Oh, they grow so fast.

So they have gone from these small fluffy yellow balls

 To these great big feathered dinosaurs in four weeks.

 They have scratched most of the wood chips out of the brooder onto the floor and made a real mess. They do love a pea or two, and I have caught them trying to have a dust bath in the wood chips. All that happens is the other two pick the chips out of the feathers and pull out and eat any Down that's there.

Egg count this week -
Chickens - 31
Ducks - 22
Geese - 5

Dotty, the Speckledy, has been laying speckled eggs this week, but it seems the ex-batts, Gladys and Pecky, have given up for now. Rosie the Barnvelder, insists on laying her eggs in the dust bath I made from a plastic potting tray in the barn. Not really the best idea when we have two broody geese in there that 'bark' at us when we get too close and have put off the ducks and chickens from getting anywhere near it.

Zita can be picked up off her nest and put outside for food and water and a wash, but Catherine is quite vicious and Keith has the bruises to prove it, he drags her out hanging onto his coat. He has taken the eggs every day, and the nests have been turned over with the pitchfork but they are still in there. Jones is missing his girls and he looks quite lonesome wandering round the field on his own. He joined me in the chicken shed today while I was cleaning it out. He squeezed through the hole after 'climbing' the ladder outside and then tried to drink from the bucket of water that had disinfectant in it and was not particularly clean by this time either. I had to let him out the back door in the end, there just wasn't room for both of us, and then he made a B-line for the juicy grass that's called a lawn. He did eventually go back to the field with some persuasion.

The ponies dont like Jones at all since he bit Bouncers tail, and avoid him if they can. Pixies eye is fine now unlike her fringe! Both are still moulting but not as much as a few weeks ago and their colours are lovely, much brighter.

Those bothersome rabbits have burrowed under the fence again and dug up some of my potatoes. Had to put tiles and slabs along the outside to weight down the wire skirt. It's partly the chickens fault, they have scratching along the side, probably also trying to get in.

The sheep are happy, still only two lambs, both are loving the sunshine and bouncing around like lambs do.
They are starting to shed their coats, I have been picking up bits of wool from the trees and fences, it's lovely and soft. I hope I find someone to take it and use it when it all comes off.