Saturday 4th February 2017
Reduced poultry numbers
Yesterday’s poultry dispatching all went well and our numbers are now reduced from 51 to 40, whilst the freezers are all now VERY full. The poultry stable stall looks a lot emptier and it is certainly a lot quieter without all the young cockerels. A friend came over with two of her ducks for Stephen to dispatch and we talked about how hard it is to make the decision to end the life of an animal, mainly, if not totally so you can eat it.
Our philosophy always is that the day we DON’T question such a decision, is probably the day we should stop. We believe it is important to always consider what our intentions are for any animal in our care and NEVER to breed unless we have a plan for each and every one.
We are now left with 31 chickens, some of which we may need to sell once the lockdown is over/ spring has arrived unless we can cope with all those eggs. Not living in a village, (unlike back in Cornwall) does mean that we probably won’t get as many customers buying them!!
We are now back to our breeding quartet of turkeys (Napoleon, Victoria, Katherine and Napoleona) plus a lone male from the autumn breeding that a friend is buying from us.
And then there are the ducks: we now have four as last November when we did our last lot of dispatching; we ‘saved’ one (pictured in the middle) as she was a lone female and ‘it seemed a shame’. She is of course Grape’s daughter so any offspring we raise from her should be eaten, NOT sold for breeding!!
This evening the three female ducks decided to perch outside in the run, in the rain, rather than coming into the stable. We left them there but hoped they might move later as the run is NOT fox proof at all and usually we like to shut the stable door so all the birds are safe indoors! We went back a little later and phew(!!) they had indeed moved in. Not that we have seen any signs of foxes of badgers on our land but...
We are now left with 31 chickens, some of which we may need to sell once the lockdown is over/ spring has arrived unless we can cope with all those eggs. Not living in a village, (unlike back in Cornwall) does mean that we probably won’t get as many customers buying them!!
We are now back to our breeding quartet of turkeys (Napoleon, Victoria, Katherine and Napoleona) plus a lone male from the autumn breeding that a friend is buying from us.
And then there are the ducks: we now have four as last November when we did our last lot of dispatching; we ‘saved’ one (pictured in the middle) as she was a lone female and ‘it seemed a shame’. She is of course Grape’s daughter so any offspring we raise from her should be eaten, NOT sold for breeding!!
This evening the three female ducks decided to perch outside in the run, in the rain, rather than coming into the stable. We left them there but hoped they might move later as the run is NOT fox proof at all and usually we like to shut the stable door so all the birds are safe indoors! We went back a little later and phew(!!) they had indeed moved in. Not that we have seen any signs of foxes of badgers on our land but...