New cockerel

A friend hatched some of our eggs under one of her chickens last year. Only one survived in the end as something picked them off one by one. It turned out to be a cockerel, so as they already have a cockerel they couldn’t keep it, he is called Lucky and has joined our flock. 

I’m thinking if changing the breed we have to one where you can tell the sex of the chicks from hatching, but in the mean time it is great that we will be able to hatch some chicks in Spring!

He’s a fine looking fellow

The building of Wood Henge

At the moment we have a local farmer who puts hay in one of the fields, but he is going to stop shortly as his son is increasing their herd, so they will need the hay. The place that is convenient for him and the tractor is a bit of a trial when we have to roll the bales in ourselves because it is at the bottom of the field and very muddy.

We also buy a lot (400) small bales that we can handle more easily, but this year the guy who makes them couldn’t get help during covid so he didn’t make them

As result we have had to roll the bales through the mud a few times and we realised this isn’t going to work when we need to do a bale every week next year.

So we set about building a feeder that we can roll the bales in to down hill from the drive.

The bales weigh 350kg or more!

Testing it out with a little bit of hay

The hope is that I can get a bale in to it on my own. I can unload from the trailer single handed, but I was a bit nervous to try the first time rolling it down the hill in to the feeder alone as I am keen to avoid being smushed!

We have a few adjustments to make, but overall we are pleased with it, the days spent building it were well spent,  as it will save time and effort in the future.