Tuesday Night's Members Meeting - You must book a place.

Come and meet Kit Speakman and his family they run a mixed farm of 685 acres they have Cattle, Sheep and arable as well as growing cricket bat willow. They are in a High Level Stewardship Scheme and have diversified many redundant farm building into offices. So there is quite a lot to see. Tuesday 21st May 2013 7.30pm PROMPT PLS Please email donna@furzedown398.freeserve.co.uk to register your interest just so we have a rough idea of numbers Little Braxted Hall Little Braxted Witham Essex CM8 3EU

Meat Birds For Sale

One of our members has got some meat birds just come off heat ready to free range. They’re 4wks old and can be taken upto 20 weeks.

 

They are White Farm Ranger birds, we slaughtered some at 17wks and had some dead weights at 4kg!

 

Price £4.00each

 

Contact Saima

saima@chelmervalve.co.uk

 

 

Chicken Red Mite – should you be concerned?

Chickens are not naturally clean – they foul houses AND nest boxes.

It gets a good cleanout once a week.

And a top to toe super valet and repair in the Spring and Autumn.

If you are canny, the weekly cleanout takes about twenty minutes, or less!

The trick to quick and easy cleaning is to store everything that you might need within a few feet of the chicken house.

Two large barrels or a large aluminum grain box.
Mite spray, bedding, diatom powder, oyster shell, grit, newspaper

many happy hen houses just have newspaper spread on the floor.

Red Mite facts ... <!--[if !supportLists]-->· do not live on humans Can cause dermatitis if not washed off as soon as possible. hate daylight they lay their eggs in dark nooks and crannies most active at night transmit or cause Rickettsial Pox, Scrub typhus, Mange, Scabies, Dermatitis, Pruritis, Tsutsugamushi disease and other diseases only attack domestic poultry and pigeons/wild birds can survive for up to 8 months between blood feeds about 0.7mm long with an oval body and is normally yellowish brown in colour (before feasting red afterwards). in warm weather they breed very fast can live in plastic chicken houses

What are red mites?

• a parasite that lives in your chicken house
• they feeds on birds whilst they sleep at night.
• They feed on all parts of the chicken including blood, feathers, skin and scales.
• infestations can result in
• poor health, low egg production, weight loss and occasionally death


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Life Cycle of Red Mite feed for one and two hours each night. live in cracks/crevices in the coop where they deposit eggs. mite larvae hatch 2-3 days after being laid egg to adult is 7 days even without a food source Red Mite can survive for 8 months <!--[if !supportLists]-->

Spotting the signs reluctance of the hens to go into the house at night. a build up of a grey dust in the coop dust on the floor and in the timber joints. <!--[if !supportLists]-->

Red Mite eradication clean out the chicken coop consider using a blow torch, careful not to set fire to it you could use a steam cleaner or a pressure washer use a non toxic product – Poultry Shield (breaking down the mites waxy coating on contact, so they de–hydrate and die) thoroughly drenching the coop, and allow to dry you could try smearing paraffin and vasaline in the crevices or carbolic soap some say coke is also good follow the cleaning with Diatom Powder (Diatomaceous Earth fossilised highly abrasive to the mites’ waxy shell, so cuts it open, causing the mite to de-hydrate and die). Diatom can also be used directly onto the bird. Pay particular attention to perches/nest boxes/dark crevices. <!--[if !supportLists]--> <!--[if !supportLists]--> <!--[if !supportLists]-->

Red Mite Prevention avoid a chicken coop with a felt roof!also use Barrier Red Mite Powder – insect repellant Barrier Red Mite X Concentrate – disinfectant Follow with Stalosan F a powder disinfectant that destroys worm eggs, coccidial occysts & larvae. Anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-viral action, highly absorbant and will help to reduce the ammonia smell created by the chicken's droppings If your birds are showing signs of aneamia or are looking unwell then give Lifeguard® Tonic or Poultry Spice Provide your chickens with a dust bath with some added Diatom in – the chickens enjoy themselves and the Diatom protects when those red mite hop on at night! Although not licensed for use on poultry in the UK, Frontline or Ivermectin is also judged to be a good for lice/mite control – although these will only deal with the adult mite and should be used in conjunction with other measures. <!--[if !supportLists]-->

Source Tim Daniels http://poultrykeeper.com/red-mite/red-mites

 

Come and Visit us this weekend making Sausages and Chutney @ Trustlinks in Southend

A few members will be making sausages and chutney and spinning wool.

