http://www.newlandgrange.com en-gb newlandgrange.com 2011-8-22T00:00:00Z newlandgrange.com http://www.newlandgrange.com/page10.htm#100962 I cant believe how long it is since I last updated the Blog so much for the small regular updates I was planning Another year has flown by I have been so busy with the chickens that I decided to sell the sheep as I just didnt have time to look after them. They all went a few weeks ago apart from 4 who are pets and I would like to rehome as lawn mowers. The fields are very quiet without them but with the lack of rain we have no grass anyway.With the sheep going it has freed up 2 barns so we have spent the last few weeks clearing them. Actually my son Tom has cleaned out the barns I am pleased to have 3 sons who are all very practical My eldest son has started a duck enterprise and we now have Indian Runners and Call ducks. He brought some show quality rare blue Indian Runners and white Call ducks so will be hatching next Spring. Quail have also been very popular this year and we have sold lots of them for egg layers.I have narrowed down my breeding birds this year and am now main... 2011-8-22 14:49:11 http://www.newlandgrange.com/page10.htm#79706 Bonfire night went smoothly with noone falling off their perches due to the loud bangs. A couple of years ago we lost two hens on bonfire night.We have had a whole day redoing the hybrid pen. The mud had appeared in there overnight and by the end of Saturday the poor hens were all splattered in mud some not so bright ones were even attempting to dustbath in it so sorry to anyone who came to collect hens yesterday I hope they look a bit cleaner nowWe have laid pallets all around the walkways and washed down and relaid new woodchips it looks great now but probably not for long The hens really enjoyed all the nettles I hung up for them and managed to strip them within a couple of hours.A trip to Ross rare breed sale saw some new arrivals I managed to get some lovely Lavender Pekins and silver laced Wyandotte bantams which will be added to our breeding groups for next year as I needed some new bloodlines. I tried bidding on a lovely Buff Orpington cockerel with one hen but had to drop... 2010-11-7 16:39:07 http://www.newlandgrange.com/page10.htm#79067 My Shepherds Hut has finally been started Shaun has been so busy with the joinery or making other peoples huts that mine has been on the backburner so am really looking forward to having it. I have brought some Pekins in lavender and blue to breed with next season they are so sweet and tiny and the Millefleur Pekins are coming on really well.Shaun has now taken over the chick hatching and has got the new incubator and hatcher working brilliantly. He is still hatching plenty of chicks although the pure breeds are now going off lay so the numbers will drop off now. Keeping the chicks warm enough the last few nights has been hard but the gas brooders seem to work the best. 2010-10-29 19:56:19 http://www.newlandgrange.com/page10.htm#74730 2010-9-5 15:10:24 http://www.newlandgrange.com/page10.htm#74729 A very good hatch this week of our pure breed chicks. This is the first large hatch we have had in our new MS incubator and we are really pleased over 40 chicks hatched and all very healthy. Another 40 due next week so keeping fingers crossed for another good hatch.We are getting to grips with the vaccination programme. The first one has to take place when the chicks are one day old and trying to work out the doses for just 40 chicks when it comes in a vial for 1000 chicks was tricky The next vaccinations at 21 days have to be dissolved in distilled water not the water out of the tumble dryer or from Halfords but proper medical grade distilled water which has proved tricky to source but I have finally located some.I have also just hatched some Blue Orpington bantam eggs from well known Orpington breeder Rob Boyd. They are the most active little chicks I have ever had and dont stop moving. As they are valuable they are living in the office in the house and getting lots of attenti... 2010-9-5 15:10:22 http://www.newlandgrange.com/page10.htm#73875 As promised this is my first short update We had a trip to Wiggly Wigglers to collect our first order of Bokashi a lovely proper working farm as proved when we went to find our order the pigs had broken in and pinched some of it makes me pleased we dont have pigs at the moment. The smell in the van on the way back was gorgeous it smells a bit like hot chocolate.What can I say about the rain My poor chickens have been standing out in it and refuse to go inside. I have to top up all the small runs with wood chips as they have slowly disappeared over the summer. I completed the large hybrids pen last weekend and am so pleased no mud in there at all.The website and Online shop are going to be updated over the next week and I will be adding many more products Ive just got to find time to do