Call us Tom and Barbara….
But recently I’ve been discovering just how useful the bees are and hopefully will be. We all love a bit of honey on toast and we’re hoping for some great pollination next year; we all know about local honey and it’s help with hay fever and, apparently, the propolis reduces the chances of arthritis, but this week’s discovery tops them all. Honey has healing properties that are especially helpful when trying to treat a prolapsed chicken! Poor Kiwi, who belongs to our friends Ben & Jo, has been faithfully laying large eggs for quite some time and, basically, her insides have popped outside for a bit of a rest…. This isn’t causing her any pain, we just need to keep her clean, rested, away from the others and try to get it all back in place. During this process, it would also be helpful to reduce any further pressure on her delicate bits so we have reduced her food to stop her laying eggs and pooing too much… Where does the honey come in, I hear you say? Well, it acts as an antibacterial lubricant that reduces swelling and helps us get everything back in place… Hopefully that wasn’t too gory for you!
Family Feathers and Fun!
For those of you that are keen to find out more about keeping chickens (especially after that!), we are planning a new autumn special Family Chicken Keeping Course, on Saturday 26th November, with fun and games for children and loads of tips and information for all. For more details and booking in, please see here.
Hen Corner TV – Codling Moth Treatment (for apple trees)
Other Highlights:
- We’ve made a couple of bottles of Sloe Gin ready for Christmas
- The saffron has started sprouting, hurrah at last!
- Apricots and almonds are soaking in brandy for the Christmas puddings
Jobs for next week:
- Collect the leaves off the lawn into a tidy pile for leaf mold
- Compost my baby aubergine….. so sad, a mouse and then slugs had got at it from behind
- Crack on with the big winter prune and clear up (haven’t started yet!)
Have a good week yourself…
Join us on the Journey!
I swear by honey and lavender to heal most common problems, as can't take many of the common tablets , this week I have blasted a cold with natural things and it is beating a hasty retreat, chilli and raw onion with dinner and then honey lemon and ginger to drink, with lavender on the pillow at night. :-)
Hope the chicken is soon better. Yes, honey does have healing properties and as well as being an antiseptic it is quite soothing.
Some people swear by propolis for arthiritus, and some claim royal jelly cures all known ills, but I would not lay claim to either of those. Many people do find local honey helps hay fever. This works on the same principle as desensitisation by giving a very small dose of the irritant so that the person develops immunity. Again, I would not say it cures, or even works for everyone, but a lot of people do find it helpful.
Now you see, I just run the chickens in the orchard - problem solved. They seem to clean up the problem without any need for further intervention.