A surprise

 I went to give the hens some food. 

And i saw this 

Egg prodcution goes down at this time of the year anyway . And the hends are getting elderly , so we assumed that one missing had been got by an otter, or stoat, otr just died in the undergrowth somewhere. 

But  she hadn't. There were  4 chicks with her.  ive had a hunt and cant find the nest and broken shells.  So its nowhere really close to where they were found/fed. And we assume more than 4 hatched but they succumbed on the way - fell down a hole, or into a stream  or got lost in the vegetation . 

Survival  chances wouldn't be great this time of the year - there are plenty of predators around and chicks arent well-endowed with intelligence. 

So we rounded them up  and brought one of our chick runs back into action  and mother and 4 chicks are protected and doing well.

 

Poult update

 So the poult has had 48 hours of treatment.  Corrugated cardboard want giving it enough friction , so we tried it back with the others  so it would be on the straw . 

 As it can get about and can find feed, water and into the sheltered bit at night, we will leave it there and see how it gets on

Hen lights

 Egg-laying is related to length of daylight. And as daylight hours have fallen, so has the number of eggs . 

So we are trying some artificial lighting to see if we can boost production ( and hence sales !) 

First, a battery .

 

 And a waterproof container to keep it in. 

And I need a timer . The lights need to augment the start of the day . Giving them light after they have roosted , which then goes off  and then daylight comes confuses them ( if such a thing is possible) and doesn't lead to increased laying .

 

 

 

 

And there is a manual override to prove it works !

 

An its in  place.

We'll see how it goes - i can always add a 2nd internal light  or put some low-wattage external spotlights outside. 

the splay-legged poult

 One of the poults couldn't stand  after hatching and rapidly demised. Its called straddle leg.

We found the same thing in another one about a week ago , and that too rapidly demised. 

And the same thing has happened  again . Its the one with its leg splayed out. It struggles to stand and gets stuck in corners.  There are a number of causes . One is a vitamin deficiency but we don't think that's it as the poults are on  high-energy chick crumbs.

Being on a slippery surface can aggravate the condition - and these poults have been on newspaper. 

So it needs some remedial treatment and some TLC. 

And then try it in its new home. 

Not as much space to move around and difficult corners to get stuck in . And food and watre readily available. And a rough surface ( corrugated cardboard)  to give its' feet  some purchase when it moves. 

 

So it gcan get itself upright . So we will see what happens over the naxt day or so .

The rattling milk bottle

We have reusable milk bottles , courtesy of William Shearers in Kirkwall and their milk filling station 

 

A milk bottle is rinsed,ready to get refilled, sits ont he draining board and rattles 

Why ? 

Where is it getting the energy to move from ? 

Belt and Braces

 It was a bit  windy over the weekend. 

  we went round a moved or tied down things that would get blown around. 

But we didnt do this one 

 so a bit of pushing a shoving . 

 

 

 I got the fruit cage the right way up

 

 and a couple of fence posts and guy ropes

  And we shall see what happens in the next storm