Blissful summer days.. & we've converted a horse trailer to a bathroom!

View from our bath

This summer we have had the utter joy of having a bathroom! It's luxury and I can't believe we've done without one for so long.
We got our horse trailer and bath from Ebay, the water (immersion tank) is Leo's mum's old one, complete with lagging and Leo made the woodburner from an old & large 47kilo gas bottle. Very satisfying.. Leo will be writing up how he made the woodburner soon hopefully!

We've not got round to decorating yet.. too busy having baths!

It takes under 2 hours to heat up the water, which is about 120ltrs and one burner load of wood. We use the water for bathing, laundry and washing up. I can't quite express how much better it makes us feel, psychologically it's like a weight's been lifted.

Toilet Tit

This wee fledgling and her buddy live in our compost loo every night. The first I noticed her was when she made a deposit on my foot while I was making my own, erm, deposit...

Dora

Dear friends, I'd like you to meet the new love of my life, Dora. She is a Dutch Bantam chicken who was rescued, covered in blood, underweight and weak, by my pal Luisa. Dora has an horrific injury on the back of her neck, as you can see below...

Dora's injury is healing very well

I don't know what it is about chickens but their spirit and their innocent adventuring always melts my heart, that and the fact it ony takes a few gentle strokes, purring sounds and some apple to get them to trust the big smelly oafs that us humans are.

Dora and her new best friends, Bubbles (in front) and Heidi (in back)

I could cry with joy at the sight of this. Dora and her new perch pals off out exploring, adventuring and bringing destruction to many red soldier beetles in the meadow.

My office

 Above is my makeshift office (bizarrely minus a stool in this picture!). I'm so lucky I can sit outside to work, I do a lot of office based stuff for the Save Our Woods campaign that would drive me batty if I had to sit in the yurt to do. Phew :)

A male Golden ringed dragonfly resting on a hazel

Our river meadow, coppice and woodland edge is a magical place to be at the moment. Full of butterflies, roe and red deer, dragonflies, adders, passing otters, too many species of bird for me to list here and lots and lots of wildflowers...

Silverwashed fritillary

Leo and I went butterfly hunting the other day and spent an hour or so surrounded by crazy Silverwashed fritillary's. They've done so well this year, much better than our Small pearl bordered fritillary's. I still find it exciting to watch the Silverwashed fritillary's in flight, they fly so strongly and of course are very territorial so everynow and again you get a brilliant fight kick off!

Silverwashed fritillary feeding on bramble

Something I hadn't noticed before I saw these photos was the raised strip on each wing. If you look at the first picture of the fritillary above you can see that there is what looks like a lighter coloured short strip on each wing, in the photo above you can see that those strips are raised. Wonder if that's aeronautical design?! Anyone know?

Thank you to the lovely Ceri for introducing me to the world of the hammock and snorkeling. The hammock forces me to relax and snorkeling, well, what can I say about snorkeling? It's other wordly and a magical experience. Here's a youtube video from a couple of random strangers that are snorkeling where Ceri took me snorkeling... blissful!

hen xx

A quick catch up.. broody hens and springtime in the woods

 Here's my gang of broody Cuckoo Marans hens and the tiny wee lavender bantam Heidi. It's all very serious but I haven't got enough eggs for them to sit on yet so I'm having to chuck them out of their nests a few times a day... kindly of course.

Here is an angry broody...

Just had to share this close up of the really titchy tiny Heidi...

That's all I've got to say right now. Life's crazier at the moment than I've ever experienced in my ENTIRE life. Up and down and chaotic but headed in the right direction! Oh, I nearly forgot.. here's a few photo's of Spring in the woods :)

For the past two yrs there's been only one Wood Anemone growing under some of our oldest Ash hedge trees. This year there was FOUR flowering stems!

Badger badger badger! [please note: this isn't at Stock Wood...]

