(That's MY Friday night - not the julian calendar's though if you are reading this in the USA it's probably my yesterday, also) [errm, at time of writing, and according to Foxclocks - the UK, USA and Oz are all in the same day -Thursday.. heh].
End of working week, and am settling in for a dark and stormy night. Did have a think about the brand from Bundaberg
distillery, and also tried one can of it tonight .. very nice indeed, but am a Bundy 'n' coke bloke from way back, and it's a bit difficult to get us old leopards to change the fur on our polar bears .. heh.
Tonight it is again "dark and stormy" - very windy (and whoo-hoo, pelting rain thrown in. Wonder if muggins next door would hear it if [softly] played a CD of Wagner .. heh.). Went to bed last night wondering if would still have an annexe this morning but yup, still there at 5.30am, and still here tonight .. but the caravan is now shaking and rocking so much that am reminded of the boat. Not only that, just went out in socks to check the annexe, and now have wet feet.
Amazingly, my little leggies have managed to survive four straight 7am-5pm days of walking around (and around and around and around) with a reasonable smidge of good humour - (and that's not counting the "out of bed at 6am, home by 6.30pm") but have to admit that i sort of "lost it" this morning. Sort of a longish story, but of the four sheds that began laying when I first started, am the only member of the original group still 'floorwalking'. Glenys from shed 1 is now 'grading', me is still in shed 2, "S" had shed 3; but has quit .. and the hens in shed 4 never really had anyone "regularly" looking after them (well, they did have someone, at first. Am not being "arch" here, but i do sometimes wonder about the sensibility, mental acuity and stamina of "committed Christians" - but that is also a longish story, and doesn't belong in this post).
The "challenge" for the floorwalkers in each shed is to see how many hens they can [my words, not management] - train, encourage, convince, cajole, (force-if necessary - but that is definitely frowned upon by management**), just GET - to lay their eggs in the "specially" designed hi-tech boxes and NOT on the comfy, soft, scratchable, natural .. sawdust and shit FLOOR. Especially since there are about half the number of boxes to cope with the inclination of the majority of 8000 or so hens to all lay their eggs in the same time period [8.30am - 2pm].
Lost my temper with the hens this morning. Had heard that "Shed 2 is the second worst" .. after Shed 4.
"the others had good floorwalkers".
Oh F***!!. Shed 4 is still a mess on the floor count totals.
Shed 1 is down to 6-700 or so per day, Shed 2 is still hovering around the 1090 mark, Shed 3 is down under the thousand, Shed 4 is still pulling 16-1700.
The "begin laying" sequence ran Shed 1, Shed 2, Shed 3, Shed 4 - so hopefully you will understand my chagrin. Won't reprint the 'language' that i shouted at my hens most of this morning, but apparently it was heard by half the farm. Strangely enough, the hens in Shed 2 - as is their wont - took no notice whatsoever.
[these counts may not mean much to the general reader, but "S" from Shed 3 may well be reading this, so am also just passing on some news].
And so, who knows. my self confidence took a bittuva dent. After all that [how many weeks?] effort, and it's not the most salubrious job that have undertaken - the floor, in parts, over time, becomes crusted and slippery. The feed-lines are set too high so stepping over becomes hazardous, [one good recent floorwalker is off for a few days - slipped] ... the hens stupidly run underfoot ...... but the sun still rises - any day i wake up breathing is a good day, hopefully ..
[** picking up a hen that is on the verge of pumping an egg, physically picking her up and placing her in the "box" .. as well as any 'hitting', or physical contact with the hens.]
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