Thursday 30 May 2013

Time to move on …

We have come to the decision that it is time to move on from our property. We have had a great time on our hobby farm, but we now need to be closer to the big smoke.

We have bought a property just about 15 kilometres from where I was born … so we are downsizing from 6 bedrooms down to 3 and from 4 acres down to 700 square meters.

We are keeping the property and renting it out (the market is just too bad to sell). Sadly, we are getting rid of the chickens and the sheep.

We are selling loads of our stuff so that we can fit into our new home, including so much of my workshop tools.

Oh well.

Monday 11 March 2013

Weekend Break

This weekend … a long weekend in Tasmania, we went away for three days to Strahan on Tasmania's West Coast. We rented a shack in Lette’s Bay. The shack was pretty rustic … but it had all of the amenities that you would need and there was a private jetty that we could fish from.

On Sunday, my daughter and I did a spot of fishing. My daughter caught the first fish of the day … but it escaped before she could land it. Later, we caught five more cockies (juvenile salmon) and then my daughter caught another cocky, it was the biggest of the day, but our lines got tangled and then the fish got away, oh well.

Later, we took a scenic flight on a sea-plane that took us up the Gordon River, the Franklin River (the site of the protest against the building of the dam by the Hydro).

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The sea-plane touched down on the Gordon River, where we stopped off for a short while and we went in and had a look at a waterfall.

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There is a platypus that lives around this area … but it was not anywhere to be seen at the time. Platypuses are crepuscular animals, and we were there at midday, so no real surprises there.

The rest of the day was spent just floating around. Anita found some friends at the shacks, so she spent a lot of time jumping into the water from the jetty.

All in all, we had a fantastic time. The drive was a pain, but it was worth it.

Sunday 20 January 2013

First cleanout of the cichlid filter

Today we gave the Interpet External Power Filter (EPF350) a cleanout for the first time. I was a bit pensive about cleaning out the filter canister as I was worried about backflow and flooding the lounge-room (mostly because I worry…).

We did the normal aqua-vac and syphon of the tank, taking out about 1/3rd of the water from the tank and removing the solid waste (fish poo) from the tank. For this we have a normal plastic aquarium vacuum syphon that we attach a 6m hose to (19mm hose). When the syphon starts to draw water from the tank, we water the plants on the balcony and store some of the waste water for later watering of the balcony plants.

The EPF350 hasn’t been functioning as well as I’d like because the aquarium cabinet outlet hole is not very well positioned and the pump hoses have a nasty kink. This reduces the water flow and makes the pump function diminished. I want to point out that this is NOT the fault of the pump! I need to cut a larger hole in the back of the cabinet so that the pipes have a better path to the pump. To get around this in the short term, I have applied a pair of pipe clamps to the pipe to squeeze the deformation of the pipe out at the kink. This seems to be working well so far.

The EPF350 has a very nice design, there is a cut-off valve integrated into the pipe clamp so that, when you detach the pipes from the pump, the water flow is cut-off … no flooding!

The EPF350 has 4 outer layers of filter medium (ceramic tubes, and three grades of foam from very coarse to medium) and 3 internal layers of medium (ceramic tubes, bio-balls and charcoal). The water pumps through the three internal layers of medium and then up through the outer four layers. There is also a filter pad between the charcoal and the bio-balls. This all works pretty well, but the tank still gets a little cloudy. This may well be a consequence of the poor water flow due to the kinks. I decided to add a filter pad between the bio-balls and the ceramic tubes in the internal stack to add another layer of water scrubbing.

After reconnecting the EPF350 to the tank and turning it back on again, I fell foul of the low water level problem. That is, there wasn’t enough water in the canister to complete the water circuit, simple enough … funnel some more water in to the canister through the priming hole and, presto!, it all works again.

While cleaning the filter I noticed that the outflow bar has a bit of a design fault. The plastic around the flow valve is brittle and, on mine, broken. This isn’t a big problem because the flow valve isn’t intended to do much more than slow the outflow … not stop it, I don;t really care about it so much because I can fix it if I really want to.

Overall, I am pretty impressed with the EPF350, I would be happy to recommend it to anyone with a 350l tank. My next job with the aquarium is to cut that hole so that the pump hoses are not as stressed.

Saturday 12 January 2013

Wildlife in the top paddock

The weather has been getting hotter and the grass is getting more and more brown. This has meant that the local wildlife is more desperate for food.

We now have a wallaby that is pretty much always hanging around.

Not too fantastic a video … I should have set up the tripod, sorry about the wobble.

Friday 11 January 2013

Chicken Happenings

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Over the past couple of days we have been feeding our chickens a mix of pollard, calcium carbonate, rolled oats, powdered milk and water. The mix is divided into two portions to feed both of the flocks.

