Articles by Lesley Anderson
Articles by
Lesley Anderson
Life on Birchwood Croft: tales of smallholding in the Scottish Highlands
Lesley Anderson learns about the ups and downs of life for crofters Beth and Tim Rose in the Scottish Highlands.
Living and working as a horse logger in Scotland
Steffi Schaffler lives and works in Scotland, running a horse logging business along with her partner Dave and 3 horses.
The case for feeding food waste to pigs
If we are going to use livestock to produce food, we need to work out how to do so sustainably. It has always been a source of frustration to me that so much food is wasted, yet we cannot legally use it to feed our livestock, leaving them munching away on food which could have …
The simplest DIY compost toilet
For several years I lived in a tent in woodland and I never really readjusted to this business of flushing poo away with clean drinking water. Besides, I have always liked to feel I am dealing with my own… stuff, both figuratively and literally. So when we moved into our current house a DIY compost …
How to make a chicken coop from a repurposed plastic barrel
Wooden chicken houses can be a nightmare, especially when they are infested with red mite: hiding in every crack and crevice and tormenting your hens. Those recycled plastic chicken houses can be expensive though and even they have some design flaws!
Should you keep a rooster with your hens? (and how to deal with a problem rooster)
I prefer to keep my animals as naturally as possible to allow them to express their natural behaviour and reduce stress, so I have always kept a rooster with my hens. It is true that you do not need a cockerel or a rooster in your flock for your hens to lay eggs. So why …
Using pigs for woodland conservation
At this year’s Scottish Smallholder Festival I attended a fascinating talk by Jack Flusk and Katie Swift of Conservation Pigs about their pioneering use of pigs for woodland conservation work. With benefits to the pigs, the pig keeper and the woodland this is a practice which could become far more widespread.
How the study of animal behaviour (ethology) can help you keep livestock more ethically and sustainably
I want to talk about something which can help us design more ethical and sustainable ways of keeping our livestock. It is a subject that has always fascinated me and, if you keep animals, I think you will find it fascinating too. It is the is the study the behaviour of animals, particularly in their …
Slug control with ducks!
“You don’t have a slug problem, you have a duck deficiency” – Bill Mollison