  47, Fairfax Drive,

  Westcliff-on-sea,

  Essex. SS0 9AG. 

Tel: 01702  213 134

Book your place now for the visit to Butlers Farm Alpacas - 18TH May 2013 11am

You must book a place to attend this visit.

Alpacas at Butlers Farm Essex

Come and meet the lovely Butlers Farm Alpacas Located in the heart of the Essex countryside, Liz has kindly invited us to visit the farm and meet her family of alpacas and hear about the joys and practicalities of keeping them either just as pets, lawn mowers or for their wonderful fleece. Butlers Farm Alpacas is a family run business providing a full range of Alpaca services, including stud services and livery. Liz always have a number of fine Alpacas for sale, whether for breeding or for pets, and she ca...n help you through the process of purchasing and starting up with alpacas. Also visit The Alpaca Shop situated at the farm where you will find a range of wonderful products made from Alpaca Fleece. http://www.butlersfarmalpacas.co.uk/ To register your interest or book your place email mailto:donna@furzedown398.freeserve.co.uk

Book your place now for the visit to Butlers Farm Alpacas

Members are invited to come and meet the

Alpacas at Butlers Farm Essex

Come and meet the lovely Butlers Farm Alpacas Located in the heart of the Essex countryside, Liz has kindly invited us to visit the farm and meet her family of alpacas and hear about the joys and practicalities of keeping them either just as pets, lawn mowers or for their wonderful fleece. Butlers Farm Alpacas is a family run business providing a full range of Alpaca services, including stud services and livery. Liz always have a number of fine Alpacas for sale, whether for breeding or for pets, and she ca...n help you through the process of purchasing and starting up with alpacas. Also visit The Alpaca Shop situated at the farm where you will find a range of wonderful products made from Alpaca Fleece. http://www.butlersfarmalpacas.co.uk/ To register your interest or book your place email mailto:donna@furzedown398.freeserve.co.uk

Safeguard our Soils, Mr. Pickles!

2,000

1,134

1,134signers. Let's reach 2,000

Help South East Essex Organic Gardeners

Why this is important

Why is agricultural land, described in one planning application as 'a mixture of 80% Grade 2 (very good quality) and 20% Subgrade 3b (good quality)', being developed?

We need change before any more agricultural land is offered to/bought up by developers.

We must accept that Britain cannot rely on world food supplies because, as prices rise, Britain needs a stable, secure food supply, with short distance from field to plate.

Over the next 50 years, food and farming face the stark challenge of providing better nutrition for more people in spite of rapid environmental change, while cutting our diet’s impact on natural resources, ecosystems and the climate. This calls for changes in our eating habits, reductions in food waste and improvements in food production. We want to make sure organic and other agroecological approaches are at the heart of efforts to achieve this.

It used to be the case in England that the grade of agricultural land was a prime consideration for planners and local authorities in allocating sites for development.

But changes to planning policy in the late 1980’s downgraded the importance of agricultural land classifications in planning, in response to the more globalised market for food that had developed and this level of attention to quality of land was no longer needed.

The DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) report http://randd.defra.gov.uk/Document.aspx?Document=9905_SP1501finalreport.pdf demonstrates that before the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), Local Planning Authorities didn’t have the tools they need to protect our best agricultural land from development – and the NPPF has done nothing to improve planning policy to address this.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Safeguard_our_Soils_Mr_Pickles/?launch

http://seeog.org.uk/