Today we are back to wet and windy.....sigh. Still it was nice while it lasted! I was talking to an Orcadian at the weekend and he said one year he slept in one morning and missed Summer..... oh I do hope it's not going to be that kind of year.....
Anyway as you can see from the photo the chicks are doing OK. The mother hen is looking after them well. She takes them out during the day into one of the byres where they can scratch about for wee insects etc. She gathers them to her during rest period. I count them each day and there are still nine (originally I thought there were only eight but no - there are nine! Hard to count when they keep running about!). I can't tell yet how many hens or cockerels there are. I'm not very good at "sexing" chicks - they almost have to be at the laying or crowing stage before I can tell ;-)
Oh, they are so sweet, Sian! Don't despair about the weather just yet. a quick glance at the Met Office forcast for the Orkneys shows you getting much drier and rather warmer weather from now on :-)
ReplyDeleteI once saw a program about sexing chickens. But I don't remember how to do it, other than to get very intimate with your chook.
ReplyDeletePerpetua - ooooh I do hope so!! It was so lovely this weekend I could weep at the return to wet and windy today....sigh.....
ReplyDeleteBev - oooh noooo! There's meant to be a way by looking at feather development that you can tell which is male or female, also something to do with spots on the head!! I can usually tell once they are a few weeks old as they have a different body carriage - cockerels are more upright.... but we shall see!
Summer will visit again! I have found, through my Orcadian relatives, that a sense of humour is inborn ... and the weather is the best bearer of the brunt of their humour:)
ReplyDeleteHow exciting and I also hope that wasn't summer! Clever hen mummy
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