Don't worry - it's friendly!

I'm a huge fan of Bokashi. Bokashi is a Japanese word for a well fermented organic product. Pictured above are the results of my first Bokashi bran bucket. It might look yucky but it is actually very friendly & very good for the garden. This mixture is now going to be popped into my compost bin to decompose & is full of effective micro-organisms that will improve the quality of my compost & help to suppress diseases & pests in my soil. To read more about effective micro-organisms & the ways they can be used The Recycle Works own website on the subject is very interesting & informative.

One advantage of using a Bokashi bran bucket is that you can add kitchen waste that you normally wouldn't put onto a compost heap, like meat & fish. Because the waste is fermented & not rotted it retains more of it's energy & nutritional value which means more of the goodness will be added to your garden. It's simple to use. You need a bucket with a tap at the bottom & a perforated plate to pop your waste onto. You then add your kitchen waste, chopped into small pieces, with a handful of Bokashi bran, compact, close the lid & then just keep repeating this process. A liquid will accumulate in the bottom of the bucket & can be tapped off to use diluted as an excellent plant feed, or can be poured undiluted down your sink where the effective micro-organisms will help to clean your pipes. It's brilliant! The bucket can be kept indoors because with the lid on there is no smell at all. When you lift off the lid, instead of a getting an offensive, foul, rotting odour all you get is an inoffensive, slightly sweet pickled smell.

Why not give it a go? Your plants will receive more essential growing energy & will be more resistant to harmful bacteria & funghi. You will enjoy the satisfaction of being kind to the environment.

Mallard ducklings update!

The little Mallard ducklings that my neighbour & I rescued are growing up fast. As they were trying to splash themselves with water from their drinker so that they could preen their feathers properly, it was time to let them have a shallow tray of lukewarm water & see what their reaction would be. Here's what happened!

As you can see they clearly loved having the water! It made them quite skittish & playful. Hubby & I spent several minutes utterly transfixed by them. Afterwards we made sure they were nice & dry & put a lamp over them to warm them up before bed time. (Excuse the state of the wall behind the ducklings in the video. This is part of an on-going project which is one reason why we aren't too precious about them being in the bedroom with us! No doubt it will be the subject of a later Blog)

It frustrates me sometimes when I read care information for ducks which says that ducks don't necessarily need more than a tray of water. Most especially when I was reading up on Muscovies it seemed that a shallow tray would be all they needed, as Muscovies have less developed oil glands than other ducks. As the picture of Seymour shows, ducks will make do with whatever water source is available! But when you see the sheer pleasure they get when they are able to swim & dabble properly it really is worth while installing a pond for them if at all possible. Even my Muscovies regularly get into the water & have a jolly good old splash - so much for under developed oil glands!

Seymour the Aylesbury duck still gets into this little tray of water despite having 3 ponds to choose from!

We have three 'ponds' in our little field & will install another one when the little Mallards are ready to join the rest of the flock. None of them are very fancy or expensive. One is a recycled fibreglass fish pond & the other two are actually 120 litre plasterer's mortar mixing baths bought cheaply from Ebay. But they do the job rather nicely. To stop the water going stagnant I add Bokashi mud balls to the ponds, which release lots of friendly bacteria to gobble up any sludge at the bottom.

A mortar mixing bath makes a 'pond' big enough for 2 geese to enjoy

If you are wondering how the injured hen is doing, she is eating & drinking but is quite subdued. I hope she will be OK. When she recovers I think I will put her straight up with the rest of my hens rather than back with the other Duracell girls. My other hens aren't likely to bully her in quite such a nasty way. The other Duracell girls are out in the garden again today, still not venturing too far from the shed & still chewing up my rose plants! They all have proper names now, injured hen being Jess, the others being Kitty, Lottie, Molly, Norah & Oprah. With 27 chooks in total now, naming them alphabetically helps me remember all their names!

Look what a difference a couple of days makes!

It's now only two weeks since the ducklings arrived and look at them today:

Now some may say that all ducks go through an 'ugly duckling' phase as they begin to feather, but if anyone dares use that term near my babies I will punch them on the nose!

The weather here has been very windy with very sharp, unpredictable down pours so the ducklings haven't been out on the grass as much as I'd have liked, but they don't seem to mind. They are, like all baby animals, just full of the joys of life! They are constantly astounded by new things, like the shadow of a big bird flying overhead, or the cries of the baby starlings nesting near to us as their parents arrive with food, or a sudden gust of wind ruffling their new feathers. They are excited about everything they are learning - they know the sound of the gate latch opening means I'm on my way with something tasty & that raindrops mean it's time to take cover.

Cheese (above) has more fluff left than Chalk (below)

I've used a board to create a shelter at one end of their run, because I'm worried that without a mother duck to oil them they aren't waterproof enough to withstand a soaking. I even stayed out with them in a down pour to make sure that they would take cover from the heavy shower - now that's motherly love for you. I got soaked to the skin myself , but, of course, they were clever enough to take shelter! I give them a quick towel dry before they go back into their hutch in the evening just to make sure they aren't damp ducklings at bed time.

The improvised rain shelter


But as they are feathering so quickly now, I've ordered them a kiddies paddling pool so that when they are ready they can take their first dip! (Can anyone give me some guidance on this? )

New, itchy feathers require lots of preening!

The ducklings spent lots of time preening themselves today. Chalk reached so far forwards to preen her breast, which is full of feather growth, that she surprised herself (& me) by doing a complete heads over heels! It must have felt fun, because she promptly did it again, then perhaps gave herself a bit of a headache because it wasn't worth a third time!

Looking around the back garden I thought to myself how glad I was that I made my own compost last year. For those of you that aren't convinced of the benefits of composting look at what's growing in mine:

Slightly wind battered onions, garlic, broad beans & beetroot seeds in one raised bed.......... and potatoes in the other!

..and I'm a complete amateur. My neighbour, who is a very accomplished gardener, laughs & says that I garden like a child because I tend to use my bare hands & no instructions! I've only got one wooden compost bin that I filled with plant trimmings, grass cuttings, soiled rabbit & chicken bedding & kitchen peelings until approximately July to August time last year, bunged in as many earth worms as I could collect from the garden & by the time it was time to sow this year I had lovely stuff to grow with. I was so excited (yes, I'm easily pleased!) that this year I'm having a go with a Wormery & Bokashi Bucket. I'll let you know the results.

While the sun was out briefly today I took some pics of our pygmy goats, geese, ducks & hens to add to my blog next time. The poor things have taken rather a back seat to the ducklings so far!