Law here now is that all dogs must be microchipped. So we've been told the usual excuse if someones dog escapes and causes damage is that they sold it prior to the event but haven't got the new owners details. Our house insurance covers damage by our dog fortunately, although she is calming down now...

£10 here buys you 8 litres of wine, which entertains me for days! I did see an ad for mail order oil seals. Turns out to be a pretty useful site as they may stock something suitable for our old rotorvator. The usual solution to worn axle seals is to fill the gearbox with grease but that causes a lot...

I didn't phrase that too well Icemaiden and was , of course, referring to the snake. We have apples falling into the bantams enclosure and have had some near misses Rick. I suppose we should have put a net over it. Stray dogs are a major problem in France and also hunting dogs, although hunting is g...

We moved the little snake to an area where the TNN's don't roam Mrs Biscuit- nasty little thing. We managed to get a plastic container over it and slide a piece of card underneath. We've already had one TNN die after eating a whole lizard -she recovered from a very upset stomach and partial paralysi...

I remember one of our chickens getting drunk on fallen pears Rick. Apparently there is natural yeast on the skin which ferments with the sugars in the fruit and the tiny amount of alcohol is enough. She was standing motionless in the garden just staring at nothing and then staggered a lot when she t...

The European Whip Snakes have hatched and the little ones, about 9" long, are wandering about. Florence, a free ranging 8 year old TNN, found one and stupidly tried to eat it. I noticed her shaking her head violently and backing away- a closer look and she had its tail in her beak and two coils of i...

He/she does look a bit unstable? Gaping like that can be (and most often is) a crop problem- a hard crop caused by eating too much rather than drinking which then sets food into a lump which won't shift. The gaping is accompanied by movement of the crop in an attempt to break the lump up. If it is a...

Looking at photos of Silkie cockerels and it looks like the growths may be the start of the comb and wattles. They start growing as early as 4 weeks or as late as 20 weeks with other breeds, so they would be would be well developed at around 6 months. I think it's nothing to worry about at the momen...

Depends what the actual variation is Moniqueccc? Too cold and the eggs will hatch late- too hot and they will die. I'd say 2C up or down are the limits with a time factor- low for several hours and high for a few minutes. Incubators run a very fine temperature tolerance usually because of the electr...

I had a 'double take' moment last year when we spotted a small herd of Belted Galloways just 20 minutes North of us. The local breed here is Mirandaise- a pretty light grey colour. There is a small herd of 6 cows and a bull in the field at the end of our drive. They slaughter here at 2 ½ years so th...