It is that time of the year again where we need to stock up on the laying birds - can't do without our eggs.  So, off to the Seymour Alternative Farming Expo where we can always be assured of some good quality stock.  Before doing anything it was off to the Poultry pavilion to pick out the birds (you can't dally around, the best get snapped up very quickly). I was looking at waterfowl, while the boss was looking for Australorps, by the time I got back I find that we need four boxes for our 13 birds!  10 Australorps, including a very handsome rooster, and 3 very nice looking Rhode Island Reds.

After then having a look around the other exhibits (its amazing what you find at this show), we also found a very lovely pair of Chinese geese.  The photo doesn't do them justice as they are keeping their distance, but they are the grey birds on the water.

After a logistical nightmare getting all the birds into the car and back home, we started to sort out who was going where when the boss noticed that we had a little somthing we weren't really expecting.  One of the broody turkeys had obviously been sitting on more than straw and there was a chick sitting out being ignored by its mother (apparently turkeys aren't all that maternal).

As it happened we had a Chinese Silky who was also broody, but definitely sitting on straw.  We introduced the chick to her and as you can see a day later she is doing extremely well.  Well done Sophie!  (I think she is still wondering how she managed to hatch that from straw, but nonetheless, she makes a great mother!)  Not sure what we are going to do when the smallest of our birds finds that the chick she is raising ends up towering over her.