"It all seems to be about pigs..." which pulled me up short for a moment because of course it's not all about them at all. Just that, as I keep noticing, they do rather tend to take over!
There are other things going on. For instance, last Friday or Saturday the first swallows hatched in Ritz's stable - every morning I find him covered in white blobs from the parents' interminable journeying to supply their brood with sufficient food! He doesn't mind - it's a good excuse for having a quick brush before going out to the field for the day! Any excuse for attention, that horse!
Then this morning I noticed the big pond at the bottom of the Rectory Field is teeming with frogspawn. It's a good job they don't all survive otherwise the whole field would be heaving with frogs hopping everywhere. (Where do they all go to?) The Rabbits have been over-active too: we have more baby bunnies this year than for many a year: hardly a day goes by without The Bestest Gundog in all the World gleefully bringing me another young fluffy and we're getting quite a lot of practice 'sitting' when he flushes the big ones - as long as I'm within sight when he does so........
Then there's the cuckoo which we finally heard for the first time this year on May 20th - a whole month later than in previous years!
Apart from the wild life, we have a few more little chicks from our broody hens. The black b
antam hen hatched two chicks about a fortnight ago. 'Nothing odd in that' you might think - except when she arrived here with the other bantams she was so bolshy, even taking on Louis the cockerel, that I decided she must be a 'he' and took her away from the bantams and put her in the Poultry Palace with the big birds! So I was rather surprised when she turned broody! Even more amazed when she actually hatched two chicks.... which she protects as if her life depends on it, even attacking me if I get close!
antam hen hatched two chicks about a fortnight ago. 'Nothing odd in that' you might think - except when she arrived here with the other bantams she was so bolshy, even taking on Louis the cockerel, that I decided she must be a 'he' and took her away from the bantams and put her in the Poultry Palace with the big birds! So I was rather surprised when she turned broody! Even more amazed when she actually hatched two chicks.... which she protects as if her life depends on it, even attacking me if I get close!Then there's Daffodil, my oldest hen who manages to raise two small broods each ye
ar. Since the black hen was occupying the broody coop at the time she needed it, she decided to sit on her eggs in the nest box. Needless to say when the first chick hatched and hopped out last week, Daffodil was after her and deserted the remaining 5 eggs she's been sitting on! Fortunately Daffodil commands a lot of respect in the Poultry Palace, being the 'mother' of chief Rooster, Solo, and the little one has managed to hold her own against all the other birds and even at this early age shows an unusual amount of independence! So much so that this morning I 'lost' her and got quite worried that she was nowhere around Daffodil --- then I saw her having a drink down by the pond on her own....... that level of confidence probably means she is a he!
ar. Since the black hen was occupying the broody coop at the time she needed it, she decided to sit on her eggs in the nest box. Needless to say when the first chick hatched and hopped out last week, Daffodil was after her and deserted the remaining 5 eggs she's been sitting on! Fortunately Daffodil commands a lot of respect in the Poultry Palace, being the 'mother' of chief Rooster, Solo, and the little one has managed to hold her own against all the other birds and even at this early age shows an unusual amount of independence! So much so that this morning I 'lost' her and got quite worried that she was nowhere around Daffodil --- then I saw her having a drink down by the pond on her own....... that level of confidence probably means she is a he!
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