Despite the horrible weather during March, our chickens have been in a
frenzy of laying – we’ve been collecting an average of 35 eggs a week
(too many for us to eat), so I decided to try doing some pickled eggs as
a means of preserving them. We found some great recipes that take the
humble pickled egg into realms beyond the pub bar snack -
see the recipes here.
Now is also the ideal time to pop a few eggs into the incubator with a
view to continuing the supply of eggs in late autumn when the older
birds go off-lay.
We’re
always busy at the start of March getting the ewes vaccinated, treating
any lame ones (a few this year, mainly due to the mud and wet ground),
twice daily feeding and ‘crutching’ ready for lambing. We’re getting
ready for lambing in late-April. This is a lot later than most flocks,
but it suits us well and means the lambs will (hopefully) go out onto
good grass. The ewes are looking exceptionally well, and, with just a
few weeks to go. Between 3-4 weeks before lambing we give all the ewes a
trace element and vitamin drench specifically to counteract the
deficiencies that we’ve identified in our forage and they get a daily
ration of high protein feed according to the number of lambs they’ve
been scanned for and their body condition score.
The
arrival of a bit of sunshine was all I needed to get out onto the
vegetable plot and start sowing seeds – so, in the greenhouse we have
butternut squash, cucumber, salad leaves and 3 types of tomato, and in
the raised beds the broad beans, cabbage, beetroot, carrots, leeks and
parsnips – all starting to sprout nicely. We’re still harvesting last
year’s crops of purple-sprouting broccoli, onions and garlic fresh from
the garden, as well as squashes, potatoes and onions stored from last
year.
