by Steve Byrne | Oct 10, 2017 | animals
Poor old Paddy. He woke up on Monday morning with what can at best be classed as terrible constipation. Horses are trickle feeders, and their gut relies on a small steady intake of food to keep everything moving. Colic, usually down to impactions or eating something that has decided to disagree with them, is never a good thing in horses and ponies, and down the years we’ve lost one or two to such things. Hence when it appeared that Paddy had spent a whole night rolling around his stable in discomfort, we called up Sean the vet immediately.
by Steve Byrne | Apr 11, 2017 | animals
This is Paddy, who is what you’d call a happy accident. When I saw him advertised on facebook, I really did not intend to end up giving him a home. Really. But I casually asked a couple of questions and heard no more. Then I get a message back a fortnight later, and the guy sounds desperate to rehome him, and next thing I’m bringing home a tiny three year old cob stallion, who turns out to be not quite two. Makes a change as they are usually older than people say, not younger.
by Steve Byrne | Feb 19, 2017 | animals
This week we went off to the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, to their annual Horse Ploughing and country skills day. Apart from anything else it was a good chance to go and have a look at everyone’s harness, as it turns out that literally every single set seems to be different in some way, and we fancied seeing how ours compared.
by Steve Byrne | Nov 13, 2016 | animals
After my recent visit to Bantry to learn some more about working horses, it was time to get things moving here at home, and so Rain has gone off to hoof camp for a couple of weeks in Glengormley, with John McDermott, to learn how to pull things.
by Steve Byrne | Feb 20, 2016 | animals
Three years after starting the pond, we finally have ducks! They are Aylesbury ducks – 3 ducks and a drake, and they are having enormous fun getting used to their new surroundings.
by Steve Byrne | Feb 3, 2016 | animals
For three years people asked “free range hens – don’t you worry about foxes?”. “Not at all”, I would reply casually, and so our hens wandered all over the place, right up until the night I came to their house, to be greeted only by the plaintive cheeping of one of the baby hens
by Steve Byrne | Sep 24, 2015 | off grid
As we come to Mabon – the Autumn equinox, our busy season draws to a close, and the place has quietened down as our band of volunteers head off, and we host the last events before we take a break. Last weekend’s course – ‘Finding You – A...
by Steve Byrne | Aug 22, 2015 | animals
Today was ‘chicken day’ – 15 weeks or so ago, these 10 birds arrived as day old chicks, supplied by our friends Brian and Becky, as something of an experiment in rearing our own meat. They have led a happy outdoor existence, foraging, enjoying...
by Steve Byrne | Jun 23, 2015 | animals
After a couple of weeks absence, Dotty has returned with a sizeable clutch of chicks – fourteen, we reckon. These plus the seven that Fluffers had last week, and the ten that we are raising for meat, means that not only will our laying flock grow...
by Steve Byrne | Sep 20, 2014 | animals
The unstoppable broody Fluffers has done it again, this time vanishing to hatch 8 healthy chicks, returning to parade them around the place today. She’s perfected the knack of sashaying about with them underneath her, which is quite a sight, and here they are...
by Steve Byrne | May 13, 2014 | animals
After years of making do with a camera phone, we finally bit the bullet and got ourselves a decent camera. I have to say that the results were worth it, and our chickens have been obligingly posing for me. f
by Steve Byrne | May 13, 2014 | animals
We love our hens, and I can’t imagine a time when we wouldn’t have them here – after all, what smallholding doesn’t have hens roaming around? Although ours have lived at times in a contained area, they love to free range around the...
by Steve Byrne | Feb 21, 2014 | animals
This is Wilma the Whippet, the latest addition to the Lackan Cottage Farm household. Dumped in mid December, with 12 puppies, Wilma was fortunate enough to be picked up by the dog warden and taken to the Mid Ulster Rehoming Centre at Drumbonaway kennels. Sadly...
by Steve Byrne | Feb 13, 2014 | animals
This is Martin, a mostly Welsummer cockerel, who is truly a great looking chap. Martin is looking for a flock of ladies to call his own, and until then is roaming our smallholding, singing to any hen that will listen. Could you offer Martin a home? Otherwise I will...
by Steve Byrne | Jun 1, 2013 | animals, permaculture
I’ve been fortunate enough to be around horses for 30 years now, and very early on, decided that horses would be my career. I’m ashamed to say that it is only now that I am getting to grips with pasture management. From a permaculture point of view,...
by Steve Byrne | May 7, 2013 | animals
This is Rain. He’s a two year old cob, who came to live with us this weekend, having been a resident at Holly’s Horse Haven, a horse rehabilitation and rescue centre in County Louth. He seems to have been more neglected than mistreated, and so apart...
by Steve Byrne | May 7, 2013 | self sufficiency
For a while there we thought it might never be sunny again, but once again we are enjoying the warmth, and the knowledge that the sun is providing our electricity and an increasing amount of our hot water. All around us the place is bursting into life, and the brown...
by Steve Byrne | Mar 24, 2013 | animals, smallholding, the farm
At last the rain and snow have stopped, and there is a hint of blue sky above us now. The wind is still bitterly cold though, and the snow shows no sign of leaving us any time soon. This winter has been an especially difficult one for anyone with livestock, and we...
by Steve Byrne | Nov 29, 2011 | animals, smallholding
Yesterday I lost an old friend, and had to make one of those decisions that you just don’t want to have to make. I feel very strongly that when you take on responsibility for an animal, then that responsibility lasts a lifetime. Poor Oakley wasn’t blessed...
