Farming in the time of coronavirus! We have had a Public Health Movement and Gathering Restrictions Order since the 28th of March in Australia. People are only allowed to go out to get essentials like food, medicine, to visit the doctor and to work if you are not already stood down or sacked or to exercise in groups of two only. Social distancing is being practised everywhere in supermarkets where stickers on the floor tell you where to stand , often sanitizers are available and retail workers stand behind clear plastic screens in small shops everywhere. Our fatalities in Australia have been remarkably low due to an early closing of borders and everyone , mostly, doing the right thing. Arriving citizens from overseas are put into 2 weeks’ compulsory quarantine in hotels paid for by the government who also feed them. Anyone breaking quarantine is gaoled. It’s keeping us safe. It’s also sending parents stir crazy locked up with their kids at home because they chose to keep their kids away from school. I’ve lost my job as a casual teacher and am banned from going back to school all next term because of my age. So , thank goodness, I’m able to isolate myself on a farm of four acres.
I would grow a lot of vegetables, if I could buy the seeds. There’s been a run on seedlings and seeds because people want to grow their own. At the moment due to us going soon into Winter, I’ve planted brassicas: Chinese cabbage, broccoli and Pak Choy. I’m harvesting Jerusalem artichokes, spring onions and kale. The tomatoes grew but hardly set any fruit. The same problem with the zucchinis. I’ve had to hand pollinate them and have only had a few fruit. A bee hive is needed at some stage. I have also been buying flowering shrubs to encourage the bees.
Two ducks are sitting on eggs in the turkey house. The turkeys and other poultry were turfed out of their usual pen and put in the adjoining one. One hatched out 10 ducklings on the 16th. The breed is Muscovy and all the ducklings are white. Meanwhile, the other duck was still sitting on four eggs but only one had hatched and he was mainly black with a bit of yellow. The first duck knew he was not hers due to his colour and began to peck at and harass him when he tried to join the other 10. She was also stopping the sitting duck from getting back to her eggs. So, I had to intervene. Hurriedly, cleaning out a small cage, I put in fresh water and food, caught her and 8 of her ducklings and set them up in the cage. Phew! I left the sitting duck two of the first duck’s ducklings to even up the distribution. If she hatched all her eggs, she would have 6 ducklings now instead of only four.
The duck with the 8 ducklings left four eggs in the nest. Two were turkey eggs. They are currently in the incubator. The other two were hen eggs and they were infertile. This cross sitting of species has lead to a hen raising four ducklings with her two chicks. Those ducklings have now grown up and do have some identity issues.
Meanwhile, each night is a battle to get the turkeys to stay in a different house. They want to perch outside on anything high. This I won’t allow because it’s too easy for them to fly down and out of the pen to the waiting jaws of a fox. The female turkey wants to raise babies too and has begun to lay eggs in the paddock! Not a sensible place for her or them to be. I live in hope she will start laying in a proper house.
amundr 