Wall repair

And a bit of the dyke collapsed over the winter.  And weve got round to fixing it .

Before

After - a bit of the fuscia buch has been removed and  the wall rebuilt

And as always - there are a few bits left over .

Only 2 more to repair.

In the Ark

We've been in The Ark,

the magazine of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust



Autumn 2017

Page 21

Doing my bit

......... for exterminating stoats in Orkney.

We bought some Fenn traps ( from fourteenacres.co.uk). There is a video on how to set them - get it wrong and iyour fingers in the way and you would know about it !

So we've got  the traps  and ive had to make a tunnel for them

The box is 150mm (approx 6 inches)  wide . And long enough that  inquisitve birds or cats cant get to the trap . And a small access hole in one end. The other end is open ( and meshed ) .Apparwentyl they are more effective if the stoat can see the bait and though it.

So baited with  eggs ( we've got plenty at this time of the year) Ive made 3 and placed them in strategic positions around the place - where we think stoats will be getting access.

they may have to be disguised a bit more, so when its stopped raining , i'll collect some stones and camouflage them .

And then there were 7

Another day, another duck gone.

weve found a trail of white feathers. We assume this is where it was dragged throught the fence

And then up the field

So what we are doing clearly isnt good enough - thats 14 ducks since this started.

So the ducks have been moved up to the main shed. Its inside , but hopefully stoat-proof

And in the the meantime , we'll get some stoat traps , and I'll have a think about constructing a stoat-proof duck enclosure .

and then there were 8

So the ducks have had a few days in their new enclosure.  It needs a bit of work - eg a pond  digging out so they have access to water.
but this morning there were 8, not 10.

And there was this

Going round the fence there was this - beware , if you are of a weak constitution

We assume the stoat managed to drag the other missing , smaller , duck through a gap  and came back for the bigger one, which wouldn't pass under the wire. 

This is the hole we found  so assume it got in here.

Stoats in orkney is a recent, increasing  problem .

one down , 14 to go .

Lambing is due to start today .
And , just on cue, the first one (Cara)  wasnt interested in beet nuts this morning , and then took herself off to a corner of the field .

9.18 am 

And then , with a lot of getting up and lying down, things started to happen

9.19 am membranes rupture 

things start to  appear

9.39 am . All a a bit slow compared to normal lambing 

9.50 am Head and feet appear 

9.54 am all the rest of the lamb slides out. 

9.55 am job done 

And some of  the others  , due later in the week, were  looking on . No idea why . We've not seen this before .


But the complication was that the other ewe due today took a real interest and started licking the new lamb, along with the mother.

Feeding is the essential part of the bonding process, and the lamb was to going  to the wrong ewe  would cause problems further down the line .  So we had to go and herd the intruder away , allowing the lamb to feed from its mother .

 End result - lamb and its mother , both happy . 

And the intruder gave birth, uneventfully over about 20 minutes , at about 530 pm 

So its 2 down , 13 to go.