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I’m old. Therefore Ive tried every feeder there is. Thought I’d finally struck gold with Grandpas feeder. Starlings have learnt that if they sit on the treadle as a group they can open it and eat all the pellets. Surely it’s not rocket science. I’m getting to the point that I’m going to stop...

Terrible memory. What do they call that timber for perches. It’s about 3 ins x 2ins and has chamfered edges?

A whole incubator of eggs (35) and all infertile. Guess that Mottled Orpington cockerel isn’t up to the job. Oh well Exchequer Leghorns gone in so it will be a late season for hatching this year.

Marvellous. A Tennessee Warbler and a Veery have appeared. That means we‘ll be crawling with twitchers. Still, cafe will do good business.

So yesterday was a still, lazy Summers day. This years breeding cock is strolling about with his harem. In the growers pen a young Exchequer Leghorn cockerel is competing with him in the crowing stakes. His hatch mates - some sisters, some of my own Pullets and a lone Russian Orloff Pullet are...

Found Skip dead a fortnight ago. She was the best dog I’ve ever owned. And also the last. That’s the thing. Our animals invariably pre decease us. If you can’t handle that then get an eternal jellyfish.

No sooner do you get rid of this seasons youngsters than you have to do a quick clean out for someone else’s hens to arrive this afternoon for a three week stay. I hope no one thinks they’re mine. Barnvelders! Pah!

Good luck all of you who are in the path of the hot air moving up from Southern Europe. Heed the government recommendations.

First gay pride ever in Shetland yesterday. Come a long way since my days as a Trades Union steward fighting an uphill battle. Bought this coin from Royal Mint.

Bound to happen sooner or later. Ewe with triplet lambs has mastitis. Given a big dose of antibiotics and hopefully she’ll stay in milk. Lambs are 45 days so should survive if she does dry up if given supplementary feed. Nevertheless it’s a worrying time.

It’s about 6 feet tall and 8 feet across and very attractive to bees.

Please, just twins. Looking to me like some silliness again this year. Could be phoning my mate. “Have you got any ewes that have lost their lamb cos I’ve got some adoptees available”.

For a week now this Sperm Whale has been trapped in a voe. It doesn’t seem able to find its way back out to the open sea. Any ideas how to make a 50 ton whale go where you want it to?

Always been a bit sniffy about Leghorns. Thought they were flighty, laid mediocre eggs and couldn’t be tamed. A couple of years ago I bought six Buff Leghorn eggs from eBay. These have turned out to be calm, lay enormous white eggs and confiding. I’m a convert. Not this year but maybe in a year...

It’s that time of year again when the delights of eBay allow you to buy hatching eggs for pullets to sell in September. So this year it’s Welsummers, Mottled Orpington’s and Barred Rocks. Tempted by so many breeds but you have to draw a line somewhere.

This hangs over the fireplace in my house. It’s a constant reminder to me of the need to keep my worst side at bay. How about you? What picture have you got that speaks to you?

Well there we are. My breeding flock for 2022 and a couple of Buff Leghorns hatched from eBay eggs. In April I need to buy some Welsummer eggs to hatch and rear for a neighbour and some Barred Rock eggs to provide a cockerel for myself. And in 2023, well maybe some Houdan eggs! ?.

Well here we are again. Tomorrow it’s a frenzy of canapé making and a new cocktail for 2022.

So it all begins again next week. Those lambs are those some of you saw in the Shetland Times 20 months ago. The ewe was super milky and raised her triplets daughters to be fine sheep. That’s him, the Whitefaced Woodland ram,arriving here from Edale about 4-5 weeks ago. He was tired and angry!