Saturday 27th May 2017
Inquisitive poults
Today has been a bits and pieces kind of day, we did NOT have any births for a change… but we have managed to spend plenty of time with all the latest youngsters. Yesterday, we transferred Victoria and her poults from the main poultry stall to the barn ‘hospital wing’ which as it has now been used for broodies endless times and only as a hospital wing once (for Neptune last September), is now going to be referred to as the ‘broody wing’!! We decided that it might be too much to expect Victoria and her poults to keep up with each other amongst all the chicks and their mums, so we swapped them for Queenie and her family on the basis that Queenie’s chicks should now be okay in the main poultry area. Our ‘naughty’ Indian Game broody is still confined in the broody wing too and fortunately she has not been fazed by having a change of neighbours!!
The poults are just gorgeous and as the photo shows, their inquisitiveness starts early. When Jack put her hand on the straw, they became quite fascinated with her ring, and indeed with the freckles on her arm which at one point, they began pecking!!!
Thyme’s calf is doing well, her day has been spent either sleeping, drinking or racing around. It has been amusing to see all three calves discover their running legs in their first few days and then drive their poor mothers mad by racing off. The mums always follow… very different to sheep who just let the lambs go and then shriek at them to come back, and this only when the lambs are a good week or two old.
And then there are the goats which are essentially just one very happy family. At night times we see the kids snuggling up to each other, their mums, and increasingly their dad; and during the day they are pretty much always a combined grazing or browsing group of nine! We need to advertise the two nanny kids for sale as in theory they could be weaned by the middle of June. We seriously seriously don’t want to see them go! But then mid -une also sees the arrival of our Anglo Nubians...
So, we got lots of little jobs done today, one of which was cleaning the bums of two chickens – we know how to live!!!
Thyme’s calf is doing well, her day has been spent either sleeping, drinking or racing around. It has been amusing to see all three calves discover their running legs in their first few days and then drive their poor mothers mad by racing off. The mums always follow… very different to sheep who just let the lambs go and then shriek at them to come back, and this only when the lambs are a good week or two old.
And then there are the goats which are essentially just one very happy family. At night times we see the kids snuggling up to each other, their mums, and increasingly their dad; and during the day they are pretty much always a combined grazing or browsing group of nine! We need to advertise the two nanny kids for sale as in theory they could be weaned by the middle of June. We seriously seriously don’t want to see them go! But then mid -une also sees the arrival of our Anglo Nubians...
So, we got lots of little jobs done today, one of which was cleaning the bums of two chickens – we know how to live!!!