Tigh Na Allt

We have jarred honey! Not much though, we kept it simple for our first attempt and only put one super on. Any excess is going back to the bees for through the start of autumn into winter as there will be far less forage for them.
Lesson learnt? We need to invest in a decent extractor for next season, also be brave and put the 2nd super on! 🙈🤣
It is b****y lovely 😏😋

You can’t beat a new lick bucket - even though the previous ones hadn’t been finished..!!

Anthony’s been sheep shopping again 😏
Four beautiful ewes from Greenrig flock, they may look dark however there is so much variation in the fleece. Looking forward to what lambs they throw in the spring.
They have no idea what to make of the chickens and only come to investigate me from afar and as a unit, settling in well so far!

The rain stopped, the wind stayed away and the sun came out so we took a walk along to check on the sheep. All looking grand and still have plenty of grass. The tups will be going in with the girls mid-November so we need to keep an eye on condition, so far so good though ☺️

Today was all about the honey, it’s going to take some time straining it through ready for jarring but it’s exciting! And tastes so good…..😋🐝🍯

Our in-person courses are now approved for support through the Small Producer Practical Training Fund, Next Generation Practical Training Fund and Women in Agriculture Practical Training Fund.

That means, if you’re eligible, your 2-day course ticket cost can be fully covered.

Women and girls living on islands and in remote rural areas may also be able to claim additional travel and accommodation costs through the Small Producer and Women in Agriculture funds when attending training further from home.

These Scottish Government-supported funds, delivered through Lantra Scotland, are designed to make practical training more accessible to small producers, people new to agriculture, and women and girls looking to develop their skills and opportunities in the sector.

Support is also available through the Peatland Training Fund for those working in, or hoping to move into, peatland restoration.

Find out more about our courses and the funding available on our Training page via the link below, or contact Celia at [email protected] for help with applying.

www.crofting.org/training

Let’s talk about hens today. Idiot hens. Hens who think that a good source of entertainment is to make me search for their eggs….
They have a huge coop with lots of nesting boxes filled with posh aubiose and fresh shavings. The very lap of luxury. Do they all use them? Nope. Some dirt troughs they’ve dug out in their run in amongst the wee trees is where some of the feathered t***s would rather lay. The wee trees we leave them as forage for the occasional times we need to keep them in their run. They’re not left there as cover for covert laying 🤦‍♀️
I am pretty sure this is done as some sort of protest for not letting them out into the field for a few hours a day. And in our defence, if they’d stop gorging themselves stupid on the chicks feed we wouldn’t need to restrict them to afternoons only out in the field! If only they’d listen……😉🙈🤣

It was a lovely sunny day today which made it much nicer to do the jobs 😏, however tempting yet another pot of coffee staring out over the Loch and hills was……
I had a ferret about and got the rest of the King Edwards up and I think most of the Charlottes, I’ll have to wait till the Nasturtiums are over so I can find the rest of them! They’re drying up in the shed (I must remember they’re up there though).
The chicks are growing quickly, a couple of them are very definitely not going to be giving us eggs in the future! There’s some very cute
attempts at the cock-a-doodle-doing 🤭🤣 Benny found himself completely taken advantage of by a couple of enterprising youngsters who decided he was a much comfier mode of transport than their own wee legs, well, who can blame them 😏
The bees have pretty much fully capped their super so our next job is to buy an extractor and see how much honey we have. That’s quite exciting, the last batch we had was amazing so we have high hopes 🍯 🐝
We ended the day with a wander along to the crofts to check on the sheep, it took them about 5 seconds to lose interest in us when they realised we had the cheek to turn up without any nuts for them 🙈🤣
A friend put some pigs away so we collected some sausages on the way back home, we are looking forward to adding to our eggs for some very tasty breakfasts this week! 😋