Tuesday 21 December 2010

olives



We decided after having picked a couple of sacks of olives that we would leave them until we returned from UK. Leaving alot of olives on the trees and hoping that the weather wouldn't be too awful. When we returned from the UK, infact the night we returned it was the windiest we had experienced here, so windy that the pig sty was moved about 30 yards, probably with the pigs in it..

When we went to the farm the next day alot of olives were on the ground, it then rained for about 4 days, so we waited. We then started picking, Rick up the trees, me either picking up olives from the ground or cleaning the olives. We finally finished yesterday. After last years shennigans at the mill we decided to use another one, not traditional, but a sight more organised. We went with 295 kilos and came out with 57 litres. Way more than we expected. I guess leaving them on the trees for that couple of weeks longer really paid off. We'll do the same next year, the only problem is the longer you leave them the worse the weather.

Friday 17 December 2010

I've got a lovely cock!!!

Turns out that I have cock! and I've called him Fancy Feathers



Not having sexed any of the hatchlings, I've been waiting to find out what sex they are, now I know, one is a cock and the other three are hens, brilliant. He is very handsome and proud and seems to be doing a fine job of keeping them all in order. The three hens are all huge and would probably be laying already if it wasn't so flipping cold. The surrogate mum (in the background, behind Fancy Feathers)



is still laying one egg every other day. Not sure where we'll go from here, need more space really and then we could start a breeding programme and rear chickens for eating as well as for eggs. We really need a proper in/outdoor pen for them all as at the moment they are not going outside, which I dislike alot. But it's the safest option and as the new ones won't let me handle them, it's impossible to let then wander off and not spend hours running up and down terraces trying to get them all back, hysterically funny and bloody annoying.