Goodbye Camilla

My lovely girl Camilla died today.

She was just 5 years old.  Daughter of Henry and Nora/Batty, and we neve another one hatch with this combination of colouring.

She had a few health issues over the years, but was always a lovely, gentle,  girl.

We moved her to our garden from the allotment a few weeks ago when it beame clear she wasn't right.  She was being picked on by some o fthe youngest girls.   We kept her in a separate coop and run, alongside the others.  She would often try and join them (not our doing), but they are exceptionally vile about newcomers.

She spent her last morning in the sun, eating sweetcorn, grapes, and yoghurt.

Dzhigitovka - Centre for Horseback Combat

The Centre for Horseback Combat had an open eveing, so we took the pony-mad Tween.

It was a great evening.  Weather was kind.  The food was great (wood fired pizza).  The show wa really interesting.  There was a demo of Pat Parellu's Natural HorseManShip, which I remember from the very beginning but which was new to the Tween;  there was a spanish dressage exhibition (not the Spanish Riding School style),  explaining how dressage was originally about battle craft;  and then there was the Dhigitovka.

It was a great evening, and I'd recommend it to anyone.

And Sew...

I managed to get a photo of Tween wearing a tank/vest top I made.  It's wearable.

I am under the weather at the mo, and I have to keep my leg elevated.   We brought our Lafuma chair in and I've been using that to sit in: it's comfortable, and I can elevate my leg really well. 

I looked online at covers for it. They are easily available, because Lafuma is the most popular reclining chair used by mobile reflexologists for their clients to sit in.     The price and quality of the covers varied considerably,  and in the end I decided to makie my own.  I bought a throw from Costco to provide the fabric,  and I'm really happy with it.  I bought some matching lacing to tie it to the chair,  and I used my Kam press and grommits to create holes for the ties.  The fabric was a nightmare, I knoew it would be,  so I had to quicjkly overlock every edge as soon as I made a cut.   I also used my Accufeed foot, than goodness for it,  as I was machining several layers a lot of the time.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

Another chicky milestone

The chicks have been out every day for the past week or so.   They love it!

They are still in the brooder in the shed at night. If the weather cools or, like today, it rains, then they are straight back inside.

They are 3 and a half weeks old now, and really well feathered.  They still have down on their tummies,  so we have to wait until the grass is dry before we put them out.

Currently thinking we have 2 boy Barnevelders, 2 Barnevelders, and 1 undecided.  For the Lehorns, O'm thinking it's 1 boy yellow partridge  1 boy silver duckwing,  and the others are girls.  Bertie's baby, who we're also referring to as Bertie,  is very slow to feathr so we're assuming boy.

We've been picking them up properly, finger between the legs,  right from the start.  They don't like being caught, but they are mostly calm and fairly relaxed once we have them.     We've been arrying them out two by two,  and carrying them in (unless it's raining) two by two as well.

The Tween has been to visit a couple of times, and has been great at spending lots of time picking them up, stroking them, and helping getting them used to being handled.

Chicks 2 weeks

2 weeks old already, and the weather is too rubbish for us to have them go outside at all.

We've made the round brooder bigger,   and we're going to remove the round walling today or tomorrow so they have more space - enough to fit in a seed-tray sized dust bath. 

I've been under the weather for a couple of weeks,  but I've ensured that they each get picked up at least twice a day.     Normally I pick up 6 at a time and put them in a trug with some food,  then pick up and stroke each one.  Then I get the other six out.

Here are the 6 Leghorn. One of themhas a broken toe, so I need to see if its possible to splint it (although I think its too late)

Still no idea on sex.  We have 3 yellow partridge, and 3 silver duckwing.  Number 8, the chick I htought wasn't going to make it,  is one of the yellow partridge ones.

All 12 chicks are coping with being picked up and stroked, but it wouldn't be correct to say they are happy with it.    They are happy to eat the delicious Garvo Alfastart while they are stroked, so that's all good progress.

The leghorns are more tolerant than the Barnevelders.  They are also the ones who watch us when we walk in,  their little owl-like faces look up and watch carefully.

One of them is particularly cheeky, and s/he's the reason we're removing the circle and putting up the taller barriers.

This picture was after the leghorns had been put back in the run, and I was collecting the barnevelders and putting them in the tub. The leghorn wanted back  to the tub that had the special treats in.

Can you see the two leghorns in the background?   That's what I mean abou their owl-like faces watching us.

Chicks

This year's chicks started hatching on 1st June, and continued throughout Saturday and Sunday.   

Only 1 of Bertie's eggs was fertilised, and s/he was the first to hatch.  We guessed, correctly, that Pimg and Pong's eggs would be clear,   we had hopes for Barbara and Annie's eggs,  and Phyllis was a last minute addition.      The black chick that hatched suggests it was from either Annie or Phyllis, and we'll be able to tell more when we see the shape of the comb.

6 out of the 8 Leghorn eggs were fertilised and hatched (3 Yellow Partridge and 3 Silver Duckwing),  and 5 out of the 8 silver laced Barnevelders hatched.

We had one traumatic hatch, and the little chick has survived so far. They are, of course, the cutest little chicks.

We've been trying to handle them several times a day, with mixed success.  It's helpful that we have two different breeds so we can divide them to make sure we handle each one),.  

We'll miss having Miss Tween around,  as she's great with the chicks.  She's old enough and responsible/sensible  enough for us to let her go and see them and handle them unsupervised,  which is a great help. 

Celebrations

It was my parents Significant Wedding Anniversary recently, and we had a party in the garden for all the family.

We were really lucky that the weather stayed (mainly) dry. Everyone seemed to have a good time.

We completely failed to have family photos taken, and many of the youngers had left by the time we thought about it.  We did manage to get (what is left of) the oldest generation together for a snap or two.

Those that stayed overnight nearby met for breakfast at a local pub the next day, and that was a really good way to finish it all up.