Poultry everywhere!

The June long weekend saw the National Poultry Show being held in Canberra.  A once in every four year event, over 5 thousand birds were on exhibition over three days. What a great opportunity it was to meet with breeders, to see quality birds and to go shopping!  Lots of free food samples and lots of great things to buy and I did come home with my fair share of new supplies (drinkers, chick feeders, leg rings etc etc).I had arranged for a pair of Bantam Salmon Faverolles from a breeder in Victoria and took delivery of these on the first day.  They will hopefully help a lot in my breeding program by improving on a few areas in particular for me. I also arranged to buy a lovely silve quail Belgian d'Uccle pullet who was entered in the show.  I love this colour and am so pleased to get some!  I have a thing for white animals with 'colour highlights' it seems.  There was also an auction held on the final day which was a great opportunity to buy birds, though some of the prices being paid were quite amazing. Some individual birds sold for around $700! I had my eye on a sweet little mille fleur d'Uccle pullet, but her final price of $200 was too rich for me. I did however, come away with a lovely black d'Uccle hen and a silver quail d'Uccle pair so I was happy.

So now I seem to have chooks coming out my ears! I have just sold the last of my 'non-keepers' from last seasons breeding, but still I seem to be needing more pens to house all the breeding pairs and trios.  At the moment we have housed them temporarily in dogs runs and pens.  All very comfortable, but they need pens of their own (I want my dog runs back!) so we are madly in construction mode at the moment.  Things have been made easier too by the gift of some old rabbit cages from a friend.  A good clean up and a coat of paint and it has taken on a new life as training/quarantine/broody hen/night cages. By breeding season we should be well set up and ready for the influx of new chicks!

My Travelling and My Dogs

Time sure does get away from you when you are busy. There is always something going on here that needs doing.  Recently though I have been travelling. Leaving the farm to go travelling is not always easy, but this time my OH stayed to keep the home fires burning and take care of everyone. I, on the other hand, was off to the USA to attend the Great Pyrenees Club of America National Specialty Show.  That is what they call Pyrenean Mountain Dogs in North America - 'Great Pyrenees'.

I had a great time talking with other breeders and seeing lots of dogs.  These trips are always useful as in my opinion if you are really interested in the welfare of a breed and being a 'best practice' breeder, you need to look internationally for information and perspective - not just confine yourself to your own backyard. This can apply as much to sheep and poultry as it does dogs. There is also plenty of good information and ideas internationally which can be applied to our small farming practices. Seeing what other people are doing is how we learn.

Of course travelling can have it's down side too. While coming home reinvigorated and with new thoughts and ideas, there are always jobs waiting when you get home. In my case I came home to the worry of a sick cockerel.  We never did quite work out exactly what the cause was, but thankfully now he is back in good health after being isolated from the others and living in a dog crate in our family room for a couple of weeks. I think he enjoyed all the attention.

Anyway, back to the show in the US.  The show was held in a big hotel in Pennsylvania at the foot of the Poconos Mountains. The show ring was set up in the ballroom of the hotel and dogs and their owners took over the place for the week, with many dogs staying in the rooms with their owners.  I like this about many places overseas - the dogs are made much more welcome in many places. As well as the show itself, there was lots ot buy and silent auctions of all sorts of treasures held every day.  My prize purchases included some lovely artwork of Pyreneans doing their job in the fields and a signed first edition copy from 1949 of Madame Harper Trois Fontaine's book 'My Travelling and My Dogs'. A wonderful book from one of the first breeders to introduce the Pyrenean breed into the UK from France with many insights into the breed and individual dogs from the pre and post WWII era, and a very special addition to my collection. You see more pictures and read more about my experiences at the show on my website.

Holidays mean more time for work!

The Easter holiday weekend has been and gone now.  So many people have I am sure enjoyed their break, heading off to the coast or camping with the family or enjoying other holiday pursuits. While it is definitely great to take time out occasionally, holidays on the farm generally mean grabbing the opportunity for a few days of solid work.  There are always things that need to be done and even visitors are roped into help. We are building some new chicken pens at the moment to keep our breeding groups and grower flocks better separated. The job for the Easter weekend was to dig holes and put in posts for the fences. Hiring a post hole digger helped a lot, though much of the ground is hard clay and rock so even it had a bit of a problem in some spots. Nice to kick back after a hard days work though with good company and a lovely meal of home grown roast lamb.

