It's week two of the new competition/challenge started by @knowledge-seeker. This week is all about saying goodbye to 2017 and ushering in 2018. It's been an eventful past couple of weeks here at Brimwood Farm, so I'm sharing two photos with you today which capture a little bit of magic and the promise of good things to come...
The first are these beautiful Iris reticulata. They're planted in my alpine troughs and last year, flowered in February. However, I'm guessing the sporadic weather has affected the little bulbs and they've come up early this year. These Iris have surprised me, not only because of their early flowering time but because of their vigour. Unlike bulbs like daffodils and snowdrops which tend to become better over time, Iris reticulata aren't very hardy bulbs (a little like tulips) and tend to fade over the course of several years. HOWEVER, this is their second year and they look magnificent!
The second photo is this newly hatched Ixworth. As many of you know, I lost my rare breed Ixworth flock in a fox attack three weeks ago. I raided the eating eggs due for my customers and pulled what I thought were 10 Ixworth eggs. Well, seems I made a little mistake because the first three to hatch were...silkies!! Sadly, though 8 eggs made it to hatch, only 4 hatched, including this Ixworth. The other four that didn't hatch all had fully formed chicks inside BUT they hadn't gotten out. I think it's because the hens that were taken were POL and their eggs were still rather smaller. Ixworth chicks are pretty robust and big little things, and I think the smaller eggs meant they couldn't rotate around to hatch.
So, I have ONE baby Ixworth. They're not sex-linked so here's hoping it's a hen as my friend has a cockerel I can take to start a new flock. If it is a cockerel, I'll have to look for a source of hens for him.
So that's my update and this week's entry into the photography contest. :D
Thanks for reading,
Geoff
