The new Solway Feeders ladder trap, soon to be added to the website.

We've been working on the new Solway Feeders catalogue over the past few days, and we've added a number of new products for 2012. One of our newest products is the Solway Ladder Trap, our own version of the traditional crow trap (also known as a letterbox trap) which has been used across the country for the past century.

Unlike larsen traps, letterbox traps don't use springs or any moving parts to catch birds. They depend on the same principle used in lobster pots, which allows birds in from outside but doesn't let them out from inside. The birds pop down through the ladder and then find that they can't physically fly vertically back up through it.

Letterbox traps work best with a live decoy, and they have an advantage over traditional larsen traps because they can catch dozens of crows in one setting.

This bag of soil should reveal some important information for game cover crops.

In 2012, we plan to experiment with a new range of game cover crops in an effort to find the best mixes for shoots in a variety of different circumstances. Before deciding which crops to try, it's important to get an idea of the soil we plan to use. Soil tests provide a handy starting point for game cover crops, and laboratory tests reveal important information such as pH and NPK contents.

Using a trowel, we took samples from a number of areas around the field and placed them in a sample bag, ready to be sent off to the lab. It could be that the soil is a little acidic, so if the results confirm this, we can begin to plan the application of lime, as well as fertiliser and supplements.

We should have results back in the next few weeks, so we will soon know more.

The white coturnix quail are doing well, enjoying the outdoor life.

 The past few weeks have been very interesting, what with learning how to keep and look after quail. A special quail house with an outdoor run has been built to house the tiny birds, and they seem to be thriving in it. Access to outdoor browsing and feeding is important for most game and poultry species, but it took the quail a few days to get used to grass, sunlight and soil after a lifetime spent indoors. They are let out first thing in the morning and return to their indoor quarters just before dark at night.

The quail are still being fed on chick crumbs, although they do seem to browse quite happily the grass, lifting up seeds and bits of this and that. It is sure to be a healthier environment for them than the cages of mass produced birds.

So far, the supply of eggs has dwindled into nothing, but we hope that over the next few weeks, the new diet and fresh air should get them back into the mood.

A juvenile Chinese Painted Quail - one of the most unusual Christmas gifts of 2011...

Of all the gifts exchanged over Christmas, the last thing we expected to receive was a group of quail. The birds were delivered on New Year's Day and we soon had the opportunity to inspect three white coturnix quail (two cocks and a hen) and three chinese painted quail, all of which are too young to sex. The chinese quail are extraordinarily small, and the freedom with which they moved in and out of their cage on their first night was quite alarming.

Thankfully, the white coturnix quail are a good deal bigger - something in the region of a black bird in size. They stay where they are put and the hen has even started to produce eggs, which are genuinely very tasty. The shed where they are being kept now rings to the odd musical chattering of quail, and the time has come for them to be housed outside in a purpose built run.

In the meantime, they are feeding on mixed bird seed, meal worms and chick crumbs, and the diet seems to be doing them quite well. Slices of cucumber are thrown in from time to time and the little birds hollow out the pulpy interior, leaving only the dark green outer skin.

The quail project was a nice surprise for the new year, but it was not something we had planned for. Over the next few days and weeks, we will be keeping the quail and collecting their eggs - yet another smallholding project to be documented on the Solway Feeders blog!

Scoop the puppy enjoys the snow at the beginning of the month

Although it doesn't look like it's going to be a white Christmas this year, there's still plenty to celebrate.

We'd like to wish all of our customers and visitors a very happy Christmas and we look forward to hearing from you again in the New Year!

The Cluson Screenlite kit is great for lamping foxes from a vehicle.

With the shortest day of the year fast approaching, it will soon be time for foxes to start their annual breeding cycle. Vixens will be screaming at night and dog foxes will be wandering far and wide in search of a mate, so now is a good time to get on top of these animals before they settle down and start to think about having cubs in the spring.

We sell a huge variety of fox control equipment, from lamps and torches to snares and traps, and we are trying and testing new products all the time. One of the best gadgets available for the fox controller has to be the Screenlite kit, which allows a single lamper to search for foxes at night from the comfort of their land rover or 4x4. Unlike traditional car lamping kits, no drilling or professional installation is required, since the kit works using a simple suction cup.

