Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

The troubles with the cockerel continue (see 16th) as he and Elizabeth (our female Bourbon turkey) are now fighting. To be fair to the cockerel, we can see that Elizabeth does start it all, but despite the fact she is twice his size and appears to be the one jumping on top of him more than the other way round, she comes off worst with scratches on both her chest and neck. We have had to separate them so she has spent the last day outside the main chicken area with a fence separating her and the other birds. She is moulting terribly (as the photo shows - see 30th September for more information about moulting) so ought really to be putting all her energies into re-growing her feathers as opposed to scrapping so much they all fall out! (The grass did look a little like we had had another fox attack at one point...)
Meanwhile no sign of the ram mating with the ewes, nor any seasons in the goats, BUT the quail are still laying eggs as are a good half of the chickens...
We are still warm and wet weather wise although we are getting the odd northerly wind: hence all the quail piling into their house as shown in the second photo. Winds from the north are usually colder than those from the south but fortunately we don't get them that often here.