March 2006

This months Birthday are Karen (Steve's daughter) and Storm will be 12 month old Happy Birthday to you both

Hello again folks, well what a start to March we have had.....SNOW and lots of it causing chaos on the Aberdeenshire roads, some of which are still closed. It snowed none stop for 7 days with some really heavy blizzards, our ducks loved it but alas the chickens wouldn't come out of their shed (softies), we did have a struggle to get into the run a few times though due to the drifts.

On the 2nd we got our fire installed, Dave the man who installed it was panicking because our lane was getting very thick with snow (2' in places) he arrived at 9am and left us at 9pm, see the finished result below. On the 5th we put 10 New Hampshire Red eggs in the incubator which are due to hatch on Mothers day 26th of this month, once they hatch you will be able to see them grow on the web camera just as you did for the duckling, Oh talking of duckling's, Tinsel is a drake and can be found on cam 2. The 6th saw the start of the big thaw and the rain is on it's way so the next thing we have to put up with is FLOODS, our burn's (streams) are filling up quick so we need to keep an eye on those. 8th and Tracy sowed some more seeds today and put them in the greenhouse, it was a lovely spring like day. Storm isn't well today either we think he has done something to his back or neck, so he is looking very sad today, he has to have his food raised off the floor so he can eat because he yelps if it's on the floor due to him not been able to get down so far same for his water, but i can tell you it's been very nice and peaceful today with him not running riot all day.

Any how here's a snowy photo of the garden for you. See you next week

Well we got 48 hours piece and quiet with Storm been unwell then all hell let loose at 8.30pm on the 9th (the night before the vet) anyhow the vet thought he had just pulled a muscle due to him running in the snow. The weather from 13th was gales and sleet but all the snow has now gone, in Peterhead anyway, we know someone who is still snowed in even today. The 14th, we candled our eggs again and glad to say they are all alive, we even saw some of them moving, such a wonderful site to see, the first signs of life.

Update 30th, so what have we been up too since our last diary entry, well on the 15th Tinsel started to get his adult feathers, to start off with he looked very scruffy but now most of the feathers are back and he looks wonderful. 2 of the hens have started to moult so we have a drop in egg production due to the hens not laying while in moult. We have 4 new customers for our eggs, the duck eggs are selling really well. On 21st the snow arrived yet again for 2 days then we had gales and rain for the rest of the week. Sunday 26th was suppose to be the big hatch day for our chicks but they waited until Monday, these are the hatch times 10.30, 15.04, 2 hatched between 15.30 & 17.30, 22.15, then one between 23.00 & 02.40 and the last to hatch was 03.45 on the 28th, we left the last 3 of the 10 eggs we put in the incubator until Thursday 30th but nothing happened so we opened them only to find all 3 had passed away, on the 29th one of the chicks was looking very ill and that later died too so we are left with 6 chicks. On 31st we have been asked to take the chicks to our local nursery for the children to see them, More on that later. update to our visit to the nursery, well the kiddies loved the chicks and we have been asked to take them back in a couple of weeks.

that's it for March folks keep a look out for April's diary coming soon.