Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

Today was possibly the wettest day so far this autumn and the ducks 'celebrated' by stretching their newly grown feathers (having finished moulting) and flying up onto the polytunnel. Whoops!!! And it was only yesterday that we had said 'we really should clip the ducks' wings as they might start flying again and we certainly don't want them walking on our polytunnel with their sharp claws'. This just shows that you should not put off till tomorrow what really ought to be done today!!!
Thankfully we quickly enticed them off with some corn (it was actually just Banana and Orange) and then, somewhat sadly as we do love the fact they fly and seem to enjoy it, we clipped their wings! You may have read about this in our diary before as we clip both our duck and turkey wings each year as both sets of birds do have a habit of heading for our polytunnel if they can, and of course polythene and sharp claws are NOT good together.
Clipping wings is painless for the bird, it's just like cutting your nails or hair BUT unlike both of those, it does affect the way the bird moves. The idea is to clip the primary feathers on just ONE wing on each bird. In the photos below we have clipped Banana's right wing but left her left one untouched. When she tries to fly now she will be unbalanced and so not be able to get any height at all. Clipping a bird's wings does not stop it running around, flapping its wings, jumping up and of course eating and drinking so it can still live a good life. If we had a glass/wooden greenhouses we would not clip any of our birds' wings: we only do it to protect our polytunnel!!!
In other news: Cheddar and Chutney had a VERY happy hour together this morning and several successful matings occurred. Fingers crossed he is fertile and that both Cheddar and Gorge are now pregnant!!