Hi ... thanks for letting me join this community
I recently joined Backyard Chickens and saw this link to sister site.
Having lived in suburbia all my life, about five years ago we moved to five acres, and bought a few chickens for eggs. Hubby decided that alpaca made good guards, and they kept the grass low (bargain!). So we got two free from a school that no longer wanted them (grandma and grandpa). Then we purchased 2 pregnant mothers each with a cria, and 2 whethers, so we had a group of 8. We are both clueless, and look after them as best we can with help from Google & Facebook!
We lost one mother and one whether early on, and got a replacement female (whom we were told was pregnant but 3 years later no baby). The other pregnant female gave birth a little before Christmas, to an albino. We castrated her cria, and in time, little Snowflake. However, we kept the other cria "in tact" as we had lost its mother, we were less concerned about in breeding.
Last February, she surprised us with another baby.
Last November we moved to 25 hectares (about 60 acres). Within a month we had lost the Snowflake and new baby ... to paralysis ticks. :-(
Then in February this year, we went through a roller coaster ride, a new baby, four weeks later, dead on the drive when we arrived home one day. A few weeks later, a new baby, less than four weeks later, died. And then last week we lost one of the original whethers. Not sure if we are losing them due to some mineral deficiency (someone suggested magnesium), due to colic (over feeding to compensate our lack of knowledge - though I doubt it ... we have since acquired a sheep which invariably gets to the feed first), whether this is "just nature taking its course", or something else.
I am hoping to become more knowledgeable via this forum before we lose them all :-(
All help most welcome
I recently joined Backyard Chickens and saw this link to sister site.
Having lived in suburbia all my life, about five years ago we moved to five acres, and bought a few chickens for eggs. Hubby decided that alpaca made good guards, and they kept the grass low (bargain!). So we got two free from a school that no longer wanted them (grandma and grandpa). Then we purchased 2 pregnant mothers each with a cria, and 2 whethers, so we had a group of 8. We are both clueless, and look after them as best we can with help from Google & Facebook!
We lost one mother and one whether early on, and got a replacement female (whom we were told was pregnant but 3 years later no baby). The other pregnant female gave birth a little before Christmas, to an albino. We castrated her cria, and in time, little Snowflake. However, we kept the other cria "in tact" as we had lost its mother, we were less concerned about in breeding.
Last February, she surprised us with another baby.
Last November we moved to 25 hectares (about 60 acres). Within a month we had lost the Snowflake and new baby ... to paralysis ticks. :-(
Then in February this year, we went through a roller coaster ride, a new baby, four weeks later, dead on the drive when we arrived home one day. A few weeks later, a new baby, less than four weeks later, died. And then last week we lost one of the original whethers. Not sure if we are losing them due to some mineral deficiency (someone suggested magnesium), due to colic (over feeding to compensate our lack of knowledge - though I doubt it ... we have since acquired a sheep which invariably gets to the feed first), whether this is "just nature taking its course", or something else.
I am hoping to become more knowledgeable via this forum before we lose them all :-(
All help most welcome