Temporary housing

So they have outgrown the incubator but we arent ready yet to put them all back with the mother - if she rejects them or can't manage with them all we could lose the lot. So we are putting them in the indoor run for the chicks and will move them back 2 or 3 at a time to the mother. 

And they need a temporary home 

Poult update

 The female turkey was sitting on a clutch of eggs and we have been waiting. 

And yesterday was the day . But nothing to see or hear yesterday . So we had another listnen today , and heard some cheeping. 

Its the wrong time of the year to be trying to raise poults outside, so the decision was made that we would bring her and the youngsters into the shed, and they copuld grow on a bit there , eventually big enough to go out again . 

the female was carried up to the run. There were 9 chicks out and couple of eggs to go . A couple of the chicks liked moribund so rather than them taking their chance we put them in the incubator, as the best place to warm up and then see what happens. The others wne twith the mother into the run. Bit she didn't sit initally and we had the prospect of the remaining poults getting cold so we decidded to put them all in the incubator. 

 Half an hour later, she has decided to sit on some dummy eggs. 

We will try and re-introduce the poults tomorrow . 

Temporary repairs.

 We had a bit of rain last weekend. 

The normal state of the pond is here 

But the heavy rain and torrent flowing down the burn has shifted the stones forming the dam . 

 

 

 And the force and height of the water has bent a bit of 2"x1" timber

So some temporary repairs to 

- stop the ducks escaping 

-stop a stoat or otter getting in and causing death and destruction 

- prevent any further damage ( a lot of winter still to go and a lot of rain still to come) 

A bit of shoring up 

 

what doesn't work.

 We get grain delivered by the tonne.   ANd we have had some delivered. 

So Davey brought it up the hill .

THE tractor cant get very far into the shed , and its a nuisance having the enormous grain sack right in the entrance. So the solution  was to buy some heavy-duty castors and fit them to a pallet. Even if the laden pallet is too heavy  for us to shift we can hopefully push it around with the quadbike or mucktruck. . 

So the carefully constructed pallet , with enough wheels to support 1000 Kg, ready for the load.

 And heres the pallet and load 

The Load 

And then the pallet

The wheels are fine - its the rest of the pallet that was the problem, as it gave way under the weight. 

 

So 2  problems. 

First problem 

The grain ( 1000Kg) needs to be moved  from te entrance to the shed. We've got a spare sak  so that not the problem. It will need to be transferred using a bucket. 

So , say 3Kg in a bucket. 1250 Kg/3 =   416 bucket-loads . 

And its approx 3 metres from one sack to the other.  so thats a return trip of 6 m. 

So 6m X 416 trips =2496 metres.

So ~2.5km of walking to transfer the contents. 

 And there is another 1000Kg to come .

 

2nd problem

If I'm going to make a pallet to carry the load , what dimensions of timber do i use ?

12

 

 

We spotted Lily off the nest this morning . So i nipped down and had a look

12 Eggs