More space

The turkeys are growing , and they need more space, so a run , made from sheep hurdles and some netting to stop the exploring too far afield. Given a chance they would roost as high off the ground as they could - so the roof of the shed  , I suspect 

the initial plan was one for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas.
Not sure about that now though. We'll ahve to see about size  at the start of November,

Re-righted

And the van - only minor superficial damage to a mudguard.

Oops

So a neighbour had a visitor and things went a little awry afterwards

 its going to be a bit tricky to pull it out - It needs to be pulled sideways to lift it out of the ditch, held there and then pulled forwards  ( or backwards) to get it on the track . 

2000 and counting

The existing abattoir in Orkney  closed in January. Talsk to reopen/build a replacemnt have been going on since then but have come to nothing .
We are affected, but nowhere near as much as the  people on North Ronaldsay .

This blog post about how the closure will affect North Ronaldsay has received so far  2000  page views,

And one of the comments from someone on N Ron:

 "Thank you for writing this blog. As a resident in North Ronaldsay it makes a huge difference to us to know that someone is hearing our pleas and taking our message forward"

Null Chicks

We decide to sit one of the broody hens, on previous experience a good broody,  on a clutch of eggs
the hen was rehoused  to give her more room and make it a bit more strightforward to keep her topped up with water and feed.

But we found eggs abandoned in the run - and broken shells. And the 12 eggs were eventually reduced to 2, that the hen continused to sit faithfully on .

And we got to term + a week, and something  wasn't right.

And we found the hen with a broken, partially developed chick under her.

 and another one in the run

We think there must have been something (? a rat)  that has been getting in the run , stealing eggs abd frightening the hen off the eggs , so they got too cold, and the chick died.

Its unlikely we will get another hen going broody this late in the season ,  so it will ahve to be next year when we try again if we want more hens

More on the abattoir

Here  is another post about the abattoir closure and this is about the effect that is having on North Ronaldsay  here 

Primitive sheep in orkney

An article in the Online newspaper,

the Orkney News