Category Archives: Smallholding

Incubating eggs update

Posted on May 10, 2017 by james

Ok, so other things got in the way a little over the last couple of days, but we’re now four days in. I’ve just weighed the trays of eggs. Worryingly the Suro incubator is showing an RH value of 68% … Continue reading →

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Combining projects to make “Hatchcam”

Posted on May 7, 2017 by james

I’ve been idly wondering if I couldn’t combine my egg incubation project with a camera that I use for testing oacapture to record chicks as they hatch. I have some lenses that might be suitable and some cameras that can … Continue reading →

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Egg incubation humidity

Posted on May 7, 2017 by james

A day in, the relative humidity in my Suro 20 incubator is being reported as about 60% and it really ought to be a bit lower than that — nearer 52%. If I’ve done my research properly I reckon on … Continue reading →

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And they’re off!

Posted on May 7, 2017 by james

My eggs arrived safely so this Saturday I unpacked them to go into the incubators. I have one dozen each of Cream Legbar: White Leghorn: and Copper Black Marans: This is too many to fit into a single one of … Continue reading →

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Hatching plans

Posted on May 1, 2017 by admin

Today I’ve ordered some eggs to put in the incubator. We didn’t raise any chicks last year and we’re down to only a few hens now, so it’s about that time again. In fact if I left it any later … Continue reading →

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Super pleased

Posted on May 1, 2017 by admin

After a number of false starts I finally got supers on the last of my hives today. It was my intention to do this a while back but then the weather turned quite cold (we went from shorts weather to … Continue reading →

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A different sort of MOAB

Posted on April 23, 2017 by james

Over the winter we had a few trees in our hedges decide that they couldn’t stand life any longer and fell into part of the orchard. Over the last week or so I’ve been out there with the chainsaw, removing … Continue reading →

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A new tray for the cider press

Posted on March 1, 2017 by james

Fresh from my success wrangling stainless steel for brewing, I thought I’d make up a new press tray for the cider press also from stainless steel. The starting point was one of those stainless industrial catering trays you see on … Continue reading →

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Time to crack on with the mash tun

Posted on February 8, 2017 by james

My new stainless mash tun is made from an insulated stock pot, the tricky bit being to fit a tap to allow it to be drained. I opted to go for a tap fitted to the bottom of the pot … Continue reading →

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The mash tun can wait

Posted on February 4, 2017 by james

Time for a brew. Have to have something to drink to celebrate getting the mash tun made after all, so I put as much of my old kit back into service as I needed. This brew was a beer called … Continue reading →

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