New Hens

OK, back on track. The New Hens: 5 Light Sussex x Rhode Island Reds and 1 Marran, aged 11 weeks. The Marran will lay eggs with dark brown shells. They've had a hard day what with being caught, being in box, a car and a new home - and not helped by the brown dog's overexcitment. (He is a 'bird dog' after all, though we wish he'd stick with mousing....far less frantic)

And here's Alan surveying the pond in the dappled evening light.
It's been another beautiful day up here at the end of the Long Mountain. There has been little rain for well over a week now - the farmers must be making the most of it for hay, silage and shearing.

We returned from the NEC on Wednesday to find that some of the sheep had been shorn. Without their fleeces they looked really naked. The shearing process is obviously quite disruptive: lambs get separated from their mothers and vice versa. The hours it takes for the ewes and lambs reunite are loud with baas and plaintive bleats - it wasn't until the early hours that the hill was quiet again. There is still some of the flock to shear and while this hot weather continues they are seeking out the shade - it doesn't seem so long ago that the same ewes were tucking themselves under the same hedges against the cold.