Nigel sunbathing

Spring flowers around the pergola

And in the duck run the sitting mother has chosen an interesting place for her nest.

I’m trusting that she will survive over the next 28 nights and NOT be taken by a marauding fox. All the other ducks (and our hens) are securely locked up in their houses overnight. Good luck ducky!

Except that she wasn’t. She has made her nest in some wood in the duck run.

We ring the baby lambs’ tails so that within a month they drop off leaving just a short tail. Why? read below the next two photos

If we leave the tails long then they get sticky with excrement. Blow flies are attracted to these mucky behinds and lay eggs in the sheep/lamb wool. These hatch into maggots which burrow into the flesh of the animal and can kill the sheep or the lamb. So tail ringing is what we do. Years ago when we didn’t do this we had a horrible case of blow flies and only just managed to save the affected sheep with the timely intervention of a skilled local farmer. Never again!