Wednesday 17 June 2009

Welcoming Unexpected Arrivals

Today there was a nice surprise for us when we were out feeding the chickens. Behind the henhouse was a little family of four chicks - hatched by one of the Buff Orpingtons who had hidden her nest under several layers of corrugated iron, two old doors and a pile of old feed bags!

Because we had seen ravens lurking around in large numbers early this morning, which alerted us to the situation, we had to move the chicks and mum to a safe place. So most of the morning was spent moving all the piled up junk, then chasing around the chicks and re-homing them in the premises so recently vacated by the duckettes. Here is a photo showing the chicks looking a bit bemused next to their mum who is showing us her best side! The weather is quite chilly today so the chicks are taking advantage of a 15 tog mother and have spent long periods snuggling under all those feathers.!

Of course, because we don't have a buff orp cockerel, the chicks are all cross bred, but three look like mum and the fourth bears an uncanny resemblance to our white cockerel who is descended from a light sussex line.
For the rest of the day I am going to carry on with weaving the natural linen. Tomorrow we are off the Shawbost Mill to collect the finishing (including the white) - so hopefully that will be on the blog before too long. We are also picking up the ingredients for the lunches at the flea market on Saturday, so its going to be a busy day in Stornoway!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

sorry I did not get the gorgeous milk fiber to you but you will get it on thursday night at our knitting night. Until then I shall be petting it, Am I sad?

donnie said...

well done on getting there before the ravens - it is always touch and go here that we find ducklings before the seagulls and crows do...