A definite plus side to the poultry lockdown was the fact that the poultry area remained mud free and whilst we felt sorry for the ducks with their lack of access to water and places for dabbling, we are now not quite so sorry for them anymore. They on the other hand, are delighted to be out and about and as the photo shows, are more than happy to make up for the lack of mud to date, by dabbling in as many mini puddles as possible and making one great, big huge one. Still, all thing being equal and despite that fact we now have FIVE birds laying amongst the hay and straw in the barn (they obviously realized how precarious a hay rack is as a nest box on account of the fact the ‘nest’ gets eaten), we are jolly glad the birds are out. We are looking forward to seeing our yolk colours change: they had definitely become much less ‘yellow’ – a fact we put down to the lack of grass/vegetation in their diet.
Now restrictions are lifted we have begun to move some of our youngsters on: our young female duck has been sold (keeping her was not really an option when we still have her dad) and five of the Queenie Baby chicks have also gone. We are sad to see these go as they were all very pretty and engaging birds. We have also done a cockerel swap with our Indian Game in order to get new bloodlines in. In keeping two our IGs from last year, again we had the issue of not wanting daughters mating with dads. The new bird is as lovely as our old one but unfortunately our Brahma cross cockerel and the turkeys have not taken kindly to him and he is now back in isolation sporting a bloody comb and swollen eye. Not a good start for him at all!!