She was one of the chicks that was stuck in her egg, she had a bad leg when she came out but has almost recovered now she just has a slight limp.
Monday 16 May 2011
Mabel
Here's my new favourite Mabel!
She was one of the chicks that was stuck in her egg, she had a bad leg when she came out but has almost recovered now she just has a slight limp.
She was one of the chicks that was stuck in her egg, she had a bad leg when she came out but has almost recovered now she just has a slight limp.
Friday 13 May 2011
Chicks!
After 18 days in the incubator and 3 days earlier than we expected the chicks started hatching.
We now have about 25 chicks (hard to count as they're so active) now and only three eggs left to hatch. There are a mix of Pekins and Buff Orpingtons.
Here's a picture of my favourite, Mo!
Here they are all together,
A couple of the last chicks to hatch have had some problems, we think the incubator may have lost some of it's humidity as we were taking out the chicks that had hatched. Two of the eggs had quite large cracks in and you could see the chicks in there trying to get out but the eggs had dried out so much the eggs were impossible for the chicks to break open and they were getting exhausted. After almost 2 days of them trying to get out Dad stepped in (with the help of my best tweezers) and helped them out. Dad has done this before and the chicks haven't made it but as they would have died anyway we thought it was worth a shot and here they are...
Because they were stuck in the same position for so long their feet aren't as they should be but they're relieved to be out and coping!
We now have about 25 chicks (hard to count as they're so active) now and only three eggs left to hatch. There are a mix of Pekins and Buff Orpingtons.
Here's a picture of my favourite, Mo!
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| Pekin |
A couple of the last chicks to hatch have had some problems, we think the incubator may have lost some of it's humidity as we were taking out the chicks that had hatched. Two of the eggs had quite large cracks in and you could see the chicks in there trying to get out but the eggs had dried out so much the eggs were impossible for the chicks to break open and they were getting exhausted. After almost 2 days of them trying to get out Dad stepped in (with the help of my best tweezers) and helped them out. Dad has done this before and the chicks haven't made it but as they would have died anyway we thought it was worth a shot and here they are...
Because they were stuck in the same position for so long their feet aren't as they should be but they're relieved to be out and coping!
Monday 2 May 2011
Family Affair
Yet more great weather for the Bank Holiday weekend and we certainly made the most of it!
I spent the majority of yesterday at the allotment with Mum, Dad, Rach and Billy, they all worked so hard we got lots done. We have 5 out of the 6 beds dug out, one bed is ready and the others are getting there! Making them nice and deep is where the men come in. I spent my time collecting manure and 'over seeing' with a bit of digging as well. Dad bought home the Mushroom compost which is the darker looking compost on bed 2. Rach painted more borders and nailed them in place and mum did some digging and helped me.... a very productive day and we have the blisters to prove it!
Green House
I've had to do some re-arranging to get some of the vegetables into the light! The Courgettes on the top shelf have poked through the soil and their leaves are now on show, the ones that were under the other shelves don't look like anything is happening so I have moved my runner beans to the floor and popped the courgettes on the top shelf.... waiting to see what happens now!
The runner beans are getting so tall, when all fear of frost has passed we'll be planting these out!
I planted 8 Cucumber seeds and 5 of them are up with another two poking through!
A couple of my tomato plants are poking through and so are some of my cabbages in the new seed trays. The potatoes are flowering, well starting to anyway so it's all heading in the right direction.
Freebies
If you're looking for some great, cheap vegetable seeds check out VegetableSeeds.net! As well as being a great site, just for having their link on my blog I got a £25 Gift Voucher to spend with them. That's next years seeds sorted and I've also decided to grow some herbs this year!
Chickens
Dad has decided it would be nice to have some chickens - Free Range eggs, yum!!! We have quite a few eggs in the incubator at the moment and they are due to hatch on the 13th May. I'll keep you up to date on their progress!
Thanks so much to everyone for their help so far, I definitely couldn't have done it without you! xx
I spent the majority of yesterday at the allotment with Mum, Dad, Rach and Billy, they all worked so hard we got lots done. We have 5 out of the 6 beds dug out, one bed is ready and the others are getting there! Making them nice and deep is where the men come in. I spent my time collecting manure and 'over seeing' with a bit of digging as well. Dad bought home the Mushroom compost which is the darker looking compost on bed 2. Rach painted more borders and nailed them in place and mum did some digging and helped me.... a very productive day and we have the blisters to prove it!
Green House
I've had to do some re-arranging to get some of the vegetables into the light! The Courgettes on the top shelf have poked through the soil and their leaves are now on show, the ones that were under the other shelves don't look like anything is happening so I have moved my runner beans to the floor and popped the courgettes on the top shelf.... waiting to see what happens now!
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| Courgettes |
The runner beans are getting so tall, when all fear of frost has passed we'll be planting these out!
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| Runner Beans |
I planted 8 Cucumber seeds and 5 of them are up with another two poking through!
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| Cucumbers |
A couple of my tomato plants are poking through and so are some of my cabbages in the new seed trays. The potatoes are flowering, well starting to anyway so it's all heading in the right direction.
 |
| Tomatoes |
Freebies
If you're looking for some great, cheap vegetable seeds check out VegetableSeeds.net! As well as being a great site, just for having their link on my blog I got a £25 Gift Voucher to spend with them. That's next years seeds sorted and I've also decided to grow some herbs this year!