Our mix is:

  • 175 grams of pollard;
  • 75 grams of rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup of powdered milk;
  • 1/4 teaspoon of calcium carbonate and
  • 3 cups of water

The pollard mash is mixed up and then fed to the chickens twice a day. They have shown themselves to be VERY interested in this feed mix and don’t seem to miss their chicken pellets at all. In fact, the chickens are SO excited by their new feed that we are now having to teach Howard not to peck us. He has drawn blood on me once and has pecked my darling wife’s gumboots quite savagely. He is being taught by being booted up the cloaca (well pushed away vigorously, really).

Today our young rooster was sent to a new home out in Forcett and the hens were moved from their run into the larger run. It was sad to say goodbye to our little rooster, but it is a hell of a lot nicer than the alternative … a fight to the death with the dominant rooster.

My darling wife, gorgeous daughter and I had a great time catching the young pullets so that we could take them from their old run to the grown up chicken run. Ferrying the chickens from run to run wasn’t too hard, once the chickens were caught, they settled down very quickly and it was easy to carry them the 200 meters or so. The older chickens were a little bit put out, but Howard thought that it was another Christmas present … just for him. We gave the chickens an extra feed to distract them and that seemed to do the trick.

We will leave the door to the chicken run closed for a couple of days so that the pullets get used to their new coop and settle in to their new position in the pecking order. There is likely to be some disagreements over pecking order, but then, that’s nature.

I will post some pictures of the mega-flock tomorrow.

Monday 7 January 2013

Goodbye Goats

Well, we have reached a very difficult and upsetting decision. We are no longer going to be keeping goats.

Due to a number of reasons, mainly:

  • Accommodation on our property needs to be extended at a very high cost;
  • Inability of keeping goats and being able to get any time away from the farm; and
  • Health and wellbeing of the family

We have taken the hard decision to get rid of our goats. This will give us more time to focus on the family and will allow us to finally have a much overdue holiday.

I am very sad that this has happened, but we are still looking forward to having goats in our life (mainly by staying in the Tasmanian Dairy Goat Society, and through the friends that we have made with our goats).

The flock left the property last week and I miss their bleating and affection.

All of the other animals on our property can be either left to their own devices for long periods of time or left at kennels.

Sunday 6 January 2013

First proper actual egg from the chicks

It’s official … the chicks are now pullets. I found this egg in the nesting boxes in the chicks coop.

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As you can see by the weight, it isn’t a particularly large egg, but it is perfectly formed. 43 grams is pretty small by the standard of our chickens, we usually run from 50 to 70 grams (one egg actually topped 89 grams).

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And here is the egg in comparison with the eggs from the much older White Leghorn chickens. It is no surprise that the pullets first eggs are small. It is normal to get unusually shaped eggs while the chickens get their cycle into gear, so it is very good that this chick has laid a perfectly formed egg with no surface impurities or calcium deposits.

The White Leghorns are pretty much off the lay at the moment. I’ve had only four eggs with shells since the 2nd of January. Normally, I get between 3 and 5 eggs a day from the grown-up girls. I think that the heat has had a serious impact on their cycle. Since the 2nd, I’ve also had about four eggs without any calcium shell … just a weak and leathery skin. All but one of these shell-less eggs has been broken, so they have been fed to the dogs.

Also, I am very happy with the colour of the egg shell. It makes no difference to the taste of the egg, it is purely an aesthetic thing. White eggs come from chickens with yellow legs and white earlobes … brown eggs come from chickens with red earlobes. I think I can identify the chick that laid this egg, she is very dark in colour with reddish yellow legs. She is probably the most developed of the hens too. Anyway, we will see what we will see.

Thursday 3 January 2013

The Cichlid Tank

I’ve done a little reading on the best way to take photographs of the fish in our cichlid tank. Fortunately, for me, the cichlids are very photogenic fish.

So … here they are

Wednesday 2 January 2013

Chicks First Egg

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Today one of the chicks laid an egg. The egg was small and didn’t have enough calcium deposited on it for the shell to be hard, but it was the first egg.

The egg was laid next to the chicks roost, so it looks like it caught the hen by surprised … I suppose I can’t really call them chicks anymore, the babies have grown up.

When the chicks arrived, they were 8 weeks old … it is now another 12 weeks since then, so they are about 20 weeks of age. That’s just about spot on for development from chick to pullet.

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The cock has grown into a magnificent young rooster and he struts around the coop just like he is supposed to. His development has been good, developing his comb and wattles early and then his height and greater size.

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The hens are all gorgeous young chickens indeed.

I expect that the first hen to lay will be a bit inconsistent in her laying initially but her body and behaviour will adjust to the new stage of her life.

Our older chickens, the White Leghorns are now pretty much off lay, they seem to have reached the end of their laying life, so it’s retirement for them. I intend to allow the chickens a graceful and peaceful retirement. Although the hens will not produce many eggs in their retirement, they will provide the pullets with the wisdom of their age.

I now just need to find a new home for the new rooster.