Windy hill chickens - first flock(s) of my own

[kattabelly]

There's been snow on the ground for the last 48 hours but looking like that will be gone by the weekend, if not tomorrow. Yay, more water! There's already a small stream running through the chicken plot.

Moved the fence to give them access to a new section of the back strip of field but they were more excited about all the fresh snow to eat

Wen's looking better, putting more weight on her foot but starting to hurt or get tired after a while. She came out to the field with the others and then shouted at me to come get her once she was struggling to keep up. She's been enjoying our polytunnel trips. (I'd be worried about the state of her feathers here if she hadn't always been such a scruffbag.)

Eggs from all three regulars. Stragglers went to roost ss+40 tonight.

 

[thistlewick]

Orkney and Shetland have very high percentages of Scandinavian DNA, upwards of 50%

And down in the 'lower' parts of Scotland, anywhere from 10-25% is Scandinavian. This is everyone in Scotland by the way, who considers themselves Scottish.

When I did my own personal DNA years and years ago, and saw a very suspicious 12% "Scandinavian" DNA marker, I began my foray into my family tree.

I knew my father's side was half Dutch, half English. My paternal grandmother did ancestry. But my mother's side? When I went down that rabbit hole it's all Scottish, all the way back. Allllll the lines. Turns out that "English" side of my father's line is *northern* English.

Every boat that took my ancestors from there, to here, took off from Glasgow. All save my Dutch ancestry.

Uhhh, long way of saying Scandinavians did some Viking, sure -- they also did a lot of settling and marrying and intermixing.

Thanks for listening to my Ted Talk lolol