And now we are Three!

Fugly and Didgeree this morning, four weeks old today.

When I was out feeding the doves this morning I noticed a broken shell in Maisonette Number two and a little while ago saw the mother dove remove the shell from the nest box and dump it in the corner of the run so I think we can safely assume we now have at least one new baby.

Fugly and Didgeree are getting very bold and are coming further out of the nest hole every day, the feeding rate by Dad is also increasing but of course if he is the Dad of the new doos he will soon be leaving these two and feeding his new brood, poor old Mum will be off sitting on some more new babies and so the cycle continues.

More Pics to click on to get bigger

The enclosed run, a bit messy, the small white box in the corner is in case Fugly or Didgeree Doo come down and cannot get up again.

Babies in poo!

The lower maisonette floor with two doves on eggs

Update on Fugly and her brother

This is the latest ( albeit not very good) picture of the two doo babies. They have grown at a terrific rate and look like real doves now, the pile of guano they are sitting in makes for great insulation or so I am told! The babies are approximately three and a half weeks old now.

The weather has turned very cold again after our wonderful weather of last week when we hit 16.5 degrees one day, almost better than some of our summer days. I was even out in a t shirt showing off my post St Lucia suntan.

The babies are now being fed by the dad dove , Mum is now on a second clutch of eggs. They get fed at very regular intervals and you know it is happening as the father perches at the door and throws up into the babies mouths. He feeds them what is called Pigeon/Dove Milk which is part digested grains and seeds. This seems to happen every few hours so no wonder the babies have grown, they doubled their birth weight in the first 48 hours although continued to look like feathered scrotums for some time after that!

Two more doves are on eggs and we should have our next lot of babies any day now if all has gone well with the incubation. They have been laid in the lower house of the dove cote so it will be a lot easier to get to see these ones. There is still a lot of courting going on and even more mess than before. I am in a bit of a dilemma about when to release them as they have now been under the net being homed for 13 weeks, however the Bloody Sparrowhawk is still around but I am reliably informed by my pigeon Pals that she will be in the nest very soon and once that happens she will be out of action for a while. The male bird does the hunting and feeding at this point and as he is slower and lighter than her is unable to take larger birds so we should be safe for a while at least. I also have a worry that as Ben and Jerry and Holly and Ivy were older birds when they arrived that they might be 'homed' to Duncan in Glenrothes and head home once liberated. It seems that after they have reared babies this is far less likely to occur but I have heard that a dominant cock may well lead his whole flock home, including the new ones. Bully and Lily should remain here as they were very young unflown birds when I got them last year. In fact they arrived with me on the 5th May at 7 weeks old last year which means that this weekend is their first birthday!

I am trying new anti hawk methods of deterrent this year, I still have the big plastic Eagle Owl and have just ordered some Mylar Repelling tape which when hung artistically around the area will emit a reverberation that hawks dislike plus as it is holographic, the reflection upsets the birds. I have another few ideas up my sleeves too. I was delighted to see a dead hawk on the road recently too which means one less to eat my gourmet doves.

The chickens have settled down very well without the other four and we get three or four eggs most days which is plenty for our needs. The garden is fairly blooming with some wonderful spring flowers and apart from the fact that the weather is bitter all is well with the world.

BABIES!

Look what arrived the other day!! I think he/she actually arrived along with his/her sibling about a week ago but as Mum Doo was firmly ensconced on top of them we have only just discovered them! These are two new doo babies, the first named Didgery Doo Too and the second Fugly!

They will eventually look like lovely elegant white fantails but at the moment they are the ugliest babies I have ever seen. We also have another dove sitting on two more eggs so my fears that we would be unable to rear any after all the disasters of before were totally unfounded.

Hopefully none of these will fall to the ground overnight although this one is very feisty, he took great exception to Murray's camera being poked into the nesting box. The book says that the parents will feed them for four weeks or so, I have no idea how old these are apart from older than a week and maybe younger than two!

Lots and lots of bonking going on in the dove cote enclosure so perhaps even more eggs on the way.

Other than that chickens, kids and me are all doing well after the excesses of Sam and Niccis engagement party last weekend. We had a great time, the venue was superb, the food wonderful and almost all the guests well behaved. Nicci and Sam looked like a real couple in amazing finery and Herb and I were very proud parents yet again.

