Friday 29th September 2017
Reducing the poultry numbers
As poultry dispatch day draws nearer, we need to sell all the younger female birds we can so we are just left with males for the freezer. We have sold a few ducks already and have someone coming over on Sunday to buy some more. The two in the photo are brother and sister and very close: they are the only two from Pear’s first brood and the oldest ‘ducklings’ we have. It seems a shame to not sell them as a pair but then they could not be a breeding pair and as Muscovies go broody so easily, NOT allowing them to breed could be tricky.
As the weather worsens and the ground gets wetter we do need to reduce our poultry numbers so that the land does not get too poached and the morning mucking out gets easier. First thing each day when we open up the stable, it is not a pretty sight as we are greeted with 90 odd sets of poultry poo.. lovely!!!
But as ever, we will miss them all when they go, the ducks are truly free range and are often seen ‘dabbling’ in the top 3-acre field!! And of course the turkeys are now regular visitors to the garden. And then there are all the chickens: still seriously annoying Jack by their regular-as-clockwork mass migration to the barn each morning, purely and simply to mess up her beautifully clean bed of straw!!!! Little *****.
But as ever, we will miss them all when they go, the ducks are truly free range and are often seen ‘dabbling’ in the top 3-acre field!! And of course the turkeys are now regular visitors to the garden. And then there are all the chickens: still seriously annoying Jack by their regular-as-clockwork mass migration to the barn each morning, purely and simply to mess up her beautifully clean bed of straw!!!! Little *****.