anywhere takes a bit of time. As we don't earn what you could call an income from the farm, working somewhere else is a must. For me that means an hour drive each way to get to work and the expense of petrol and a car to get me there. Unlike 'cityfolk' we don't have the option of a bus or train or riding a bike to work so a car it has to be. And those petrol bills can really add up! I am lucky as my job allows me to work from home a couple of days per week. A big plus for me as I love being able to stay at home and work in my office here. It does reduce the petrol costs a bit and gives me that travel time back. For the other three days a week though, and whenever we need to do something on the weekend, I need to hit the roads.

I have been debating car types lately. Trying to find the best car to do the jobs we need it to do has been daunting. A ute would be a bonus around the farm - we need a vehicle that can tow stuff and carry stuff and does ok bumping through the paddocks. To drive into town a small economical car would be better to reduce the fuel bill. To cart my dogs around to shows and other events I would love a van. You can't fit too many Pyreneans plus gear in a normal car! But having three different cars is impractical so at the moment I muddle on with the old 4WD which does none of the jobs perfectly, but at least it does them all.

I will say that driving in the country is much more pleasant than through city streets. I do enjoy the 'break'. A lot less vehicles to deal with and no traffic lights. On the other hand, defensive driving is as much a necessity out here too as while the human traffic may be less we have traffic of a different kind. Depending on the time of day I regularly see kangaroos, wallabies, echidna, wombats, possums, turtles, foxes, rabbits, snakes, lizards, owls (who like to hunt from the road at night) and all manner of other bird life who like to swoop in front of the car or sit on the road. I have even had a wedge tailed eagle swoop down in front of the car as I was driving along our road. It gave me quite a fright I must say. And then there are the neighbours goats, but we wont go there. Some days it can be quite a slalom course trying to avoid all the animals and you really do need to keep your mind on the job. While the distance has its problems though I wouldn't change living here for quids. There are too many positives to living away from the shops and chaos and close living of the city. We love our space too much. So for now we continue the commute and enjoy the scenery as we drive.

Taming the Tussock

One of the most time consuming and expensive things most farms will have to deal with is managing weeds. It can be a never ending issue. One of our biggest problems here is Serrated Tussock. It can take over very quickly if not controlled and nothing really eats it so the more tussock you have the less decent food you have for stock. And then there is the Patterson's Curse and Sifton Bush. We were free of Patterson's Curse until a couple of years ago, but a neighbour bought in some contaminated feed during the drought so we are now tackling that too. Amazing how fast the weeds can spread. We are spot spraying this week. I hate using chemicals but at the moment it seems to be the only way to deal with the problem until we get it to more managable levels. There is just too much to take out by hand. We are making headway, though it may take a couple more years to get the tussock hit on the head. Frankly, we need more stock and more fences too to better manage it. We are building them up slowly. The paddocks are looking so much better than they were during the drought when we bought the place though - they have gone from bare and overgrazed to lush and well covered. It all takes time, and we just have to keep on top of those weeds.....

Visiting Allsun

There was no sun yesterday, and plenty of rain off and on. Great for the paddocks and gardens but not so great for a visit to the Allsun Farms Organic Fair. Still, gardeners and growers aren't going to be put off by a bit of rain! The tour of the commercial garden was in full swing when I arrived so I joined in for a wander around to learn how they do things. I visited Allsun last year for their open garden too and it was interesting to see what had changed. Lots of stalls to browse and buy at this year which was great and fresh locally grown produce to eat for lunch, including some grown on the property. After eyeing them off for a few years I bought some new tools for the garden from the Gundaroo Tiller. They got a workout in our own gardens thismorning and I must say I love them! They will make life so much easier. It was interesting to hear stressed throughout the day that there is a big need for more growers around Canberra and the surrounding region and that there is plenty of market there for more people to take advantage of. A group called Growing the Growers has been formed to encourage more people into the food production side of farming.

Meet the dogs

Time to introduce the dogs, which are my love and passion. I am sure you will get to read a lot more about them in the future, but for now a bit of an introduction. I have Pyrenean Mountain Dogs. A breed of livestock guardian dog from the Pyrenees Mountains in France. My dogs are pets, show dogs, and also family farm dogs. They protect the house yard and orchard and all who are in it, including lambs and chickens, from predators like foxes. Luckily we don't have too much in the way of predators here compared to some places in the world. Pyrs are bred to protect stock from wolves and bears and do that very well. The dogs warn the predators that they are on duty by barking. It can be a problem in suburbia, but here I love listening to their deep bark as it echoes down our valley. I know the foxes will be going elsewhere for their dinner. All our neighbours bait with 1080 to protect their flocks. I hate the stuff (as horrible and indiscriminate as it is) and refuse to have anything to do with it. We actually have no need for it here with the dogs though. I have a separate website for the dogs - under our kennel name which is Espinay.

Like a mother hen

Eggs went in the incubator last night.  Like a mother hen I am checking all the time to make sure they are ok and not getting too hot or cold.  These are from our flock of Bantam Salmon Faverolles. I love this breed of chicken. Small enough to manage easily and economically, but still big enough to make a decent utility bird for both meat and eggs, quiet, good winter layers so we have eggs all year and pretty with their beard and muff, leg feathers and extra toes.  Fingers crossed for some nice little peeps in 21 days!

Spring, so lets begin

Well, it is spring here at Burrow Downs, though with the cold winds and overcast skies here today you wouldn't really know it. Still spring means new beginnings so it is as good a time as any to start a blog. While it is cold, there are lots of new beginnings here at Burrow Downs at the moment. After a slow cold winter the vegetable and herb gardens and beginning to look green and inviting again and we have new lambs in the paddocks. Also two newborn crossbred poddy lambs given to us after they were born at the abbatoir when their mothers were sent to slaughter. Once grown, Flopsy and Sox as they have been nicknamed will be joining our flock to breed lambs for our freezer. With the cold here they are wearing jackets at night to keep them warm in the lamb pen.