GRACE

Aunty Anna and her baby Inky are having a few days grace. Aunty Anna continues to be very nervous so it is best to leave her quite alone for a few days.  And every time I come near, the baby rushed for the fence looking for a way through so she can go and hide in the corn again. So their barn door is open, they are free to come and go into the field but I  am not stalking them with a camera

Moon comes and goes.

The white rock chickens are reaching critical mass in their mobile home. Soon I will need to focus carefully on them and pull out all the hens leaving behind the larger faster growing roosters. The little hens will go to the Tin House chicken tractor that is not mobile, change over to a lighter layers feed and grow a little more before going in with the big chickens in the chook house.

The roosters will continue going through the field in the chicken tractor and end up n the freezer by late fall. 

They are a good looking bunch of chickens,  very active and healthy – I will be interested to see how long it takes me to grow the roosters into  roasters. Quite a while I think.  Some of the roosters are easy to pick because of their aggressive attitude but the hens are harder to be sure of.  It is a fun puzzle.

I have renewed my inspections of Alex but she continues to look like she is carrying triplets or eating way too much and her udder is just the same (no growth) .  Yet I find it hard to believe that Carlos would get Aunty Anna pregnant and not Alex. He had been with her since a month or so after Txiki was born.  Almost eighteen months ago. Ah well. We will give her a bit longer.  

She is certainly too fat to breed now.

Wai is still healing and has three open wounds that he rubs back open every day so I am still drying and applying cream two or three times a day. They are shrinking but slower now as we totter towards the finish line. Many of the other wounds have healed down to slivers of scar. The fastest to heal are the ones he cannot scratch of course.  And he smells like a regular pig now.

I am still working on keeping him warm at night. (Though our weather has warmed up again it will not last much longer). If I make a  mound of his straw and top it with a blanket Wai has found a way to wriggle right under his night blanket but this only works once. In the morning he is on top of the blanket. I am considering finding one of those insulated dog kennel igloos for the winter if I can find a second hand really big one and train him to go in and out.   (Maybe not I just saw the price and pigs don’t curl up like dogs he will need something long).  He is not an inside pig at all. Shys away from ramps. But the fat has gone from his back due to his injuries, he is a puzzle of scars, he is not round,  kind  of dented all over and he will be cold.

I wil find an answer though.

I hope you all have a lovely day.

Love celi

WEATHER