The Willow Farm is alive

Out of 13 eggs only 2 have hatched. Im not happy with the result but I know better what to do next time. Never let the hen laying on only a few eggs instead take the under her and collect until  enough for her to care for in this case 12 eggs max. Then give the whole bunch and the chicks will hatch at the same time. In my case only one came out and the hen stopped laying on the eggs. I managed to hatch one in a home made incubator (my empty aquarium).

As of today the Muskovy Ducks are free going. The Hens are kept inside their spacious coop. The Cock saying hi to his new neighbors.

Guess which ones are Duck eggs ;)

Kristine weeding the garden with me on this lovely sunny day

Everything is growing :)

Its finished!

At last the roof is finished :) the old roof is gone and the new one is on!
We turned this;

Into this :)

We turned this;

Into this :)

and the front of the house :)

It took us 3 weeks to change the old roof and make a new one. I am knackered tired and all stiff :) There is lots left to do still; painting, gutters and filling up holes as well as insulation under the roof but the roof itself is rain tight and that is a relief :) This indeed was a huge undertaking. Im glad it finished!

New Muscovy Ducks and only one chick hatched

The handsome Muscovy male got 3 gorgeous females yesterday :) They

seem to like each other and their new home :)

I have made a big mistake; Instead of removing the first few eggs under the laying hen and then later giving them all the eggs at once I've let her start laying on just one egg at first and then more later on, which led to only one chicken hatching today and she stopped laying on the rest of the eggs :( I quickly moved the eggs into an empty aquarium and placed a light bulb in it with a small bucket of water for moisture. The temperature is at 33'C and it should be 37'C. I tried to raise it but the temp went up to 40'C for a short period. Im not sure this will work but I will give it a go for 5 days. If nothing happens I will throw away the eggs :( 

New roof, collecting water, ducks'n'tomatoes

After 5 days of hard work we managed to cover almost half of the house. The job was greater than we anticipated and I will need more help to be able to finish the other part of the house. I'm sure we will figure out something soon.

Image from the other side showing the new roof and the old one which needs to be changed.

My new friend Siri gave us a present today :)) a gorgeous looking male Muskovy Duck :) At the moment he is alone but we are looking on the net to find him 3-4 ladies ;) soon enough he will have his little harem.

I started collecting water just recently and the result is so satisfying :) so much rain water can be collected by simply placing barrels and buckets under the eves.

Tomato plants enjoying rain water

Our greenhouse tomatoes are getting larger and they have started to bloom

It is time to start nipping off the tomato off-shots

The kitchen garden is becoming greener with each passing day. Most of it are the weeds which came in through the horse manure. Must weed pronto! Onions, Potatoes, Sugar Peas, Lettuce and Radishes have sprouted into life. Will continue planting Beets and Chard as well as Beans soon. A few more empty raised beds waiting to be planted

The honeybees are buzzing loudly in our apple orchard :)

The Willow Farm is getting a new roof

Just in case you are wondering why I'm not blogging :) We are changing the roof on our old farm house and that will take a while. Big job indeed!