Bearded Iris and a Popping Incubator

The irises are starting to come into their own in the garden, they always look speccy.

I always love the two tone ones :)

Bantam araucana chicks:

And silkie chicks, have had to band the legs of one, but hope it will soon be 'good as new':

Boys gettting prepped for their new home and New Roo

Jesse and Yoo Yoo (previously known as the Jester and Yuri) had an important appointment today, 10:30am shearing with Jason at Crookwell, in preparation for delivery to their new Sydney home on Sunday.  Yoo Yoo's day started badly, he arrived for breakfast this morning with about 1.5m of barbed wire tangled around his legs and chest, not a good look!!  It took Eddy and I about 20 minutes to free him of this dangerous hobble.  I think he was very tired because it must have been hard to find a comfortable way to sleep with all this metal in the undercarriage section!!

No sooner had he had brekky and a nap than we bundled him and Jesse into the trailer for the trip.  Neither of them walked happily to the shearing table, and any on-looker would have described the gait as 'dragged' rather than led!!  None-the-less the job was soon done and they were bundled back into the trailer for the trip home.

They look quite different without their fleece!!  Phoebe is a full time photobomber!!

 While everyone else decided to run, Phoebe thought it would be prudent to check for the presence of treats before committing to exercise!!

And Casper is a full time scene stealer!!  Such a cutie, even though he is proving resistant to halter training thus far!!

 We have a new roo!!  Needs a name (no pressure Al!) I dont know why I think he'll be more successful than the last, who was a perfectly good roo before he arrived here and started drinking bromide laced tea.  Hopefully this guy will abstain from tea and partake of sex!!  I want some silkie chicks!!  He is a nice size, good stance, good leg feathering, including middle toe, but yes comb and wattles are mulberry rather than black, perfect roo hasnt been bred yet!

Enrichment Activities

Today I took a couple of barrow loads of 'mulch' from under the 3 big gum trees near the back gate - no visible dent in the amount as a result - but some very happy chooks.

The moderns wasted no time getting started on the job of levelling their pile.

Bigger chooks, bigger pile!!

Nigel viewed his role as largely supervisory.

Chickens, Ducklings and MAKE IT RAIN!!!

The incubator has been popping!  Luckily I have a mother duck to take all the ducklings, but I am rearing some silkie chicks as there are far more than Tinkerbell can look after!!

Shake Me Up Judy is a good little mum, she kicked Saffie off her nest, so these are really Saffie's babies even though Judy hatched them!!

 Not far from here its raining cats and dogs.... please let it happen here!!

Spring has Very Nearly Sprung

Yesterday I snapped the first daffodil, and the prunus blossom in glorious sunshine and mild temperatures, today its returned to winter with a vengeance, very cold, sleet no less, biting wind... horrible.... but before....

Also captured these traffic light geranium leaves.

And the grevillea I meant to photograph the other day when the battery went flat :(

Hellebore still looking good, and the little primulas are blooming on too.

The violets have started to flower and they are mostly white, with some pale blue, will have to get some of the dark violet ones to add to the mix, they look very pretty.

#5 is doing  a good job of mothering her 5 Black East Indies ducklings, her first time in the mothering role.  She hatched 2 herself and accepted 3 more from the incubator ;-D

Meantime, I have my 3 inside, in the brooder.  They are on daily sink swims, but cant get all 3 in frame at once!!  They are spoken for and going to their new home on Sunday.

This is one budgie family.  Mum is the white and blue bird in the background, Dad is the bright yellow and green bird in the middle and the 3 babies are the result of 2 nests, first one produced one female, the second, one male and one female, all very similar colour, lemon and blue/green.

This is an escaped pet, re-captured and now living safely.  Was very tame when he arrived, but now happy to be a 'wild' aviary bird  LOL!!

No, Kiki is not supposed to stand on the arm of the couch!!