Phil came over for the weekend, with Lizzie, Tony, and Josh, to collect our 3 beehives to take them to their new home at Vale das Lobas.

Maybe the bees knew they were coming – because a swarm arrived!

Swarm of Bees on Grape Vine

We had an empty top bar hive here (thanks to Matt for making it) so we got it ready and decided to site it in a secluded spot at the end of one of the gardens, under some peach trees.

Phil and Josh got suited up ready to collect the swarm and transfer it to the hive.

Preparing the Top Bar Hive

Putting the Top Bar Hive in its new location, under some peach trees on a secluded terrace

Not sure if they’d managed to get the queen, Phil and Josh carefully carried the box full of bees to the new hive.

Collecting the swarm by gently brushing them into a box

Not sure if they’d got the queen, Phil and Josh carefully carried the boxful of bees to the new hive.

Carefully emptying the swarm into the top bar hive

Phil spotted the queen as they were pouring the swarm into their new home!

The day afterwards and they seem to be busy foraging and making their home in the hive.  Fingers crossed they will stay.

I think its fair to say that most of us, if not all of us, who attended this workshop were apprehensive in the morning. A pig is a big creature, and having seen how they are often killed around here, we didn’t quite know what to expect.

Martin, who was running the course, was in fact brilliant. He started by talking us through the whole process, explaining the need to respect the pig, and to ensure that she would feel as little pain or distress as possible. This was a relief, as I am not sure I could be party to hanging a pig in a tree and letting it bleed to death, fully conscious and squealing!

He also went through all the tools that we would use, and clearly but simply told us what was ahead for the day.

The pig had been without food for 24 hours, so it was a simple matter to put down a bucket of food, wait for her to put her head in the bucket, then fire a bolt gun into her forehead. She dropped to the floor, effectively brain dead, although her heart would continue beating for some time.

Then she was moved to the ladder/tripod that was set up. Our first job was to cut the arteries going into her heart, pushing a long knife under her collar bone. Then she had to hang for a short while to bleed out.

Now she was dead. The next job was to burn off all the hair, which was surprisingly more unpleasant than cutting her arteries! This took some time, and we all had a go with the blow torch.

Then we had to scrape of the outer layer of skin – turning a black pig into a white one. This also involved a blow torch, lightly burning the skin so that it bubbled and could be scraped with a sharp knife.

Once she was cleaned of hair and skin, we watched as Martin cut around her anus, and up her front, to disembowel her, and remove all the internal organs, explaining what was what and what was not edible. After giving her a thorough washing, inside and out, we took the heart, liver, lungs and kidneys to cook for lunch – which was absolutely delicious, except for the lungs which were just a bit too much like eating rubber for me!

In the afternoon, the pig was moved indoors, cut in half and hung. The next day we were taught much about different cuts of meat, use of knives etc etc

It was a very useful and interesting workshop. I now know that I could slaughter a pig, and that one day I will want to keep them. Of course I would have to buy a bolt gun, to ensure a swift death.

So we’ve got a lot of ratatouille to make and tomatoes to bottle today.

Matt also harvested 3 frames from the beehives, giving us over 4 kilos of delicious raw honey!

Animal food has been a problem for us. We used to buy ‘natural’ chicken food, until we realised that it was largely genetically modified corn (milho) and soya. So, now we have been buying individual sacks of rye (centeio), barley (cevada), wheat (trigo), wheat germ, sunflower seeds, and white corn, grown by the local agricultural co-operative (and they assure me it is not GM). Unfortunately grown chickens and ducks don’t seem to like the grains – and a lot of what I have read recently about raising animals seems to suggest that they shouldn’t depend on grains.
They also get all our leftovers, greens from the garden, slugs that have been found eating seedlings and anything else that we think they might enjoy. But we don’t get as many eggs as we did when they were eating a commercial mix – I suspect because the protein levels are lower.
Do we up their protein, by buying in stuff, and get more eggs, or be happy with what we get and work towards growing more protein rich foods for them?

This year I am growing a lot more Hopi blue corn, and Thai black soya beans with the intention of making these a protein basis for the birds.

The chicks, on the other hand, are very keen on the grains, which I mix with ground corn, sorghum seeds, ground soya, wheat germ and also anything that they might like. In nature, the birds would eat a huge range of things, so we try to replicate that as much as we can in their pen (we tried having them completely free, but they ate all our garden vegetables and foxes/dogs ate them!)

If only the EU hadn’t allowed GM foods into animal food. It is now practically impossible to find premixed animal food that does not contain GM corn and soya. The choice has been effectively taken away from us.
Although I like growing vegetables very much, personally I would prefer not to have to grow chicken food, and I would prefer to support local business and other farmers by buying a product that takes the stress and hassle out of feeding our chickens. But, hey, no point thinking if onlys. I will have to continue learning what kind of food they like best, what grows well in this heat, and keep modifying my chicken food mix while watching how many eggs get laid for us, and keeping an eye on how healthy and contented they seem…..

Now that we have 4 inhabited hives, bee activity in the gardens is noticeably more than in previous years.

The poppies flowering in the edges of my garden are incredibly busy with both honey bees and native bees – bumble bees, carpenter bees and mason bees, all collecting pollen for their young.

In the following picture, you can clearly see their pollen sacs full of white poppy pollen.

Our pollination levels for fruit and veg should be very high, now we have somewhere in the region of 200,000 little helpers, as well as all the other insects here that buzz from flower to flower.

Black Kites will take small live prey as well as fish, household refuse and carrion.  They can be distinguished from the Red Kite by their slightly smaller size, less forked tail and generally darker plumage.  The Black Kite nests in forest trees, often close to other kites.

Black Kite above the River Mondego (thanks Tom Warlow for taking this photo when he visited)

We can walk through the village to the other side of Povoa de Midoes to get to the River Mondego (takes about 20 minutes).  There we can see where the birds are nesting and Matt braved a swim last week (it’s still a bit chilly!)

Matt down at the River Mondego prior to his swim

View of the River Mondego from the village (thanks to Tom Warlow again)

Maurice and Daan

Maurice and Daan certainly do their job here on the quinta by providing us with their manure.

Composted Horse Manure

Animal dung has been used for centuries as a fertiliser, as it improves the soil structure so that it holds more nutrients and water, and becomes more fertile. It encourages soil microbial activity which promotes the soil’s trace mineral supply, improving plant nutrition. It also contains some nitrogen and other nutrients itself which assist the growth of plants.

It also helps keep us fit as we have to dig it up and push it up the hill to the gardens!