it.The rain has finally stopped this morning so I am off outside to clean out all the holiday hens. 2010-8-27 08:06:13 http://www.newlandgrange.com/page10.htm#73566 We have decided to focus more on our pure breeds next year and have spent the last few months sorting out our breeding pens and trying to improve our layout. This is not as easy as it sounds as we constantly have to juggle different age groups of chicksgrowers and hens. I had a fantastic Birthday present of a 500 egg MS Broedmachines incubator and separate hatcher No excuse now for not having lots of pure breeds next year.We have had our Poultry Vets out for a site visit to check through all our systems and offer any advice. This was by far the best thing we have done. Whilst they felt everything was really clean and well looked after our ventilation in some of the small housing needs addressing this was something we thought was perfect but now they have pointed it out I can see we needed to improve it. Shaun then spent the next few days installing vents and I think we have it sorted. The chicks also need better ventilation and large floor units another job for ShaunWe also ha... 2010-8-23 19:53:55 http://www.newlandgrange.com/page10.htm#73567 2010-8-23 19:53:55 http://www.newlandgrange.com/page10.htm#59771 Finally the snow has gone for now and we are enjoying a few days of sun. The ground everywhere is a mudbath not helped by the fact that we had a digger in during the winter carrying out various alterations.The first piglets have arrived. Onion produced 3 lovely Kunekune piglets but unfortunately one of them kept trying to sleep underneath her which wasnt a clever idea as she squashed him quite common with pigs Luckily the other 2 have more common sense and go and sleep below the heat lamp. The piglets are gorgeous they are so tiny but perfect and surprisingly soft.We have also been lambing again not the most successful start this year. Our first ewe had premature lambs in the snow and lost them and we have had a couple of other premature lambs. We currently have just one lamb living in the kitchen hopefully no more this year. They are sweet for the first few days but the tie of feeding them every 4 hours soon loses its appeal We have a few more ewes to lamb and then hopefully ... 2010-3-4 13:55:24 http://www.newlandgrange.com/page10.htm#53335 Sadly Carpet our ancient ewe has died. I went into the field to check the sheep and she was dead in the field I imagine she had a heart attack which was probably the best way to go. I will really miss her and she always came to investigate everyone that came to visit she was the friendliest ewe I have ever had. Strange things sometimes happen and it is quite odd as she was given to us along with with her sister Blanket a number of years ago by some local sheep farming friends. She died on the same day that I heard one of them was in hospital having suffered a stroke. She was already named Carpet when we had her and I soon found out why Flying Carpet no fencing could keep her in she and her sister had total run of the farm and could get over 5 bar gates I gave up trying to keep them in and let them go wherever they liked.Dave the Kune Kune boar has now gone home and I am hoping Onion is pregnant. I went to a pig breeding course at Barton Hill which was excellent. Whilst there I... 2009-11-24 18:53:30 http://www.newlandgrange.com/page10.htm#52006 Now the weather has turned colder things have quietened down a little but not as much as I expected. I am still selling plenty of hens to people who have pure breeds that have stopped laying for the wintergone into moult etc. as well as many people who have sadly had fox attacks. I now only have about 40 hens left to sell for this year. I am having some Rhode Rocks in during November and then no more hens until FebruaryMarch. I like to have a couple of months during the winter when we have no hens on the land apart from my own flock in a different area this gives me a chance to strip out all the housing disinfect and creocote it as well as lime and then rest the ground. I think its important to do this to stop a build up of infection and worms.During this quiet period with the hybrids I concentrate on the Pure Breeds. I am in the process of splitting all the pure breeds into breeding pens. They then have extra artificial light to encourage them to lay and the winter is spent sel... 2009-11-5 14:02:38 http://www.newlandgrange.com/page10.htm#46320 We have had a very busy few months with sheep and hens. The demand for hens has gone through the roof and we have sold out of hens on a number of occasions there is a shortage of birds this year in the UK and Europe possibly down to the credit crunchpeople being more self sufficientI have managed to source some new hybrids which have been really popular there seems to be a demand for hens who lay unusual colour eggs. I have White Stars which are really pretty