Saturday 27 April 2013

Manure and worms, what could be better!

I have decided to stop whinging about the weather! I've come to the conclusion that it is what it is, I have no control over it so  I just need to work with it.
What made me come to that conclusion? Well, yet again today I watched the weather forecast on TV and planned my day accordingly. It wasn't supposed to be terribly warm today but we were assured of a dry day with a little breeze, this means conditions would be perfect for me to get out and dig some more of that clay soil over after last nights downpour. With the washing loaded onto the line outside I donned the boots and got ready. As soon as I got outside the heavens opened and we got hit with hail stones! I sheltered in the greenhouse and fed the birds while I waited for it to pass and waited and waited and waited. Looks like today is cold, windy and chucking hail stones at us - I give up caring!

Anyways yesterday (another day similar to today) I got my daughter out of her pit at 6am to come running with me (didn't go down too well) and after our brisk exercise I roped her into coming with me to get a trailer load of manure - yes, I finally get some of those worms.


One trailer load of that went nowhere so today Mr TG roped in my daughter and her boyfriend (at 7am lmao) and we took his 14ft trailer and filled it to the gunnels with manure, should be enough for quite a while and as an added surprise I'm pulling out all sorts of bulbs from it at the moment, mainly Daffs and Tulips but it's gonna be exciting to see them next year.
The manure is extremely well rotted as it's been in a heap for a few years so I delved in with gloved hands and started pulling out those worms. To be honest I haven't a clue what makes one worm different from another but apparently the common garden worm is no good because it can't stand the conditions of a wormery - I needed specific worms. So assuming the worms found in that muck are the correct worms I got my wormery going.
I've read many wormery articles on the net and all the different advice got mushed up in my already mushed up brain so I figured I'll do what I think is right and I'll soon learn if it's not. With that in mind I lay damp cardboard on the bottom of the middle bin, added damp shredded paper followed by a little garden compost then the worms then some kitchen scraps and finally damp cardboard to keep the little critters underneath and working away all topped off with the lid.
Here's the inside before the cardboard top layer


I'll let you know how it goes.

Onto a more exciting note the Silkie hen is sitting on eggs for the first time this year. Silkies make fabulous brooders and it's all this one seems to want to do. We've had a few chicks hatch but because we've left the rearing to the hen only 2 have survived past a few days old and even those 2 came close to death once. This time we'll let her sit on them and hatch them but then we'll take them and rear them.
Silkies really don't have much interest to me because they're more a pretty bird than anything else and their eggs are pretty pathetic, but we'll sell the chicks once they're old enough and then next time she gets broody I'm going to swap her eggs for some of the laying hens eggs and see if she's successful at hatching them. Granted the chicks will have a Silkie father but I'm hoping that's as far as the resemblance goes - I have no idea about these things.


She will not move off those eggs for anything!



4 comments:

  1. Hope the wormery works - I'll look forward to hearing about it. By the way don't forget to enter the comp from the fire pit! Something to keep you nice and warm in the garden!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Sue, I hope the wormery works.
      I've written a piece for the comp but I'm struggling to find any pictures to back it up.

      Linda

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    2. You could use photos of your garden as a finale of this is where I am now!

      I'm not judging so I can hint!

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  2. What an intersting bird...would make a warm hat :-)

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