Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

The fab hot weather we had prior to the recent rains and storms was perfect for drying our onions and so now we have been able to string them and hang them in the garage in their beautiful plaits: the hope is these will last us until we harvest next year's crop! This year has been our best onion harvest ever: we put it down to all that fabulous 'muck' we piled in the polytunnel last autumn, all of course from our own holding! This 'muck' or manure was basically rotted down straw and animal wee and poo which after the worms and the microbes had done their work ended up as fabulous compost full of all the right things needed to grow our vegetables.
You have to be careful when using 'muck' like this and make sure it is rotted down as much as possible so that none of the bad bacteria from the poo and wee is left. A good compost heap will get really hot and this heat should kill off the nasty bacteria leaving the worms and microbes and good bacteria to then break down the straw and poo until it all becomes dark and crumbly: perfect!
We now have five chicks: two Marans and three Indian Games, the remaining two eggs don't look as though they are going to hatch. Shame! All five are now with their 'broody' mum: we had given one of our Silkie hens some false eggs and then fooled her into thinking her 'chicks' had hatched by doing a quick swop, egg for chick, in one swift movement. Works a treat!