Life in St Arnaud

[Murray]

The wintry weather system that has brought the cold wet weather to the south east of the country is slow to move away.
I got all the youngsters and a couple of eager stock birds out this morning and they flew their hour. There was a bit of sun but still cold.
I scraped and swept the loft out, the floor was damp where I'd walked on it with my wet shoes.
When the birds came in, three of the younger hens stayed out until nearly lunch time. Little buggers. After hardly getting out for a couple of days they just said, 'we can hear you, we are ignoring you '.
Sooo, this afternoon, despite a gloomy and louring sky, the young stars were boxed up and we went for a wee drive. Then we ran into rain and had to drive back a mile or so. I was only home a few minutes, the leaden clouds were heading this way and they arrived in a bunch. The little girls who thought it was good fun to stay out seemed to remember that they had nothing to eat today. They were quite prompt in dropping in

[Trev]

The wintry weather system that has brought the cold wet weather to the south east of the country is slow to move away.
I got all the youngsters and a couple of eager stock birds out this morning and they flew their hour. There was a bit of sun but still cold.
I scraped and swept the loft out, the floor was damp where I'd walked on it with my wet shoes.
When the birds came in, three of the younger hens stayed out until nearly lunch time. Little buggers. After hardly getting out for a couple of days they just said, 'we can hear you, we are ignoring you '.
Sooo, this afternoon, despite a gloomy and louring sky, the young stars were boxed up and we went for a wee drive. Then we ran into rain and had to drive back a mile or so. I was only home a few minutes, the leaden clouds were heading this way and they arrived in a bunch. The little girls who thought it was good fun to stay out seemed to remember that they had nothing to eat today. They were quite prompt in dropping in

Another nice little update mate, glad the babies are coming along nicely, albeit a little stubborn perhaps

Some of my youngsters were still having a good fly at dusk this evening, they are on an open loft with the old birds so come and go as they please. I feed them around half 5 in the evening and then let them straight back out, there are some that don't come back in until it's almost dark.

[Murray]

I took the team out again this afternoon. About 17 miles.
I just got home and stepped out of the car when they hit the board. 17 minutes.
The youngsters are doing well.
I saw a hawk on a post by the road on the way out. On the way back I saw it fly up off the post, and went
All was well, they arrived in a tight bunch.

[Andy]

All going well Murray.

[Devo1956]

The youngsters are going well Murray, good to hear.

[Buster121]

Going well

[Murray]

Starting to get a bit nervous.
Next is 25 a couple of times then 35 miles twice before their first race.
I've been fortunate so far, only lost two tossing and three or four off the loft.
It's very open country out west of here, plenty of hawks and not many places to hide.
Fingers crossed.

[Buster121]

Hope all goes well

[Murray]

We had to do run to Bendigo this morning, big grocery shop, Doctors appointment, get a couple of bags of pigeon feed, all those things...

So I was up in the dark, (it's the middle of winter here) and at 7.40 I ventured out and went, "bugger". Thick fog.

This worried me because the young stars are quite extraordinarily fit. I like that sentence.
Anyway the reason it worried me is, last weekend it never stopped raining and I couldn't get them out for a day and a half.
On the Sunday afternoon I handled some of them and instead of the flesh being a beautiful rosy pink, like roses in the mist, or a virgin's first blush, the breasts were blue.

It's caused by lactic acid build up in the muscles. It causes pain and in a racehorse can render them incapable of walking. This could have been not good.
Anyway I got some exercise into them that afternoon, and all was well.

So you can see why I was a little bit worried about leaving them in this morning, but we had to go. We were home just early enough to unlock the back door then out to the loft and let them out for a 30 minute fly while we unloaded the car.

I'm going to try something else which may or may not be a complete waste of time.
Watch this space

[Devo1956]

I hope you had a great day Murray, did you and Cathrine visit the store. Where you get the Belvita breakfast bars? I miss the trips tp Bendingo. Along with the other little town we went too.
The weather must be changing from when I was there, and that was only a couple of months ago. It would be great to see some photos of the birds, enjoy the rest of your Evening.