Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

The left hand photo is of our wobbly chick having a bit of a snooze... She has now been wobbly for a good two weeks (see 1st June) but slowly improving and a few days ago we removed her from the 'hospital wing' and put her in the far end of the poultry area of the barn. This was mainly done so she could see and hear the other birds a bit more. What has been amazing is that when her 'mum' (the light golden bantam) went broody again, it was in the same part of the barn and dear old 'wobbly' wobbled over and snuggled up with her. So, did she do this because she recognised her original mum or, having been on her own for a while was she simply keen to snuggle up to any chicken? Or a bit of both!
The second photo ought to be of our Blue Maran chicken we mentioned yesterday but unfortunately she is too poorly to be photographed. We think we have now identified the problem: it is not sour crop but something called 'canker' or 'Trichomonas gallinae' which is a nasty parasite that causes swelling and infection and has probably arrived in our paddock via wild pigeons/doves drinking from the same water as our birds. (We had a fabulous Facebook conversation with someone who had had the same problem and was able to give loads of great advice.) There is no cure but the symptoms can be treated. However we think our chicken may now be too seriously ill and therefore perhaps should be culled. We are also aware that other birds could develop the same problem and so our Blue Maran would need to be kept on her own until all signs had gone - something that could take weeks!!
So from the sadness of poorly animals to this delightful photo of Neptune and Silver Birch 'sharing' their tea!! It was actually Neptune's tea but SB decided to help herself and because Neptune is such a gentleman, he let her. Not that she should be eating alpaca food really as it has a different mixture of minerals and vitamins in it...
And to end with good news: our third set of Muscovies ducklings (being incubated by Banana) are starting to hatch: there are 15 eggs in this brood so we are hoping for another good number of ducklings. Pictures tomorrow we hope!!