Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

Sadly we have had to clip the feathers on the ducks' wings to stop them being able to fly (see entry on 1st September for more on how we do this). The reason: they have been flying up onto the top of the polytunnel and have made a couple of holes in the polythene!! Holes are bad for several reasons: firstly a hole means that the 'tension' in the polythene is loosened which in turn means the polythene is more likely to flap around and get damaged. Secondly (and related) the wind could get in under a hole, the polythene could then rip and hey presto: a much bigger hole. Thirdly, a hole means that the warm air within the polytunnel can escape which will slow down the growing of our vegetables...
We are terribly sad we have had to do this as we have now altered the way the ducks behave on a daily basis. They can no longer fly off to their pond, perch up high at night nor spend their days surveying the world from the roof of the barn. We have now turned them into ground dwelling ducks and of course made them less 'fox-proof'. We may well notice that they put on a bit of weight now as they won't be flying around. Today they spent most of their day dabbling around in the top paddock, finding puddles of mud to enjoy! We hope they will get used to their new lifestyle but if we feel they are not we might decide it is best to rehome them somewhere where they can enjoy stretching their wings again. We will see how they get on over the next few weeks.
Vile weather again today but with the odd break or two in between the rain and sleet so the poultry and alpacas did get out. Tomorrow may be another story: we have had so much rain this evening/tonight we fear we may awake to standing water again in the morning...