Bring on the dawn

Life is never dull on the farm and the cycle of the seasons always brings something new.  Nights are not always so peaceful at the moment. Foxes are out and about and are making a racket as they establish their territories prior to the breeding season.  Listen to the sound they make. As a result, the dogs have been on high alert and have been patrolling and barking their warnings off and on all night.  Early this morning was the most busy and I heard at least three different foxes calling to each other (there are probably more). With disturbed sleep (admittedly also partly due to my other half's snoring!) I was up and about well before dawn. Something that is not that uncommon here throughout the year really, but it was Sunday and I had hoped for a little sleep in for once. Being up early though has its benefits, and I was able to watch and enjoy a wonderful sunrise.  I took a picture so you could enjoy it with me. Of course that old weather lore rhyme is brought to mind: 'Red sky in morning, shepherd's warning. Red sky at night, shepherd's delight'. As the rhyme predicted, it is windy and raining now.

Guarding the flock

It is fox breeding season and we can hear them calling quite a lot at night at the moment.  The hawks are also quite active with their hunting right now and we have seen the eagles quite a lot of late as well. As a result the dogs have been busy, particularly in the early evening, patrolling and barking a warning for the predators to stay away. During the day they are more relaxed but still vigilant, particularly for predators on the wing. Grace in particular is great with the chickens. She is calm when moving around them and they trust her.  They respect her too. The photos are of Grace hanging out in the Faverolles cockerel pen.  The cockerels are like a bunch of young louts at times and can get a bit rowdy, seemingly forming gangs and looking to rumble. In the bottom picture you can see Grace walking purposely through the middle of them to break things up and calm them down. She does a good job keeping them in line. A bit of trivia:  Pyrenean Mountain Dogs and Faverolles chickens are both French breeds, and both have extra toes.

Roosters roosters everywhere

One thing to keep in mind about breeding chickens is you will always end up with a surplus of roosters. And you always seem to end up with more roosters hatched than there are hens! We have separated this seasons pullets and cockerels now and are in the process of deciding who stays and who goes.  I will only keep the few best to continue on with the breeding program. I am slowly working to improve my lines each year.  Today we put leg rings on the birds who are 'under observation' as keepers (the photo is of one of those contenders). I have spent hours so far just sitting or standing and watching them, chatting and interacting with them and looking at the strengths and weaknesses of the different birds as they develop. Some can change a lot and some can surprise you with changes for better and for worse. In addition to the ones that will stay, some will be sold. There are some though - all those excess roosters - that require another solution.  No one buys roosters unless they are good ones and even then there is often a surplus. Truthfully you can't give them away either for the most part. Particularly in the numbers I have here. So the boys who are left will be culled and will go in our freezer to be eaten. Their life therefore has good purpose even if it is a fairly short one.  Though it is a life far better than most if not all of those chickens found in a supermarket.

Little d'Uccle

Here is our little d'Uccle chick, now 5 1/2 weeks old.  He looks to be a cockerel and the colour looks like it will be silver millefleur!  He is very pretty and perky.  Quite a character. Yes, he will be staying here at Burrow Downs for a while so we can see how he develops. If he turns out as nice as I think he may I may have to see if I can get him a couple of nice girls!

Support your local show

On of those great institutions which so reflect Australian country life is the local agricultrural show. Growing up in Queensland I have vivid memories of my Grandfather working on the fruit displays at the 'aggie' shows, including at the Ekka in Brisbane. All the fruit and vegetable growing associations in those days would build these marvellous themed displays, building pictures with their fruit and vegetables. I also remember my mother entering in the cooking competitions with her wonderful cakes.

As a teenager I rode and showed horses at shows, and enjoyed the fun with friends and competition at the small agrigultrual shows and the excitement of the big events - the 'Royal' shows (which are big agricultural shows held in the cities which 'bring the country to the city').

Now I show dogs so I still get to go along to a lot of aggie shows, run in towns all over the state. Something I thoroughly enjoy.  There is nothing like the fun and festivity of a local show and I still feel the excitement going to the big 'Royals'.

While horse and dog events often predominate, there are often lots of other things to see and do and to take part in. Of course there are the sideshow alley rides, fairy floss and dagwood dogs, but also the vegetable and baking competitions, art competitions, crafts and other animal competitions and displays. Everyone in the family can have a go at competing in something.

It would be a shame to see these wonderful events die. Already they are changing and many small shows struggle.  During the Equine Influenza outbreak where for several years horse could not travel or be shown, many small shows suffered a lot, and some will take many more years to recover. 

I like to do my part by entering and supporting them and we always have a good time.  I would encourage everyone to have a go. Seek out some local shows near you, find out what events they are having, and put in an entry or two. Keep the country crafts and traditions alive. At the very least go along. I am positive you will have a great day out. See http://www.agshowsnsw.org.au/ for information on agricultural shows in NSW. Google for info in other states.

