243. An early bath?

Tragedy struck in the turkey paddock this week.

When we first arrived at Farlands our neighbour grazed a few sheep and lambs in the paddock and a legacy of that use is a large circular drinking trough. Over the years I have occasionally emptied it as it gets quite stagnant but it always fills again, naturally with rainfall.

At the end of last week I let the turkeys out in the morning as usual. But when I went to check on them at lunchtime, I could only find four. That is very unusual as normally they waddle around in a tight group.

I could not find the fifth turkey and I decided to put them back in their house while I looked.

As I did so I walked past the drinking trough.

There was the fifth turkey. Floating.

Turkeys can't swim. Jam sarnies for Xmas.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

271. The hazel harvest . . .

Image
Five years ago we planted 20 hazel saplings, the idea being to coppice several every year to provide useful (straight) sticks for the garden and to encourage new growth. They are growing well, and this year's harvest can be seen in the photos. Products include runner bean poles, pea sticks and pegs for tying down netting. Coppicing the hazel (a clean cut just above ground level) helps make the hazel grow much straighter poles. In the veg garden the rhubarb is starting to grow well, and for the first time we have forced some.
Read more

282. Swarm control . . .

Image
On Sunday we inspected the bees and found some queen cells; they were capped which means a swarm is imminent. There are various options including doing nothing but that would mean you are likely to lose half of the bees when the old queen flies off with them. Another option is an artificial swarm, and after midnight discussions with Sarah, that's what I tried today. With one slight modification! We are unable to spot our Queen (v hard in 50 000+ bees when she is not marked) so rather than move the old queen as you are supposed I moved the queen cells. Before the move  ( empty WBC on left, full colony in National on right):- I placed a new brood box to the right of the old colony, then smoked the old colony like mad hoping to drive the old queen down to the bottom of the hive. Then took the super off the old colony and placed it to one side. Then took the half brood box (containing the queen cells) and put it on top of the new brood box to the right. Put its roof on. ...
Read more