e-chickens
A Year in the Life . . . . .
Spring
Now that the days are beginning to lengthen and everyone has started laying, it is time to separate the breeding lines out. To allow us to do this we had to buy some new sheds for the ducks in the garden. I now have a run of six down the far side and I still have two more to place and erect as the flock grows.
The Silver Appleyard's shed, on the right of the picture above, was erected while all the ducks were still running free in the field. They were happy to go to their seperate shed at night though. I had a week off to help Chris put up the new fencing and we now have the Abacot Ranger's in the pen next door, and the mixed runners in the end pen.
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All the geese now live together and 'Xander is very protective of his little flock. All the birds rush over to their paddling pools as soon as they are let out in the morning. Anser has her head in the water; 'Xander has his feet in the water; Dru' is waiting her turn and Buffy has turned her head away, pretending she doesn't care she's not first. |
| Chris has just opened the Abacot's door, and in true bird
fashion they try to fly out, but are too heavy to get more than a couple
of feet off the ground. This is why we lock them up at night. If a fox
came after them they would have little chance of out-running it!
It's off to the paddling pool for a dip before breakfast. |
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The mixed runners are back inside making sure that they get their fair share of the food. |
The chickens are also in their breeding pens now. Below are three of my Silver Duckwing Yokohamas. Once they have been paired up for a couple of weeks and we can be sure of the parentage of the stock I start incubating to test for fertility. I have so far hatched Light Sussex, Sumatra, Columbian Yokohama, Silver Duckwing Yokohama and both Silver and Gold Dutch. My incubator is full now with lots of chicks due next weekend (2nd April), though all the chicks have arrived a day early so far.
Here are my Easter chicks being looked after by Jess this afternoon. The Dutch hatched about 12 hours before the Yokohama, but is much smaller - about the same ratio as their adult sizes. They are currently asleep in their tank at my side.
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The first job of summer is to have the sheep sheared so they don't get too hot. Bridie, the one with the red ear tag, is the matriarch of our little flock. (left) They look more like goats when they've just been done, but soon fluff up again. (below)
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| Bridie's first lambs were both ewes and the next year Bridie had triplets while her daughters both had one lamb each. Again our sheep are pets and not for market so that will be the last of the lambs for now. Eight is just right for the land we have. They are our organic, environmentally friendly grass cutters and they trim everything very neatly, but prefer not to eat nettles and thistles so we help them out where the weeds try and take over. |  |
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Mind you we like to leave a few patches for the
butterflies and their caterpillars.
I also grow lots of Buddleias which are loved equally by caterpillars, butterflies, sheep and goats. Sometimes the caterpillars are more colourful than their mature forms as in this Grey Dagger caterpillar. This turns into a silver grey moth. |