Moschatel... one of my all time favourite woodland flowers.

hen xx

Pink Moon, Crisp Morning, Heart Full

Good morning...

It's been a while since I wrote on here. Looking back at my recent posts it seems I've started a few like this!  Well, I hope to write more about what is going on in my life as I've realised that nowhere but here on my blog, can I explore fully some of the experiences I'm having and some of the eye opening things I've been learning. For now though, here's a blether about my morning...

My wee hoose

The weather this year has been astonishingly wet and cloudy. That means not much Sun. That means lots of work trying to keep the animals healthy, as well as ourselves. Living under canvas in this weather is fine but it's a very careful juggling act to stay healthy (physically and mentally), especially when the weather is wet but not cold as it's unpleasant to keep the wood burner going but of course to keep dry & prevent moulds, you have to! No such problems at the moment though, it's blooming freezing so we're back to happily running the woodburner all the time, making toast and stews all day!

Today it's a beautiful, crisp, clear day and all of a sudden I've forgotten the wettest year for 100yrs and I'm filled with the joy of it all! Sunrise this morning was utterly magic, as last nights Full Moon set in the purple sky.

Some of our ex-battery hens free ranging (pic from a couple of months ago!)

In the morning I get up at sunrise to do my animal rounds. Letting out the poultry first and making sure they've got a ton of food and fresh water.  I don't let them out to free range fully until lunch time because I like to see they've got a full crop before sending them on their adventures.

Goatforms (this was them last month!)

Then it's off to give the goats their breakfast and let them out to go exploring. None of the girls are in milk at the moment, which is a real shame, I miss my goats milk!

I take a few moments to enjoy the gorgeous morning, let the beauty of it seep into my soul and give thanks to the Holy Moles for this rare dry, still day to collect my thoughts in.

My boy, Jingo the Shetland ram

I love my Shetland sheep and I particularly love Jingo, my main ram. He's a beaut, with a loving soul, a penchant for the fleecy ladies, fresh hay and head scratches.  The Shetland and Castlemilk moorit girls are looking strong and healthy, so I'll be getting them a ram in within a couple of weeks. Jingo doesn't get a go this year poor lad!

Cheeky stinkdog pinching the warm spot!

Finally, I get to come back into the yurt for my coffee and breakfast in the warm chair by the woodburner... or not...


hen xx

Our First Cuckoo Marans chick!

I popped a few cuckoo marans eggs under Heidi the bantam hen when she went broody (23 days ago!) and look what pecked it's way out! Sadly the other 2 eggs didn't hatch. This wee chick is strong as an ox though!

I've got three broody hens at the moment and in total they're sitting on 20 eggs (all Cuckoo Marans eggs!). So this time next month hopefully I'll have more chicks! I'm also expecting arrival of 24 hatching eggs (yes... cuckoo maran!) next week for the incubator. I've never hatched in an incubator before so I'm hoping all goes well. We're limited to our three solar panels for energy and will have the incubator set up in the yurt with us. If for some reason the sun stops shining or the batteries fail we have a small generator as back up! Exciting times! : )



hen xx

Meet the ducks & chickens & goats & sheep!

Got no time to write very much so I just thought I'd share some photo's!

Indian runner duck- BATHTIME!

Small-1 the black Indian Runner duck has gone all broody and is sitting on 10 eggs. I took a sneaky picture of her nest when she wasn't looking! 

This is the gorgeous Heidi. She is sitting on 3 very dark brown eggs from my Cuckoo Marans. They only have a week to go! I'm very excited about getting lots and lots of eggs in the incubators in the next week too! 

Storm and Lightening. My shadows.. I can't go anywhere without them following me (whether there's a fence/giant bank/gate or hedge in the way!)

I watched these two like this for AGES the other day. Sleepily chewing the cud cheek by cheek. So, so sweet! 

Hebridean Ewe.. Lordy she's impressive.

