A ‘Gate’-way to Green Woodcraft Success!

Monday is greenwood craft day at the College, and Subsidiary Diploma Countryside Management students have been busy refining their craft skills in constructing some rustic gate hurdles by hand and made from sustainably felled timber in the woods around them.
 

The 6’ wide gate hurdle were traditionally used to pen in livestock and the design has not changed for hundreds of years. Typically hurdles consist of five rails whose ends are planed into tapering tenons that fit securely into mortises drilled into the two end uprights. By adding a couple of diagonal braces and strops, the final hurdle is completed. In the last few sessions, students have felled their timber and cut it to shape, and have just started work on the mortise and tenon joins to bring the work together.

 

Check back to the blog to see how they are progressing in a few weeks time!
 

 

Countryside Management students end the week building bridges….

Countryside Management students spent Friday afternoon trialling the new bridge building task. The bridge pack is used to test the communication, team work and practical skills of the students. The Countryside Management students made light work of the bridge dismantling it and reconstructing it in no time at all.

 

 

Nature and the Seasons: A Delayed Year for Wildlife on the Farm

With the recent prolonged cold spells, nature is evidently trying to catch up as neatly observed by countryside management students studying at Moulton College. The green-woodworking group commented on Monday about the late emergence of spring woodland flowers including bluebells and wild garlic at Hardwick Woods and closer to home today students noted the first chiffchaff recorded on the estate this year. This is generally a spring arrival to the UK and rather unfortunately is termed as one of Britain’s most boring birds to look at! Perhaps this view is slightly unfair, as the small sized olive-brown warbler nimbly darts through the trees looking for food. It is best recognised by its distinctive tail wagging habit. Just out of interest the ‘science of the seasons’ is called phenology, and you can find a link to discover more courtesy of the Woodland Trust here: http://www.naturescalendar.org.uk/research/phenology.htm.

 

 

Countryside Management students successfully rear Japanese Quail

Countryside Management Students at Moulton College have recently seen the rewards of many weeks of hard work and effort. The eight week old Japanese Quail which they have raised from eggs are now fully grown and will soon start laying eggs of their own.

Back in February students took delivery of a batch of Japanese Quail eggs which they then reared as part of their game bird production unit. This unit gives them an opportunity to learn how to rear game birds to supply shooting estates. Although these quail will never be released on a shoot like pheasants or partridge they are capable of producing fertile eggs all year round unlike British game birds. This gives the Countryside Management students a perfect opportunity to carry out a rearing project all the way from egg to adult bird.

Once the eggs had arrived the students operated the Brinsea OvaEasy incubator to incubate the eggs for the required 17 days. They kept records of fluctuations in temperature, humidity and egg weight as well as checking the progress of incubation using a method called candling. This method required the group to shine the light of a torch through the egg shell to check for signs of development.

At 15 days the incubator’s automatic egg turner was switched off to provide a stable platform for the hatching chicks and within a couple of days students found the first chicks had hatched. Over the next 24 hours the hatch continued until the chicks could be transferred from the incubator to their permanent indoor enclosure where they would remain for the first two weeks of their lives. During this time students learned how to carry out health checks, mix medicated feed and maintain cleanliness and biosecurity. After two weeks the chicks were transferred to an outside run which the students had built which is supplied with electricity to power the heat lamps to keep the birds warm. Students have continued to monitor the progress of the birds most recently learning to sex them ready for sale.

Live Small Mammal Trapping and Land Management Options for the College Estate

Higher Education students have been helping to gather some baseline data in a study that seeks to determine the habitat value of new agri-environmental land management options for small mammals. The farm is currently signed up to Entry Level Stewardship – a five year European funded scheme governed by Natural England that encourages land owners to manage their land to meet conservation objectives for farmland birds, soil and water protection and other wildlife.

One option that delivers the most for wildlife is the wild bird seed mixture. This can be established as an annual or biennial mixture and can help to provide food for farmland birds in late winter during the so called ‘hungry gap’. Yet what is not so clear  is how these mixtures will benefit other animal groups.

Allied to some work on one of Britain’s smallest non-volant mammals – the harvest mouse – FdSc Countryside & Wildlife Management students have recently set out some trap lines in a mystery location on the estate to attempt to estimate presence and potentially population sizes of harvest mice. Modified Longworth and Wellfield live capture traps have been set at 20 metre intervals along transects and these will be checked every day by the students. Any captured animals will be marked as part of a ‘capture-mark-recapture’ method to elucidate population sizes and home ranges. This information will give us an insight as to whether the bird seed mix option delivers benefit to other important groups at the base of the farmland food web.

 Check back to the blog next week to see what we find!

Tractor Driving

Phil Spriggs ends this afternoon’s tractor driving session with and expert demonstration of tractor parking!

Down at the Woods Today......

On Monday a group of Countryside Management students started putting their woodland habitat management skills to good use. The group travelled down to Hardwick’s Wood and started work on a coppice coupe. The coppicing work will help promote the regrowth of hazel and ash trees that grow freely on the site. It should also encourage the natural regeneration of woodland ground flora which could improve the visual beauty of the site and also the wildlife value.

To ensure a valuable habitat for small mammals and invertebrates was retained the students also started to construct a deadheaded around the coupe. This task was a great example of team work with the whole group involved in the different stages of the task. As quickly as Terry could put points on the end of the posts Josh and Joe were driving them into the ground. With the rest of the group back filling the hedge with the waste material that was being cut down the dead hedge quickly took shape.