Dumpy Donkeys

It's a cruel alliteration, but really, my donkeys are a wee bit too chubby. 

I have been aware of it for some time, but it took a visit from Amber to confirm my worst suspicions. They have been feasting on cream buns and fly cemetries, sweet drinks and ice creams, and it really has to stop. She gave me a very useful guide from the excellent Donkey Sanctuary, and told me it was time to change the diet.

So here is Marguerita on the new diet.

A life of roughage

It's a diet of mainly barley straw, with a wee bit of hay now and again. It's spring time here, so there is lots to eat - either in the fields, or in the areas of woodland that I enclose for them.

They will be slim for the summer. Or at least, slimmer...

It started with a seed...

...that got caught in Fidget's (the sheep) neck. 

Then some more got caught there, and then Quim the shepherd told me that this is a common problem. Some sheep feed with their heads low down, near the ground - and get covered in the grain that falls out when the rest of the flock eat.

It had become a real problem, so I replaced our tall upright hay feeder with a home-made one, knocked up from scrap wood from around the Croft.

Bits, and a bit of a plan

It's made

It works!

Scrap is SO useful!

Make hay while the sun shines...

...and it has been shining. Rather too much in fact - today we hit 30ºC at mid day. The Croft is 330m (1,000 ft) above sea level, and even here it's roasting.

Hot spot

 We cropped a record 63 small bales from our two main fields:

Baling hay, the old way...

The sheep have been sheared:

Cool sheep

 It's summer, but it's early, so everyone here in Montseny is starting to worry about forest fires...