Chickens
Dad has decided it would be nice to have some chickens - Free Range eggs, yum!!! We have quite a few eggs in the incubator at the moment and they are due to hatch on the 13th May. I'll keep you up to date on their progress!
Thanks so much to everyone for their help so far, I definitely couldn't have done it without you! xx
Friday 22 April 2011
Exhausted!
Just when you think you're getting there you find a million other things to do!
Today I went up to the allotment and thought I'd start digging the beds for the Veg! I had no idea how tough it would be, with the help of my Dad (for about 20 minutes) we managed to dig up the grass for one bed, he then left us to it and we dug and turned soil for a couple of hours. There is absolutely no way Rach and I could have done it on our own. I really wanted to get a few beds ready but it was so hard we only managed the one...
It's about 6ft x 6ft (even though it looks small!), we're looking at getting some Mushroom compost to put on top to make the beds nice and deep. After all the digging we came back to the house and have started painting planks of wood for the borders...
I've also planted 12 pots of Tomatoes (5 different varieties), 24 courgettes and another 2 bags of potatoes, it's been a busy old day! Dad's even put in some extra beams in the greenhouse to balance some more seed trays on. I think the only thing I have left to plant now it Carrots, oh and dig another 5 beds at the allotment.
There's some more activity in the greenhouse with another variety of cabbage starting to poke through as well!
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| If you look closely you can see the beginning of the cabbages, they're red! |
Thursday 21 April 2011
All systems go!
It's been a busy few days and I'm really making the most of the good weather and lighter evenings!
My greenhouse arrived yesterday and was up and ready to use within 20 minutes (with a little help from my Dad!). I moved all the seed trays from the patio into the greenhouse yesterday evening and by this morning a couple of the cabbages were poking through.
Last night I planted some parsnips, potatoes and potted some Broad Beans that were given to me by my friend Lyn (thanks Lyn!!!).
The greenhouse isn't huge and I'm struggling to fit everything in but I'm getting a bit addicted to sowing seeds and tonight I've planted more lettuces, cucumbers, cauliflowers, more potatoes and sweet peppers.... oops!
Tomorrow is Good Friday so a day off! The plan is to get up to the allotment and actually start getting the ground ready for when all the seeds are ready to move. I have carrots, courgettes and tomatoes left to sow now.
Definitely getting somewhere now and I'm excited to be seeing results after only 9 days!
My greenhouse arrived yesterday and was up and ready to use within 20 minutes (with a little help from my Dad!). I moved all the seed trays from the patio into the greenhouse yesterday evening and by this morning a couple of the cabbages were poking through.
I've just had another look (approx 10 hours later) and some of the Purple sprouting and lettuces are poking through as well.
Last night I planted some parsnips, potatoes and potted some Broad Beans that were given to me by my friend Lyn (thanks Lyn!!!).
The greenhouse isn't huge and I'm struggling to fit everything in but I'm getting a bit addicted to sowing seeds and tonight I've planted more lettuces, cucumbers, cauliflowers, more potatoes and sweet peppers.... oops!
Tomorrow is Good Friday so a day off! The plan is to get up to the allotment and actually start getting the ground ready for when all the seeds are ready to move. I have carrots, courgettes and tomatoes left to sow now.
Definitely getting somewhere now and I'm excited to be seeing results after only 9 days!
Thursday 14 April 2011
In goes the Garlic and changing plans (again)
The weather has been miserable for the past couple of days so I still haven't been able to start killing the grass and digging up at the allotment.
I have potted some garlic though, so fingers crossed this grows! This seemed easy enough so I hope I've done it correctly. I split the garlic bulb into cloves and planted these into individual pots of compost, I need to get out there and give it a good watering but it looks like more rain is on the way - that will save me the job!
I've changed my mind about the plan of the allotment after reading some ideas from Monty Don! Instead of planting things together I'm now thinking of planting them in individual beds so I will be looking at about 6 raised beds - still being a bit too ambitious I think!
Still no sign of my Greenhouse :-(
I have potted some garlic though, so fingers crossed this grows! This seemed easy enough so I hope I've done it correctly. I split the garlic bulb into cloves and planted these into individual pots of compost, I need to get out there and give it a good watering but it looks like more rain is on the way - that will save me the job!
I've changed my mind about the plan of the allotment after reading some ideas from Monty Don! Instead of planting things together I'm now thinking of planting them in individual beds so I will be looking at about 6 raised beds - still being a bit too ambitious I think!
Still no sign of my Greenhouse :-(
Tuesday 12 April 2011
First seeds sown
It's been a long evening but things are starting to come together already.
I went and had a look at where my allotment will be tonight, it's not in as bad a state as I thought it was going to be. We're going to start by killing off all the grass and then it'll be time to start digging!!
As well as looking at my future allotment I've also sown my first seeds (with the help of my sister, Rach). The cabbages, lettuce and Purple sprouting are all in and I'm so excited to see how long it takes to start seeing them poking their heads out of the compost!
I went and had a look at where my allotment will be tonight, it's not in as bad a state as I thought it was going to be. We're going to start by killing off all the grass and then it'll be time to start digging!!
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