Just a quick update - Pattie is much MUCH better today. Back to her old self I would say. It seems I may have jumped the gun a bit and mistaken her fluidy crop for an empty crop, or crop full of bio live yoghurt! I think the yoghurt may have helped, perhaps she just had a bit of an upset tummy. Who knows - this is the thing with keeping hens, the diagnosis can only be done if the ailment is obvious (e.g. a wound or bumblefoot). Otherwise it’s a case of observation, antibiotics, antifungals, tests, cultures and all sorts. Well, it has been for us anyway. But my hens are not working birds, they’re my pets and despite costing me 50p each, I would invest so much money into them if need be. I think Yoko’s vet bills amounted to over £250, but that was partly because we changed vet twice because we needed to find someone who was well-versed in all things avian! Bit more difficult than you might expect.

They’re enjoying the sunshine at the moment, as am I. It feels just so good to be out there with the sun radiating on your skin. Sometimes I don’t realise how much I miss it in the winter. I’ve noticed that the blackbirds are starting to get a bit fruity with each other - the Smallest Smallholding was resident to about 7 or 8 pairs last year. Despite the fact that there are so many, they tend to hang around the place and get on quite well considering they’re supposed to be competing. I expect we’ll soon have the starlings starting to build their nests in the broken wooden soffit too. That means loud wake up calls at dawn for us for a fair few months, as it’s right next to our bedroom window.

So the sun is out, and all around buds are budding, shoots are shooting and I’m starting to think I should have already started sowing for this year’s Smallest Smallholding crops. Tomorrow I’m going to see my sister’s new kitten - her first ‘family’ cat (we have 4 and are more than well versed by now), can’t wait! It’s been years since I’ve held a kitten. I also remember when there was a kitten ’season’ - not so much the case now with the milder winters. Another side effect of global warming perhaps?

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 27th, 2008 at 7:59 pm and is filed under wildlife, cats, seeds, hens. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.