A fully rotational ball socket gives three hundred and sixty degree turning capacity, and it is easy to reach out of your open window to control the beam. Once you have found your fox, the clamp holds the lamp securely in place while you take aim and fire. The Cluson Screenlite kit is a great alternative to roof mounted lamps, and the fact that it can be set up and removed in a matter of seconds makes it far more convenient, without the danger of drips of leaks through permanently mounted torch holes.

Feed hoppers in the snow provide helpful information as to how they are being used by the pheasants.

After a long, mild November, the skies opened last night and the first snow has fallen. Snow brings many inconveniences, but there are some advantages to a good covering of the white stuff.

Most importantly, snow gives a good idea of how your feed hoppers are being used. Pheasant tracks are very conspicuous in the snow, and it's easy to see which feeders are being used and by how many birds. There are always a great deal of chaffinches and tits around our feeders, and it's nice to think that the winter feeding regime is helping a huge variety of other wildlife.

It's also a good time to look at where the local foxes are moving around. Long, straight tracks in the snow are a dead give away for foxes, and following up some of the runs gives a good idea of where to lay an ambush or set a snare.

The forecast predicts that there is more snow to come, in which case the disadvantages of not being able to travel will soon outweigh the advantages...

Although outside the realm of poultry keeping, pigs belong in the domain of the smallholder.

After a hard week selling poultry and game supplies, what better way to wind down on a Saturday than attend a pig keeping course in Cumbria? Many of our customers are smallholders, and thanks to some high profile publicity from television chefs over the past few years, it has never been more popular to keep your own pigs for high quality, environmentally friendly pork.

The course was run by two extremely well experienced pig keepers, both of whom have established a great reputation for breeding pedigree pigs from traditional British rare breeds. We saw saddlebacks, lops and hampshires, as well as the prettiest of them all, the oxford sandy & black. These pigs are a beautiful caramel colour, blotched all over with black spots, and despite the fact that they take a while to mature into good meat bearing animals, their pork is some of the highest quality of any pig breed.

Pigs are friendly and surprisingly intelligent animals, and as the day went on, it was hard not to feel quite attached to them. We were shown round some styes and had pigs come up and nuzzle at our knees, then went to peer into the farrowing crates, where piglets squirmed and squeaked at one another in the struggle to reach the nearest available teat.

You can keep pigs almost anywhere provided there is somewhere warm and dry for them to sleep, and the fact that they make short work of any garden waste makes them a real boon for the smallholder. We left the day with big pig plans for 2012 - watch this space!

A Solway Fox Trap set up beside a partridge release pen.

Over the past few nights, a fox has been stalking around our partridge release pen. He's been pushing in the wire and scaring the birds in his attempts to get inside, but as yet, he's only been able to kill one bird outside the pen. With the electric fence and rabbit netting all around the pen, it's unlikely that he'll be able to get in, but the future's not bright for the birds once they are released.

Having studied the way that he is moving around the pen by looking for his footprints in the wet moss, it's quite obvious that he's using some distinct tracks back and forth. A fox trap might just turn the tables on this nocturnal prowler, so we have set one up against the sitka spruce plantation where he likes to walk. It's important to cover the floor of a cage trap so that any curious fox will not be put off by having to walk on galvanised mesh to get inside. We covered the floor of the trap with moss peeled from some old stones so that the mesh is totally hidden, and baited the trap with a dead rabbit.

The trap has been set for a couple of days now, and it is quite normal that nothing has happened yet. Foxes are very cautious animals, so it may be some time before the human smell wears off and the trap starts to pull its weight. The good thing about the Solway Fox Trap is that it is side entry, making it far more versatile than many other "straight through" traps. It can be used to catch foxes on awkward corners or in places where traditional traps or snares are unsuitable.

It's now just a matter of playing the waiting game...

Everybody likes the occasional picture of a puppy.

We are proud to announce a new addition to the Solway Feeders team - "Scoop", an eight week old black labrador bitch. There isn't a great deal to say about her at this stage, since her main preoccupations are sleeping and eating, but over the next few months, we hope that she'll start to be able to help us test working dog accessories before they go on sale on the Solway Feeders website.