New Pets

Clearing the land has been a marathon. The best part of the nettles are down but I've left enough for the wildlife to migrate away from the slashed stems. Having found some cinnabar moth caterpillars, I rescued them to, hopefully, make short work of the ragwort on the other side of the fence. The brambles, with an average stem diameter of an inch, have had to be cut piece by piece by hand. Again I've left some for the fruit and next year will train a single plant along a wall. The rest will have to be root treated to eliminate the recurrence of the jungle.

The ground remains a matted mess of old vegetations and bramble stalks galore which are hiding a treasure trove of old metal. The best way to clear the rest properly, apart from bringing in a tractor to scrap the topsoil, would be to let a couple of pigs loose but the fencing isn't up to containing livestock. Think chickens! They do an excellent job, can't swallow an old mattress spring and are unlikely to upset anyone if they wander into the field.

My excuse and I'm sticking to it! Off I went and acquired some poultry.

I used to keep miniature Serama bantams until Cocoa and his siblings, as a tiny puppies, chased them all next door. They're so small they could barely do any damage to a seed tray let alone the task at hand. I still wanted something unusual so rang around and found some Lavender Araucana chicks. They aren't easy to sex when they are young but I've brought home five of which at least one should lay me their lovely blue eggs.

Originally from Chile, they are handsome lavender grey, rumpless birds with yellow skin and blue legs. Rumpless means that although they have tail feathers, the bone is genetically missing, giving them a very particular shape, The hens have feathered helmets and the cockerels a very small comb and no cheek wattles but grow fascinating feathers in their place. I also liked the fact they very good flyers so should be able to roost high out of reach of badgers and foxes, especially if I'm not around in time to close them up in the evening.

Not the best ID pic but I thought they'd been through enough trauma for one day especially as they are evidently not used to dogs checking out new friends!