Month October 2004

He broke in to say hello the Debbies sheep. She asked that we keep him shut up now, as now he has familiarised himself with the opposite sex, he will be intent on getting back in that field. I must…

I might have been wrong in my comment about moulting hens. It might be that the new feathers come through quill first which is what we are seeing and the whole feather has fallen out first. I have spent quite…

Crocheted pot 

I didn’t know that chickens did this when they moulted, not I suppose, having given it much thought I had assumed that their feathers completely fell out and new ones came through. So it was with a bit of a…

These are our Rhodes, the one on the left has moulted, the one on the right is going through moult now.

This is a close up.

An even closer up of the new feather coming through the feather shaft. 

We no longer have free range quails. Their unique flying style has had to be curtailed as another three escaped – even over the netting that we had put up. So there will soon be a large wild quail population…

I’d have written this last night, but was still suffering from the humiliation of knowing that much of the work I have done over the last year to make people believe that I am a rufty tufty farmer was all…