The cockerels were boxed up and departed this morning. I didn't hang around to see them go, I simply put them in the carry boxes with the other departing birds and left the site before anyone else was there. I am confident that they're going to a good home where they can do what they were put on this Earth for.
The start date for sowing seed (according to Charles Dowding) was the 14th, but I've made a serious start today with the onion sets, onions, kohl rabbi and radish. These will stay in the house until I'm satisfied they'll be alright in the greenhouse. I am using the time at home to make paper pots in groups of forty for planting the bigger broad beans and peas and plan to source something smaller, like old ice cube trays, to use for things like onions, beetroot... anything very small.
It is still the season of planting bare root trees, and I've been buying them on special offer from QD in the town - so far a Spartan apple, a Bramley seedling apple, a Morello cherry and a Czar plum. The Stellar cherry, Victoria plum and the Conference pear will be dug up and brought from the chicken enclosure, where they are in the way of planned building projects, to join them. I might even remove the Victoria plum, which is getting damaged by the chickens and getting too big for it's space. These will make a potted orchard along the lowered fence that will make the boundary between the two halves of the raft of ducks in Littlemeadow pt2. The idea is to provide shade for the ducks in the summer, because they are certainly not as fond of heat as the chickens. I'll also be able to move them if needed, an added bonus, because when the plot next to pt1 is free, I'll take it over and it'll become pt2 and everything in the existing pt2 will be moved into it.
Eggs from the chickens are already starting to sell well at our church, which is great because this goes back to help pay for the corn I feed all the poultry. One lady particularly likes bantam eggs, so I am planning, if funds allow, to buy in some bantam eggs if or when the bantams go broody enough. I was always going to do this and, although cockerels are no longer allowed on the site, I'm willing to take a chance. After all we've been through, I need a little joy and something to look forward to.
The fruit cage is not progressing at the moment, because the weather has turned nasty. I don't like doing that kind of work in the rain and wind. But I am still confident that the bulk of it will be completed by the time I plan to let the raft out at the end of March, when hopefully, the bird flu restrictions will be lifted. I am sourcing the canes I need to secure the mesh to from the ones used for the beans last year. They are cheap and easy to work with and replace. I have a big sliding door as part of the partition that will be difficult to remove in time this year, so it will have to stay and be removed when the restrictions come into place again in the autumn/winter.
That's all for now, but I'll be back again with more news next week. Until then, please leave a comment, and take care.
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