Plus 7 , minus 1

And the latest broody hen has managed to produce some chicks.  She sat on 11 eggs and 9 chicks have emerged.   So here they are at 3 days old, following her round cheeping madly  at anything  unusual 






So after a  couple of days inside where they hatched, she and they have been moved to their new house and  run.  They all roost in the house and the chicks are still small enough that they roost under their mother.

So that is the  Plus 9 , what about the minus one  ?

On checking the food and water in the  run that is netted completely I found this .

I don't think  a predatory bird could have got in. And all the hens and chicks disappear into the bushes when anything suspicious (like a person) appears ,  so I assume it must have been a rat , and the chick was in the wrong place at the wrong time 

Hurry Hurry , only a few left

The sheep were rooed back in May 

And the fleece has been sorted out, the vegetable matter removed , its been combed  and now is ready to sell . Packaged in 50gram  lots, the word was spread 48 hours ago,

And from the initial batch of 24 ,

 there are only 2 left.

SO hurry, hurry, get yours now

The latest Arrivals

A generous benefactor  donated some money after we lost the ducks to the otters as described here, here and here. As we didn't think we were otter-proof, we didn't at the time replace the ones that had gone  with more ducks, but instead got a couple of Pekin bantams, a male and a female  and named them  after our generous benefactors.

And a month or so ago, the female became broody and was sat on some eggs and stayed in the box for a month

 
And this came to fruition a couple of days ago.
The first two hatched ,

And after a couple of days inside they have been moved outside to the chick run. Enclosed and netted so they don't wander off or are predated by the local hoodies , or hen harriers or even a rat that might carry one off. It will allow them to grow on a bit have shleter with their mother and access to the grass and food, and when a bit bigger they will be moved to join the other chicks that we have hatched this year.

Looking North

I'M not the only one who is taking pictures without a flash , at nighttime.
There is one here , from Graemsay , one of the islands a little to south west of Orkney mainland.

But I happened to be out  one night and was driving back from Kirkwall  and was here

its looking more-or-less due North . but in July, In Orkney , At midnight
its this .
On the right are the lights of Hatson Industrial Estate and  the terminal for the Aberdeen and Lerwick ferry

Simmerdim its called.