The baby bantams I was given a few weeks ago have turned out to be wyandottes and I hope they are two hens. I cut their wings, treated them for worms and housed them in their own rabbit hutch with Bunny,Roger and Mary.
Meanwhile Kate Winslett and her 6 tiny chicks have ventured out in their own run for the first time thanks to a break in the dismal weather. The chicks look slightly incongruous seeing that they are black (except one tiny yellow chick)..she remains a doting mother
In an hour Autumn turned literally into winter. The wind got up and the rain lashed down in almost horizontal fashion, and all but the ducks scattered for the shelter of the houses on the field (including Halleh, who followed his flock into the A frame!
The weather seemed far too severe for poor Kate and the new chicks, so I picked up the entire broody box and placed it in the shed. I think that was the right decision because only an hour after the chicks started to show themselves. The two baby bantams that usually inhabit the shed didn't seem to mind being relegated to the cage roof, where they already like to perch. In a week or two the pair will be moved into the one spare small coop I have left!
This afternoon I made jam and finished Chris' expenses.....the rain has continued to fall
Kate Winslett had to be prised off her nest this morning and would not eat and drink in her desperate efforts to return to her now six chicks.....not a buff amongst them as we have 5 black and 1 white baby, but all seem to be doing ok. I have put water and chick crumbs in small containers inside the broody box and will construct some sort of awning to cover the front poop hole as the house is tiny and driving rain could well get in with mother and babies.
The circle of life continues on its small way here: Poppy went yesterday and one of the very old hybrids, Rose (Blanche's sister) died in the night....yet we now have these 6 new babies, the 2 scruffy bantam chicks still in the shed and the 12 "teenagers" in the main run, which makes an extra 20 mouths to feed.
The turkey eggs in the incubator have not hatched as yet (they are due today!) I bobbed them in warm water earlier and no movement could be seen....shame! perhaps young Boris is firing blanks????
I will do the basics outside today and will, I think make some rhubarb jam and start to organise some of my teaching course which starts on the 27th!
Kate Winslett has hatched out 2 chicks so far, and seems to be coping well juggling chicks eggs and sudden motherhood. She is a hefty fat hen , so I have worries that she may crush them as she did her own eggs, but so far so good! The sides of her nesting box seem a little steep for any unsteady chick to be able to climb back in if accidentally turfed out, so I have banked it up with sawdust, other than that I have left them all well alone.
This afternoon I had a phone call from the girl from Penyfford asking if she could take Poppy off my hands. She is a nice girl with a mass of animals at home, who knows her stuff when it comes to hens, so of course I said yes. She collected him this afternoon and he was quite well behaved when I caught him. I will be sorry to see the boy go, but I must get a little less sentimental when it comes to the cockerels, I cannot have too many. So with a sign he is off to pastures new and I am left with the bouncy Scotty, the reliable Rogo and the diffident Stanley oh and not forgetting the bantam males Roger and Pirrie.
It is half past eight and I have just sat down after a busy day. This evening I have been jam making! (no one tells you that hot jam is like lava!) and I was pleased as punch with my four proud jars of strawberry jam! Before that I have laboriously picked all of the pods from the pea canes and with George for company shelled the entire bucketful whist sitting in the sun.
My sweaty efforts to cordon off the graveyard from the runners yesterday seemed to be in vain today as despite the fixed netting, all nine of the noisy buggers found their way amongst the gravestones time and time again!. I couldn't work out just how they were breaking through the netting, so after chasing them back into the field for the third time, George and I set up camp behind the turkey house to watch just how they did it!
The British Conductor Sir Edward Thomas Downes has died at the age of 85 after travelling to the assisted suicide centre DIGNATAS with his 74 year old wife of 40 years, Joan. She had been suffering from a terminal illness and he was blind and almost deaf..they died peaceful "together" a family member reported.
