PLAYING FOR REAL

..Or serious business

 IT HAS come to my attention that some of you think I'm just bimbling around in the Scottish Borders because I've got nothing better to do with my life ... I wish! In the absence of a pot of gold or a jackpot win, I'm seriously trying to make a business out of my smallholding.
 Sharing with you some of the highs, lows and daft capers I get up to is what I do in lieu of conversation as I can go weeks here without seeing another living soul other than my hubby and daughter Daisy who spends most of her time in Newcastle at university.

TURKEYS: Ant & Dec have yet to 

impress

 So this little item is really about what I've achieved so far. Well my rare breed  Scots Dumpy chickens are slightly less of an endangered species now because of my black hen Josephine who went into her coup one evening like Carrie on Prom Night to re-appear a few weeks later as Mother Theresa with a docile, well behaved brood of tiny chicks.
 Then there are another half dozen young 'uns - real flighty hooligans - who zoom around the hen pen annoying everyone with their antics and they are the product of an incubator. In terms of behaviour I think this tiny experiment goes to show there's no substitute for a mother's love in the animal kingdom.

 The biggest disappointments so far have been the Bourbon Red turkeys (pictured above) - apart from a rash of eggs in March/April and three deaths (two down to disease and one down to a fox) they've produced nothing and if owned by welfare axeman and Chancellor George Osborne they would be really worried by now. However, I will give the turkeys another season and two of the female turkeys might yet just come up trumps. One is sitting on five hens eggs to satisfy her broody nature and another disappeared two weeks ago ... I am hoping she is sitting on a nest somewhere and will re-appear with a whole new family of chicks.

DON'T be fooled by the look of innocence

sheep are mad, bad & subversive

 The saddest period happened around the geese after losing one to a badger who'd been sitting on a full nest of eggs and this so unsettled the other goose that she hatched successfully only one gosling called Peewee. Next breeding season I intend to be more hands on and to hell with the non-interventionists; sometimes even Mother Nature needs a helping hand. But even without Peewee the geese have performed so well as watchdogs that on the security front they're worth their weight in gold.
 The baddest, maddest period was provided by the sheep. I'm no shepherdess and I no longer find sheep appealing following encounters with a few deranged, suicidal, subversive sheep. I've still got two prize-winning Zwartbles rams in the field but my long term view does not take either of them into account.
 I am hoping to keep red deer for breeding but I need to sort out the fencing first although a herd has been sourced for me so watch this space.

HONEY TIMES AHEAD: Let's 

hope so anyway as the new colony

settles in

                                                                                   

 And the newest addition to our little enterprise, the honey bees, hold great promise as long as the good weather endures. A good hive can produce up to 30lbs of honey a year but, as my Great Aunt Lizzie used to caution: "There's many a slip between cup and lip." So I'm not going to speculate on honey crops until I have some to process.

 In the meantime I've provided a few videos so you can judge for yourself what you think of my smallholding and if my time in the Borders has been 

wisely spent.

But please remember, I am a novice and I am very much on a huge learning curve so if you can throw in some advice, tips or helpful comments then do so. Some of the feedback I've had has been extremely helpful and enlightening and i hope you've enjoyed contributing as much as I have.