Three cocks in one day and a blue hen

I have a friend who is an academic and who over works terribly! Subsequently he suffers bouts of mental exhaustion which are hugely debilitating. I am lucky, today I am totally bushed, but it is a satisfying type of tiredness that comes from being physically active!

Early this morning I took Albert and William to the vets. Albert was having his post femur fracture check up, and I wanted William to be reviewed as he is showing hypersensitivity on his skin (a sure sign of some infection lurking) Albert got the A O K and William got another course of antibiotics and steroids! Both animals were beautifully behaved in the waiting room, which allowed me to have a chat with a bloke from the wild animal rescue centre at Greenfield who was in the queue with of all things a tawny owl with a broken wing. He has an empty hen house and has agreed to take a couple of the male buffs! which was a great result.

After the vets I took all the dogs to the beach for a run then put them in the pig enclosure while I dug over the last of the vegetable patches. William knackered himself out so much (nervous exhaustion at being so close to the hens) he actually fell asleep sat up when we got back to the cottage (below pic)

I called into Rhyl to organise a replacement birth certificate (I need one for some criminal checks for the hospice bank) then picked up a load of pig food for the girls tomorrow! On the way home I called into see Eirlys (my friend who has a big poultry farm on the other side of the village)....I took with me one of the buff cockerels and she couldn't resist him.....three down just one to go!

This afternoon, I cleaned out the turkey and duck houses,walked the dogs again, then cleaned out the fire and prepared Chris' tea before the dusk chores of locking every animal up safely. Several neighbours have been calling in throughout the day (ostensibly to buy eggs but I know they all are eager to see the pigs!) All will be back tomorrow! It's amazing how many people love pigs!

My final job of the day was to "repaint" Mildred Pierce's wings. I have a unseen feather pecker bully amongst the hens and several of the "victims" have unsightly and painful looking bald patches on each wing. I have sprayed Mildred (who has been pecked the most) with antibacterial spray which she was most indignant at. I fed her with some saved worms from my digging in way of an apology.