Selection

Some of the snails have now grown quite big, about the size of a thumb nail. They are clearly too big for the Propagator so need to be moved to the larger enclosure outside. However, we are afraid that should we get a late frost they may not survive so we don't want to put them outside until after the May Bank Holiday.

So we have bought a crate to keep them in until then.

The next problem was selecting the onese to be moved. Initially we only moved the largest, but the propagator was in need of a thorough clean, not just a wash and a wipe of the lid, but we felt the time had come to change the soil. So, we moved the entire flock (a flock of snails?) from the propagator to the new crate. We were then able to thoroughly clean and wash out the propagator and put clean compost in the bottom.

We returned the smallest snails afterwards and gave them fresh feed and some lettuce. This also enabled us to count them. Two dead empty shells were found during the whole process, but 77 snails were returned to the propagator. There were ten who were big enough to remain in the crate, these we gave lettuce and a juvenile food mix, but no soil.