Happy 2016!

May it be a joyful one.
Wishing for more peace and less arrogance everywhere.

Barely Oscar

Chick hatching

Sadly just this one chick hatched out of a clutch of 6 eggs. A bit lonely perhaps, but oh so lively!

Just hatched.

Day 2: Hopping about like a champion already!

Day 5: Out and about.

Oh dear, Oscar transfixed already!

Wild End baby

 

Honey!

The first honey from the Wild End - I'm just soooo chuffed!

I got 4 jars out of 3 frames... crush and strain, simple. 
Wasn't that hard really (once I got the bees off the frames).

Wild garlic - now in bloom!

 Time runs and runs - wild garlic season is over already. And once again I wish I had harvested more...

Donkey walks!

I'm sooo pleased with my boys!
I'm now able to take Luca & Henry on walks, together and on my own!
I walk them 50m down the lane to my 'big field' on most days but attempting a walk down the village when we were both quite green with each other was a bit of an embarassment, so it took me some time, and some work, to dare trying again.
After several weeks of practicing 'stop' we took our first walk down the village a couple of weeks ago, past a car, a tractor, a chatty neighbour and his stone lions(!). The donks were great, if a bit careful.
Every possible circular walk out the door here involves crossing a stream or two, so the footbridge was our next challenge. It took 3 walks down to the bridge until they felt comfortable by the gushing stream, but then just 5 minutes to tempt Luca to cross the bridge. He then kept going back and forth over it as he done nothing else his whole life, while I was trying to persuade Henry to step on the bridge... took another 3 walks until he felt it was safe to cross. All the while was trying to be less clumsy with my bundle of lead ropes...
Today we did our second circular walk around the village, past gaggles of lambs, a friendly pony, and some not so friendly horses in a distant field making a racket as soon as they saw us - the donks perked up their ears but stayed very cool otherwise.
I can tell they love it - they actualy demand it now!

Winter cosy

Let this be a year of hope and inspiration!

RIP Luna the chicken

After almost 9 months of battling with illness, Luna died yesterday. I'm still sad.

Her egg laying system was messed up from the beginning, as soon as she came into laying age the problems started. I don't think she ever laid a proper egg, instead most of them ended up as yellow gunk in her belly, eventually building up to unbearable pressure (but stragely not poisoning her, until the end). I just couldn't watch her suffering, neither could I just put and end to it, so over the last several months she was a regular patient at the vets, trying to help her or at least make her more comfortable. 

Not that the vet knew much about chickens, but she was quite wonderful about it: she made a real effort and did her research, and so did I, and we tried the few things that seem to have worked for others: Oxytocin & calcium injections to help form & pass any eggs in the pipeline, a (hideously expensive) hormone implant that was meant to stop her laying and therefore halt the problem for a few months (unfortunately, if it worked for her at all, any effects lasted 4 weeks max, on two attemtps), as well as regular syringe draining of the gunk in her belly. I also started experiementing with homeopathy but I am unexperienced and I was running out of time with this rather complex case. (For more on this read a very concise description of the condition, and treatment here.)

The only thing helped, somewhat at least, were the drainings - she seemed to get better for a few weeks after that, having at least some fun in life, roaming the field, sun bathing and digging arund in the dust. But then she would relapse again, her belly would start blowing up again and the pressure build-up would make her misetrable... everytime she would get a little worse than before. 

Yesterday it seemed like the end of the road. RIP Luna.