These two Shetlands (well the one on the right is a Shetland/Hebridean cross) right freak me out.. "Look into my eyes.. bring us nuts bring us nuts"

Finnhe the Katmoget Shetland ewe. She's very pretty.

Finnhe puckering up.. she might be pretty but she's NOT my type!

Jingo.. my pride and joy! Shetland ram (fawn)

Hope you enjoyed meeting a few of the animals :)

hen xx

Tip to get a poorly ex-battery hen to feed again & a sad goodbye

Helloo :)

I've been kept busy making sure that all the ex-battery hens are healthy. This first couple of weeks is an interesting time for them, getting used to the dramatic change in environment. I've managed so far to spot the ones that need extra care & have separated them off into the hospital wing. Whenever any of them need extra, extra care they come into ICU ( a basket in the yurt!).

We were desperately sad when our one eyed hen, Long John, had to be put to sleep due to a twisted gut & peritonitis (our brilliant vet did a scan initially and then a PM on her). She may have died but the life she had here she made the most of.  Her favourite thing to do was running, flying (well, speed running aided by flapping!) & worm scoffing.  She also had a penchant for pecking the top of my wellies and nesting under my big bum whenever I squatted down to do something in the run. 

Rest in peace beautiful Long John

When she was poorly I held her for hours & she slept in my arms with her fragile little head tucked into me, so as well as freedom she also felt how much I loved her. At least she knew those things before she left.

With Long John being the exception, the other 6 hens we've had in ICU so far have been nursed back to health.

I made this wee film to explain how I got one of the ICU hens to eat and drink again after she'd completely shut down (stopped eating & drinking, only wanting to sleep). I'm sorry to say I don't know why as yet but just look at her now! There's also an introduction to Tiny hen. The most fragile of the hens we brought home. She travelled back with me to our farm on her own in a cardboard box, as I was petrified she might break if I didn't. 

I'm taking all my hospital hens to visit the vet this afternoon. I'm not an expert and want to make sure I don't miss anything. I'll learn a lot from doing this as well as understand better how I can give these trusting and inquisitive feathery beings a good chance at a long life! My vet is brilliant with the hens but I'm still going to encourage him to consider doing the Chicken Vet; vet training day course: http://www.chickenvet.co.uk/courses/training/index.aspx



hen xx

If you ever wanted to rescue a battery hen NOW IS THE TIME - or make them a jumper!

A Baldy Ex-Battery Hen... *brrrr*

In the run up to the new battery hen 'enriched' cages being introduced January 2012, there is a mass cull of an unimaginable number of battery hens, in response to this there is a MASS RESCUE of battery hens all over the UK.



The more hens rescued by the likes of you and me the more will be given a taste of the beauty of life, with grass under claw and wind in their combs!

**UPDATE** The BHWT's rescue dates in DEVON (7th and 17th Dec) have all been fully booked! This is an incredible response and means that the BHWT in DEVON have had to put on a new rescue day, Thursday 29th Dec! Thank you to them and thank you to the farmer for opening up the farm again for rescue. Now... lets rescue some more hens! :-D

Leo and I have booked to collect 50 battery hens on the 29th December 2011 from the BHWT in Devon. We're going to wait and see if all the hens get booked up again, if there are any hens left to be rescued on that date we'll see how many more hens we can add to our gang.  *EXCITED!*

I wrote a blog the other day that gives more details about the UK wide rescue and letting you all know that I plan to rescue 50 or 60 battery hens on the 17th December. Click here to get the low down: **Alert** Christmas cheer for battery hens?


Here's a list of just some of the rescue charities:
Battery Hen Welfare Trust (BHWT)
Little Hens Rescue
Lucky Hens Rescue Wigan

It's a good idea to ask the BHWT if there is a local charity to you.

Jo Barlow keeps a wonderful blog about her life with ex-battery hens. She is a rescuer, which means she is on of the heroines that goes to the battery farm and takes a number of hens from their cages and transports them back to the distribution farm, where you or me goes and collects our hens.