Eating what we grow

One of the things I really enjoy is being able to eat the things we grow.  When it comes to vegetables, there is nothing better than eating what you have picked that day.  This year the vegetable garden has been a challenge as we have had unusually cool weather all summer.  Things haven't grown quite the way they usually do.  We have still managed to feed ourselves reasonably well from our own garden, but I am finding we have not so much surplus this year.  This mornings haul from the garden doesn't look too bad though so I decided to take a picture for you. We have scarlet runner beans, roma tomatoes, zucchini, button squash, carrots, capsicums and parsnips. Strangely enough this year has actually been the first year I have been really successful with capsicums.

Lambs growing up

The lambs have now all been weaned.  They are growing fast and with the abundant feed we have at the moment are doing well.  I am pleased too that the ewes didn't lose condition at all this year despite leaving the lambs on them until 5 months of age. We are supplementing the lambs with some sheep pellets each day, mainly so they get used to us after being out in the big paddock with their dams.  I like the sheep to be able to come when called for a bucket.  Makes them so much easier to put in the yards when we need to if they will go in willingly themselves. They are shedding their first coats now too, though they don't always lose it all the first year. Photo is of the Wiltipoll lambs today. A big change from the tiny babies they were when they were born in September!

Natural Rodent Control

Build a house anywhere and before too long the mice move in. On a farm there are lots of tasty things for mice to eat and mice can quickly build to plague proportions if you are not careful.  I wont use baits to kill mice. There is too much danger of some other animal getting in to them around here.  So we need to use other means to keep them at manageable levels. I say manageable as there is no way we will ever get rid of them. And I don't mind mice really.  As long as they dont eat and poo on everything in sight!

We need to keep mice out of all the animal feed which is an easy and tasty target for hungry mice, so the golden rule here is that feed is always secured in mouse proof containers. Food for chickens and sheep etc is put straight from the bags into the drums when we get it home.  And we try to minimise any spillage when handling feed.  The food in the chicken pens can be an issue as the chickens do love to spread it around.  For this reason our pens have a mousemesh floor to prevent burrowing.  We learnt that early on when the gravel floors of the first pen we built became pitted with burrows and tunnels. We had wire down to prevent predators, but it wasn't small enough to keep the rodents out too.

Our biggest help though for keeping the rodent population under control is our cats. Through the ages cats have helped man keep mice and rat populations at bay and they do just as good a job today. While our cats spend most of their days and nights in comfort sleeping peacefully in the house and are definitely well fed (though they will tell anyone who will listen otherwise), they do a great job in the evenings as mousecatchers and definitely earn their keep. There wouldnt be a week when they don't dispatch a mouse or two. And they do like to show us their successes!

Lonely no more

The problem with being the last chick of the season is that there were no other chicks for our poor little d'Uccle chick to play with.  The last of the Faverolles were a few weeks old and were too big to put in with such a tiny little chick.  As a result it was one lonely little chick. To help the little thing out I put out a call on a forum for someone local to provide a day old chick for company.  I was happy to buy a chick of any breed to act as brooder buddy and give it some company. As luck would have it, I was contacted by a lovely lady who also happened to have Faverolles and had chicks hatching as we spoke! This lovely lady was kind enough to give me a chick to help out my little d'Uccle.  As you can see, they are getting on famously and my despondent d'Uccle is now as happy as can be with its new pal.

Last chick of the season

I am not hatching anymore chicks this season.  I have chicks everywhere at the moment it seems, with chicks being born about every two weeks for the last few months. This last one though is a little special.  It is our little 'surprise' chick.  A surprise because it was hatched from the egg layed on the day we took delivery of our new Belgian d'Uccle trio.  We know the mother is one of our d'Uccle mille fleur hens, but not the rooster they were with before we bought them so it is a bit of wait and see over what colour it will be.  Looks to be blue though so I am speculating blue mille fleur. Time will tell.  What I can say though is that it is cute as a button and about as small as one.  Those 'friends' with it in the picture are from the top of Darrell Lee easter eggs.

'tis the season

Grace is in season. And having a bitch in season around, particularly when you also have male dogs, can sometimes be a challenge! For a month we undergo the 'rules of separation' which involves lots of making sure that dogs and in season bitches are not in the same area at the same time.  Crates, baby gates, doors and dog runs all are used to ensure the two are kept apart. Hamish is too closely related to Grace to be a suitable match so doubly important the two are not allowed to be together.

Luckily Hamish has a discerning nose when it comes to the girls (unlike some dogs who just have to whiff a girl in season at any stage to lose their mind) which means that it is really only a big issue for 5 days out of the month.  We still have to keep them apart for the rest of the time just in case, but those five days can be hair pullingly stressful at times as Hamish becomes desperate to get to his prize and tells you about it at the top of his lungs! It is then we make sure there are always TWO barriers between him and the girl in season at all times.  Oh the joy of owning entire animals!

Bruce struck upon a novel solution for the wailing this time.  He decided to give him some competition by playing the Bagpipes for him.  It did shut Hamish up for a few minutes while he played, but frankly I am not too sure which is worse!