It's been pretty busy
here since my last update. I'll try to remember the main things that
have been going on over the last month.
We had a flurry of
new life a couple of weekends ago with the arrival of all our lambs
and new chicks within a very short space of time. Sadly during the
flurry of new life arriving here a much longer life ended and my
Grandma passed away. So it was a weekend of joy and sorrow.
The lambing started
on Friday while I was at work. Luckily Zoe had the day off. She
arrived home about midday to a Ewe in labour. The labour did not
progress and things did not go well. The Ewe's were out in the field
but this one refused to be caught and still was not birthing. Luckily
help was at hand and Lorraine our neighbour also happened to be in.
Between Zoe and Lorraine they managed to catch the Ewe and get her
into the barn. With no lamb coming Zoe phoned our sheep guru Steve
for some much needed expert advice. It was then a case of having to
get her hand inside the Ewe and find out what was going on inside
(took me back to watching 'all creatures great and small' as a child
and the vets arm completely disappearing inside a cow). So the first
lamb was backwards. After much debating, adjustment, help and a lot
of pulling, eventually to Zoe and Lorraine's suprise a healthy lamb
appeared. With a little help it was breathing and happy very soon. I
got back from work at about this point. It wasn't long before her
next lamb appeared, rather more easily than the first. I had to at
this point keep going outside to check on another Ewe who had gone
into labour. I slightly loose track of the order of things at this
point. I know I went to get the kids from school (who had kindly
packed them off to the office with their bags ready for a speedy pick
up and journey home). Our first Ewe then had her third and final lamb
(we did wonder for a while if she was going for a forth). The Ewe
outside gave birth to her first lamb out in the field and once that
lamb was breathing and mother and lamb had done a little bonding we
got them and our final Ewe (who seemed to want to be the mother of
the new lamb) into the barn. We then had one Ewe with triplets, one
with a lamb and possibly more on the way and a third being very
maternal. Our Ewe with one lamb then started having a second. She
seemed to be having difficulty with this one and we found that it had
it's front leg bent backwards which made it very hard for it to get
out. So another Ewe needed assistance and as Zoe was now our resident
expert this was a job for her. During this time Loraine was brilliant
and supplied tea as well as doing the regular feeding of all of our
other animals. It did then all quieten down for a while and we
managed to eat and have a sit down. However it was clear the final
Ewe would go into labour soon and so we stayed up and by midnight it
was pushing hard. Again the lamb didn't seem to want to come. An hour
or so later and we had to check what was happening. She just had the
most enormous lamb making it really hard to get out. It was just a
case of us having to pull to give it a hand and with a lot of force
it finally came into he world and it was huge. It was her only lamb
and by 4:30am I finally got to bed.
Having chicks is a
much simpler process. Mother hen sits on eggs for 21 days. Get her
off once or twice a day for food a stretch and a poo, job done. On
day 21 don't get her off and leave her to it. On day 22 have a peak.
Day 22 was Tuesday and when we had a peak we could see mother hen and
hear a lot of cheaping. With a bit of work we managed to lift mother
hen off to see 9 healthy happy and tiny chicks. 8 fluffy and one
still all mucky from having just hatched. For the next day or two we
barely saw the chicks. Mummy hen would be up and about and all the
chicks would be hidden under her. She could easily hide all 9 from
view without a problem. If you were lucky you would catch a glimpse
of a head or a foot. Then gradually they started to get adventurous
and venture out. They now all run around making a lot of noise. They
still head to mummy hen though if they get worried. We'll have to see
now how many are hens and how many are cockerels. Hens we will keep
as layers but cockerels will have to be roasted (once they are fully
grown). I am getting fed up with cockerels. We had two from the last
lot of chicks and had kept them both. The largest one started to get
a bit vicious with us runnning at us and pecking our legs (which does
hurt). So had him for dinner (he was very tasty). Now the next one
has started to do the same. I think we will give up keeping
cockerels. It's nicer to have a peaceful chicken run. I will miss the
cocker doodle dooing though.
After last years
vegetable planting extravaganza with about 300 varieties of veg
growing and 100s of plants for each I have been much more low key
this year. This has lead to much less stress and a much higher
success rate for the plants we do have. We nearly lost all the early
tomato plants with an early frost, but they seem to have recovered. I
think that was why the Ewe's all gave birth together. The week before
they came (when they were due) the weather was really cold, (frozen
snow on the ground one night) and so they hung on until it warmed up
a little.
The pigs are growing
well and as always are engaging animals. So far it hasn't really made
any difference having all boys. We have had one with an abysses. He
had to go to the vet twice. It was quite funny having to stand on the
front of our little trailer while the vetenary nurse and vet were
inside the trailer with the pig trying to catch it and give it a shot
of anti-biotics. On our next visit it got to go into the vets room
and stand on the table while they cleaned out the abysses and gave it
another anti-biotics shot. While doing so they showed me what to do
so that I could administer the next two shots at home. So Zoe was
chief pig holder (not an easy task) while I administered the
medicine. Pigs do not like being held and when you get them they
squeal and wriggle like mad. But he did settle and then on our first
time he didn't even notice the shot. The next time it seemed to
bother him more and he got very noisy. Zoe managed to gain a graze on
her chin simply from the rough pig skin scraping against it.
Harriett and I
managed to get away last weekend to my Grandad's 90th
birthday party. It was great to catch up with family and Harriett
loved all the younger relatives that she could look after. We left
Imogen and Zoe in charge of the smallholding. It was nice to get up
and not have to dash out to the chickens. Instead Harriett and I
watched a farming program on lambing for an hour before breakfast!.
No lie ins when you go away with Harriett.