Worry not if you can't rescue any hens yourself... there's so much you can do! 

Here's another list...

1) Spread the word about this UK WIDE MASS BATTERY HEN RESCUE! Tell everyone, tell your dentist, your mum, your Twitter and Facebook friends, copy this post into your blog or write your own! There's no time to lose, tell them now! Spam if you have to!

2) Sponsor a hen! Yes, have a look at the charities listed above and you'll see you can sponsor a hen!

3) Make a jumper! These mass rescues are happening at the beginning of winter and it's going to be a cold one, there are going to be plenty of cold, baldy hens.

Work it baby, yeh!

You can follow the patterns below to make some jumpers. If you can knit scroll down and you'll see a couple of different patterns. If you can't knit or don't have much time, give the Easy Peasy Fleecy Jumpers a go!

You can either donate your jumpers to one of the charities above or make them for a friend who is rescuing some hens! ... hint hint... ;)

Another baldy Ex-Battery Hen
*brrr* Lets get a jumper on her!

Jumper Pattern's 


Easy Peasy Fleecy Jumpers Pattern:
From Little Hens Rescue

Easy Peasy Fleecy Jumper on a Baldy Hen

*ALERT* Christmas Cheer for Battery Hens?

Rescue some hens, it will be the best thing you've ever done. 

If you've always thought you wanted to NOW IS THE TIME! : 

http://www.bhwt.org.uk/cms/re-home-some-hens/

CLICK HERE to see patterns for jumpers (knitted or easy peasy fleecy ones!) 

One of the most rewarding things I have done in my entire life is rescue some ex-battery hens. This December there is a mass rescue as there is a MASS CULL. The battery cage is being replaced by the 'enriched' cages Jan 2012 and in order for the re-fit to occur farmers will be clearing out their stock this Dec/early Jan... there will be a mass cull of thousands and thousands of battery hens. 
I'm looking to buy a second hand hen house capable of taking 30+ hens or more. The bigger the house the more hens I can rescue. Please spread the word!


*UPDATE* Leo & I have worked out that we can build our own hen house, to our specs, for 50 ex-batt hens! 


We're also going to collect 2 small hen houses from the amazing Cherry Barlow of Downton Owls - Learn about the very important work she does:  http://www.downtonowls.co.uk/about

These 2 small houses will mean two things: 1) we can get more hens & 2) we can use them as hospital wings/housing for the more fragile birds. Thank you Cherry! :) 

Beauty on the third day of rescue... she's still going strong!

Meet my beautiful 6 ex-battery hens - 

http://heartandsoil.blogspot.com/2010/06/meet-my-6-ex-battery-hens-some-willow.html

Rescue some hens, it will be the best thing you've ever done. If you've always thought you wanted to NOW IS THE TIME! : 

http://www.bhwt.org.uk/cms/re-home-some-hens/

Read the BHWT's press release:

The British Hen Welfare Trust has issued an URGENT plea to the public to re-home some hens for Christmas.

From January 2012, the barren ‘battery’ cage will be abolished in the UK in line with the EU directive. As a result, hens will have to be removed from their barren cages by 31st December.  Most British egg farmers have already made the switch to enriched cages, but a further 2-4 million hens currently in barren cages will still be heading for slaughter this Christmas. 

The British Hen Welfare Trust, which has so far re-homed nearly 300,000 commercial laying hens, aims to educate the public about how they can make a difference to hen welfare, and encourages support for the British egg industry. It has already secured access to thousands of hens from farms in the run up to Christmas and is appealing to the public to provide homes for them.

With a network of volunteer co-ordinators across the UK, the charity will be holding a series of re-homing days over November and December in locations spanning from Cornwall to Northumberland in England, across into Wales.

