The snowy weather has continued for the past few weeks and its been unseasonably cloudy which translates into "cold" so far this winter. The sheep don't seem to mind - they have a cosy shelter and plenty of hay. The chickens don't like it much and in the last couple of weeks we've lost two birds. Bandicoot was taken by a hunters dog and Thistle had been ill for the last few months but despite are best care she died last night. A possible cause is marek's disease (a viral illness caused by the herpes virus which lives in the soil). It's highly contagious amongst birds but only develops into an illness in some (it might have been the cause of Shelley's blind eye). Fortunately it doesn't pass into the hen's eggs and nor can it be transferred to humans. When spring approaches we'll let one of  the broody hens sit on clutch of eggs to re-build the numbers.

Some sun forecast for next week then a dump of snow for the few days before xmas.