white hens who lay a china white egg and loads of them and Columbines who lay a bluegreen egg.I have just creocoted all the chicken stables yet again and have managed to have my fourth year red mite free so it really does seem to be working. I know we havent had enough warm weather to make them a big problem but I am determined to avoid them. The rain has been awful everywhere is a mud bath. I have put wood chippings down all across the front of the stables to try and stop the chickens taking all the mud inside it helps but... 2009-8-5 11:54:49 http://www.newlandgrange.com/page10.htm#42221 Lambing is nearly finished one more ewe to go We now have 47 healthy lambs of various breeds. My new Suffolk ram used for the first time this year has produced some lovely lambs I did find they were a bit slower at birth to get up and going than the Ryeland or Charlolais crosses I have used before but once they are established they grow very fast. The couple of ewes who lambed early in the year have huge lambs now my son wants them for Sunday lunch but I cant do it Shown below before and after. We have only lost one lamb this year it was one of twins and I think she was premature despite spending all night with her under a hairdryer and tubing her with colostrum she sadly died. One of my Jacobs has had mastitis she had a nasty cut on her udder which must be where the infection started. She is responding really well to the anitbiotics and although she looks like a walking purple skeleton all the septicleanse spray I am covering her in to avoid further... 2009-5-25 13:42:13 http://www.newlandgrange.com/page10.htm#41010 Easter proved to be very busy with lambing in full swing as well as record poultry sales. Lambing proved far easier this year as we lambed later than usual. By leaving it later the ewes have been able to remain outside and go out far quicker with their lambs. Apart from a few first time lambers who decided to drop their lambs on the floor and then run away in terror we have had very few complications all the experienced ewes lambed unaided except for my two very elderly ewes who produced triplets. The first of each of their triplets decided to come breech with their legs also tucked back after a bit of assistance they both produced a set of lovely triplets who are all thriving. As their Mums are so old I am topping them all up with a bottle trying to give them a bit of a restAll the Pure breed chicks I hatch are selling very quickly most are gone within a week of hatching as a consequence I still have no growers or older birds to sell.Hybrid hens are in huge demand I think th... 2009-5-4 16:47:12 http://www.newlandgrange.com/page10.htm#38201 15th March 2009 The lovely weather brought everyone out last weekend and we sold out of all the rare breed young birds which is great. I am still hatching and have day old 2 week old chicks available in most of the rare breeds there are more appearing daily I have got more Hybrid breeds as these are also very popular. I now have 4 varieties of Hybrid hens and am amazed at how friendly they are. They seem completely unfazed by handling and if I go into the run with them within seconds they are perching on me They have a favourite sunbathing spot and its really comical to see them all lying in a heap looking like they have been run over. Fingers crossed this lovely weather keeps up no more mud 2009-3-15 11:16:36 http://www.newlandgrange.com/page10.htm#37508 February 2009 Another Texel cross ewe lambed I was half expecting this luckily. She produced 2 jet black lambs so these were sired by our young Jacob ram during a brief escape into the ewes field this was not planned as he shouldnt be ready to work until next year but he obviously hasnt read the books Our Columbian Blacktail hens are ready for sale. They are 17 weeks old and looking very well. It is the best time to sell them as they can have a few weeks to settle into their new homes and should then start laying this is better than moving them when they have just started laying as they may stop again for a while when moved Egg hatching is really underway. The incubator is constantly full with white Jersey Giants Lavender amp Black Orpingtons. I have also hatched some lovely Red Orpingtons a colour I havent come across before so look forward to seeing how they develop. I am advertising any spare eggs that I cant fit in the incubator and they are selling... 2009-3-2 11:19:45 http://www.newlandgrange.com/page10.htm#37507 January 2009 First lambs have unexpectedly arrived We knew our Ryeland and young Jacob ram had jumped over the fence on a couple of occasions but hoped we had got them out quick enough When checking the ewes early in the morning one of the Texel cross ewes had 2 lovely lambs by the Ryeland we were lucky as she was a first time lamber and she lambed unaided. We were planning to lamb in April this year to avoid the cold weather 2009-3-2 11:18:52