Back from St Lucia

Just in case any one is in any doubt, the above is Jan and Jeffs house in St Lucia where we have just spent a fabulous two weeks. It rained a lot but then that often happens in the rain forest, but warm rain and then magically as soon as it is gone the skies clear and the sun shines, it all dries up again and all is well! We had a magnificent time and did lots of new stuff, including celebrating Mums 80th birthday in style. Champagne and Lees Macaroon Bars for breakfast followed by a visit to a beauty salon, a trip on a lovely shiny boat to a fantastic bay with a great view of the Piton Mountains and then back for more champagne before a hair raising boat trip to Castries and dinner at the Coal Pot restaurant. We also went quad biking through a banana plantations, swam in a rain forest river. Showered under an icy waterfall in the jungle, had a sunset champagne sail, ate lunch at the Royal St Lucia Yacht Club, narrowly missed seeing Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta Jones, Amy Winehouse and some nameless but well know sit com star at Discovery. (So well know nobody could remember his name!) But the real stars were Jan and Jeff who are just about to come to the end of a month long invasion of friends and family and who are about to have six weeks guest free if they are lucky. Great hosts of course, as expected and good fun to boot!

Back here, things that were dormant when we left have burst into bloom, the snowdrops are all up, the crocus too and the doos and chickens are as productive as ever. We think we have two doves on eggs at the moment so will be waiting to see what hatches before we release the doves into the air in a few weeks time to take their chances with the ever present sparrow hawk.

Sad Sad News

When I opened the curtains this morning and looked towards the dove cote I saw something white on the ground, fearing it was Holly I went over and to my horror saw that it was a small chick, probably about two or three weeks old, that had fallen from the dove cote and frozen to death on the ground. I had not even known that we had eggs as with the doves being confined within the homing net it is difficult to get a good look in.

It may be that we have another chick in a nest as I have noticed one bird in particular has been staying in a nest box a lot so fingers crossed that it survives. I think that with the extreme cold weather we have been having this little chap was lucky to get this far. But still sad and very disappointing, let us just hope that once spring arrives we get healthy, happy, living chicks to increase our flock.

The fostering and adoption of the hen girls went well. They were collected on Sunday and we have heard from Susie that one of the Veras has laid an egg and that Trinny and Susannah are now the Jacks! I don't know if the downsize has had any effect on the mud problem as the ground has been frozen solid or snow covered ever since they left.

Today it is cold and very sunny so that should gove some nice warmth to the doos and chickens, let us just hope that we are seeing the last of the icy weather and that spring will arrive very soon, the snowdrops are all up and have multiplied really well, there is going to be a veritable carpet of white in the garden soon.

Anticipation

It is going to snow today! Well, that is what the Met Office Severe Weather Warning said but on least two occasions lately it has been nothing more than a few flurries and that was it. I love the snow and cannot wait for all the resultant Traffic Chaos, Temperatures colder than Siberia and all that jazz. So just picture me, the sledge is dusted off, I have hunted out my Moon Boots and Balaclava and I sit and wait.

I am also sitting and waiting for Susie to come and collect Trinny, Susannah and The Veras who are off to pastures new. Susie is adopting T&S and she is fostering The Veras until Easter when she will be taking them to meet a new man down in Milton Keynes. I had anticipated a few squawks getting the girls out of the hen house and into the travelling boxes and I was not disappointed. As ever Big Vera put up a fair fight and squawked for Great Britain. I am just glad nobody for the RSPCA was around. However they are all settled into individual boxes and asleep awaiting the drive over to the other side of Scotland.

The Little Red hens were not amused by all the fuss and I got a sharp peck on the leg from Roxy as I picked up a protesting Vera at one point! Once I am four hens down I am hoping that the run will be able to be seeded, at the moment it resembles the Bog of the Eternal Stench and I am truly fearful of slipping into it and never being seen again.

It will be strange not having so many girls but I am reassured that the homes that they are all going to are going to be lovely and all will be well.

Holly Doo is fully recovered now and happy to be back with the rest of the Moonzie Flock. Someone had laid an egg the other day, but on the floor of the homing run so I disposed of it, hopefully it will be the first of many and hopefully this time we will get some babies.

Right now I am off to plant some garlics having dug over the ground last week.

Watch this space for news of snow.