Founder of the British Hen Welfare Trust Jane Howorth said: “Whilst it is great news that the era of barren cages is coming to an end, the sad news is that many of the hens who have lived all their life in barren cages will be sent to slaughter by Christmas, unless we can find homes for them.”

More and more households are taking up hen-keeping as a hobby that all the family can enjoy. Giving a happy home to ex-battery hens can be particularly rewarding - from the pleasure of seeing the hens experience their first taste of sunshine and grass, to the joy of collecting freshly laid eggs!  Keeping hens requires time, but it isn’t difficult. The hens come fully vaccinated and the vast majority are healthy and laying reasonably well. The hens sometimes look a bit threadbare, but most people are surprised that the majority of birds don't look too bad and they usually start to re-feather within a few weeks. The hens are bred for docility and you will find they are gentle, endearing, inquisitive and very friendly. And they are hardy birds, so as long as a few simple steps are taken to ensure they have good weather protection, they are fine to be kept in the winter months.

All you need is an outbuilding or chicken house or coop that is predator-proof, and a regular supply of food and water. The British Hen Welfare Trust’s Careline and website are on hand to offer information and guidance.

Jane Howorth concluded: “If you are interested in re-homing some hens,we would love to hear from you. All our re-homing locations and dates can be found on our website. Christmas is traditionally a busy time for family festivities, and keeping hens isn’t at the forefront of people’s minds at this time of year. But consider it as a fun new hobby for Christmas for all the family. By adopting some hens, you will be giving them – and your family – the best Christmas present they have ever had!”

To find out more about re-homing, hen sponsorship and the benefits of free-ranging, please contact the British Hen Welfare Trust on:

email info@bhwt.org.uk , log on to www.bhwt.org.uk or tel: 01769 580310

hen xx

A few hours chilling with the sheep n poultry gang...

Willow and Small

Willow and Small have a few issues.. Willow delights in winding Small up and Small delights in chasing Willow. Small will zone in on Willow from the other side of the field, then sneak up on her while she sleeps, then let out a massive honk alarm in her ear! Suffice to say they don't get to hang out much together... I fear for their lives! Well.. I fear for Small's life anyway!

Little Blue and the heavily pregnant HebXsuffolks

At the moment I'm spending a lot of time just hanging out with the sheep. They're due to give birth any week now and so I'm keeping a beedy eye on them. This is my first ever lambing. I'm nervous but confident I've practiced enough. We're finishing their field shelter today and I'm going to set up a field office in their field, so I can continue to work on the Save Our Woods campaign but stay alert to any attacks by ravens/foxes/badgers.. some might say its not necessary but as it's my first time I think I'm going to spend as much time as I can with them!

Cockeral. Cuckoo Marans.

You might remember Cockeral. I got him and a couple of Cuckoo Marans hens a few months ago. Well, he's matured into a real beauty. I love the way he herds the hens and settles any disputes! He's very good at his job but mostly the ex-batts ignore him when he's trying to make them move somewhere they don't want to go! The hens lay the most beautiful eggs ever. Dark brown shells and deep orange giant yolks.. droOOol!

Cockerals holy bum.

My beautiful poultry gang

Hope you're enjoying this beautiful Spring weather!

hen xx

A Little Woolly Tree

I don't normally post my needlefelting creations here.  Not really sure why.  Well, since the past week has been about being trapped in the house with wool instead of willow, I've not got anything else to post!! So here's one I made last night!

I doooOOooo love working with wool.  It's very satisfying, if a little odd that stabbing something lots and lots should be so pleasing!

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant news about chickens!!  I'm booked to collect 4 ex-battery hens in the middle of June!  I'm a little apprehensive about how upset I'll be but I can't wait for the opportunity to give them a home!  

When I was in my early teens I plastered my school & family with information about battery eggs, battery meat chickens & battery meat pigs.  Finally I can practically do something to directly offer a bit of relief to a minute fraction of these suffering animals.  Oh... bloody hell...  I can't wait.

hen
xx