Sunday 15 August 2010

Thin on the ground.

I'm sorry that my posts here are very few and far between at the moment, but my time is so much in demand! The time I'm spending with the ponies and children leaves me little room for anything else and not much worth writing about.

The veggies are ticking along and I'm leaning more towards a low maintenance style at the moment, haha!
Sadly I lost one of my chickens on Thursday, my beautiful silver sussex, Oona. I think she had an internal prolapse of some kind. She'd had a prolapse before, but it went back in ok, but this time I think it probably twisted as it went back, as her abdomen was so distended. There was nothing I could do, so I tucked her up in a deep straw nest and left her sleeping. The next morning she was gone. She was only a young bird, but I just guess she wasn't as fit and well made as the others. The other 3 have formed a tight knit group and seem to be managing well now. They do feel grief and loss though, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. I've had so many first hand experiences of the emotions of chickens!

Merlin has a mare visiting him at the moment, and that takes up a lot of time as I rush back and forth to the field making sure that he's ok. He's still my baby and I'm very pleased to see that he will come to me for cuddles and will even leave the field and be brushed and checked all over. Personally I think he's glad for the break from this demanding woman! It's been a steep learning curve for me and everything has gone really well, although I've had my hands places I would not want to share with you! I will be glad when we can get back to normal though, and I'm missing Toffee terribly as he's had to go and stay elsewhere for the sake of his sanity!


Merlin is behind his mare, who is much larger than he is, but between them, I forsee beautiful babies :)

4 comments:

Eliza said...

Merlin looks really well. Sorry about your chicken. I lost a favourite recently, I think a fox got her. They all have their own personalities.

Yarrow said...

They do Eliza and it's so sad when they leave us.

Bovey Belle said...

How long before Toffee can come home? I hope the foal is a beautiful one (I'm sure it will be) and trust that your young man remembers his manners once he sees a mare at a show next time!

Yarrow said...

Haha, me too, BB. Toffee will be home in a week I hope, after we have a scan to see if it's worked, eeek!