or Dovina has been rehoused at a wildlife sanctuary. We did talk briefly about keeping her/him as he/she was rather cute, however we (unusually) saw sense and took Dovey to people who would know what to do. Good job we did really, as when we handed him/her over, the man commented that it hadn’t been eating. As we thought we had been feeding it enough that suggested that specialist help was required. Still, the sight of Ian hunting worms and then trying to immitate a mother bird is something that will stick with me. Although I wasn’t too happy when he was talking about chopping them up and using my tweezers to feed it. The worms had a lucky escape, briefly, as when Ian released them back into the wild, the chickens had gobbled them up within a nano second, licking their beaks and asking for more. I have noticed that Ian is now giving TanTan worms as a little treat. It is hardly suprising I cannot bring myself to eat our eggs.
I am a bit annoyed at the moment as I managed to shut a chicken in the house when I went out today. When I came back it had caused havoc, and had strewn the contents of a basket with plants in it over the front room, and pooed anywhere it hadn’t left dirt. I can only imagine that it took the basket in its claws and flew round the house dropping bits of dirt randomly.
We cleared the cellar out yesterday and are trying to get the ducks to go to bed in the fox trap that Ian made last year. This entailed Ian proping up pallets and trying to funnel the ducks into their new house. It worked, and I hope that it won’t take them too long to get used to their new house.
Noticed cheeping from under one of our broodies, so we have moved her into a cat basket to keep her safe. I would have thought that the ones under Psyco Mummy would have been due to hatch by now, but Ian and I are too scared to approach her, we value our limbs too much.
Yesterday we also treated the lambs against fly strike. This entailed us running round the field, diving onto fast running lambs. This is where a crook would have been useful. I was watching a farmer catching his lambs, and thought it looked a bit cruel, as he hooked them round their necks. however having fallen over a few times, and once with both hands in nettles, I felt that it was quite a good idea after all. It would appear that the attractions of a feedsack are something that is developed later in sheep life, as the older ones would come flocking and the lambs would use this as an opportunity to get together away from mum. This also caused a problem as we needed to see them with Mum to make sure we had done them all and not treated one twice (or 5 time). After Bertha turned into a boy, we were not quite so confident in identifying the different lambs. It took quite a long time really for what should be a short job, and Ian and I – the walking wounded, had a fresh respect for a farmer, his dog and crook.