Archive for category Beanwood Blog

A really gorgeous day, so  taking advantage of the warm balmy weather, thought it would be good idea to roll up sleeves and get on with some serious cleaning! So armed with wheelbarrow, trowel and shovel spent the  morning  scrubbing  sheds. It was lovely and warm so out came the Virkon S, a really good disinfectant that will tackle most bugs, viruses and fungi. Power washer out and the perches and drinkers were tackled next. It was  a bit difficult to keep the gate closed  on the chicken area so wasn’t long before the cheeky growers came out to investigate, followed by my flock of  runner ducks who  as usual make a bee-line for our large natural pond lots of estatic paddling and splashing…sigh….that took ages to coax them out! Morpheus the Muscovy drake is really getting a bit too fat to fly now,  I haven’t been knocked over by his ungainly flights for at least a month now. Wasn’t best pleased with him today though.he had waddled over to the  polytunnel and obviously delighted to find our huge beef tomatoes,  I found him later covered in tomato juice… looked like an extra from a teen slash movie!

It was also a good opportunity to watch the chooks, in particular the young growers, the hens coming up to POL and a good time to assess for show potential as they now have grown their adult plumage. Very happy with the black faverolles bantams, nice round dumpling type, emphasing the meat bird roots, plus good muffling and a gorgeous green sheen developing.         

This is one of my young black hens, a really sweet bird with a lovely gentle personalty. I am considering entering her for the National in November. Some of the Ermines look good, still early days though, I might take one along to the Federation.

Yes I know, sounds like I am willing the summer away! But I definately have felt that faint nip in the air, and  noticed a slight yellowing of the grass in the meadow.  Still have lots of veggies to harvest,  tatties to dig up and the sweetcorn should be ready to pick, straight into boiling water, a pat of butter  and my idea of delicious fast food! I do like to let the ducks rummage through the veg plot this time of year, specially if its damp, the muscovies are renowned for their slug hunting abilites, I just wish someone had told mine that! They flop by the pond after a bit of frantic tailing wagging and heavy breathing by the drake…if you have Muscovies you will know what I mean, they have a sort of Darth Vader huskiness-that the females find rather appealing! They watch me toiling in the garden with little interest, however, within minutes I am surrounded by the most characterful growers I have ever had! The Ermines, little feisty confident characters, an experiment really to develop the Ermine in bantam faverolles, didn’t expect them to be so good, lovely dark hackles, full fluffy faces and beards, plus the required type. They love to explore the garden, and playing hide and seek in the rows of sweetcorn. They make me laugh as I am weeding to find these wonderful owl-like faces suddenly popping out of the french beans!

Sweet little ermine!

 Here is a photos of one of the youngsters, well marked hackle, difficult to achieve in faverolles as they are not that common, unlike the Light Sussex where this patterning is well established. Interestingly  faverolles are common in Salmon,being the most popular colour in  both large and bantam.  People often are unaware that Faverolles come in a variety of colours, ermine, buff, black, blue, cuckoo, splash, white and salmon.

I am hoping to show some of my Faverolles at the major shows this autumn, and this is the time of year  breeders start to scutinise their stock, watching the growers carefully for those that show promise. I am hoping to show my Ermines this year for the first time, will be so exciting to see what the judges think, they are always helpful and willing to have a good natter after judging has been completed!