New farm arrival - Beak

A big first this morning:

First birth on the farm.

We've been incubating eggs and yesterday morning was day 21.

And at lunchtime something made a hole

Then it made a bigger hole

I started helping at this point, because it looked like someone was upside down (clearly following in the footsteps of the best, i think, but I might be biased on that one.)

Now you can see (a rather gloopy) leg on top, a beak just poking over the edge of the shell below it and an eye just peeping over the shell rim to the left.

I finally got my leg free!

I'm out! But not fully under control yet.

Nope, it's cold out there, back to the warm corner

Yep, best place to doze and dry out

Looking more chick-y

It's a bimodal device - either cheepy or sleepy, it has no other functions yet.

Just checking all is ok before going out for the evening.

Pustie neighbours

The village has lots of feral cats.

They are helpful for keeping down the hoards of mice.

Our elderly neighbour used to feed some of them.

But she recently went to a nursing home.

And of course Wuwu wouldn't let us just leave them to go hungry.

So we've been making friends.

I'm more than happy to contribute food to the existing pusties, but not so keen on feeding an ever expanding population.

So an outing to the vets is on the cards.

And how to catch them became the question.

So we've been teaching them to go in a box.

This is Mork and Mindy

At first we thought they were brother and sister.

Until we discovered Mindy is a boy.

And we think they are a generation apart, Mork being about 18 months old, and Mindy, 6 months.

There's a third cat we've called Bella, who went to the vets last week and is definitely female. She's also about 2 years old.

She's got sunburn on her ears.

Feral cats here are very small and only live 2 or 3 years.

We're hoping that neutering them will give them a better chance.

I'm also hoping that their enthusiasm for food will allow me to slip in a few wormers. 

I think Mindy might have been hand reared.

A mother cat was killed on the road when her kittens were about 5 weeks.

And shortly after, our elderly neighbour was being followed around by two young cats.

And Mindy is way too friendly for a feral cat.

I'd like to find him a home. He likes people too much to live on an abandoned farm.