mysunwolf - four acres and some sheep

[Poka_Doodle]

@mysunwolf how many chickens do you have?

 

[mysunwolf]

@mysunwolf how many chickens do you have?

We have over 200 right now, over 250 if you count chicks under 8 weeks, but they will mostly be gone by September since about 180 of those are Cornish X. We will keep 25+ egg layers, a few roosters, and some broody/pet hens over the winter.

All of ours are mutts though. You have show birds, right?

 

[Poka_Doodle]

I have show bantams. This year we have lost 7 of our chickens. I also have large fowl. Currently each pen has 7 chickens. The reason we had had them apart was because of roosters, although I lost the bantam rooster in May. We only have 1 mix breed now, a Naked Neck speckled sussex. County fair is near, check out my journal for more information, I will post much more tonight when I am not working on cat stuff

 

[ragdollcatlady]

I am probably in the minority, but with my goats, I milk one side then I switch sides to milk the other. I have mostly nigerians and at first, my hands would cramp. So I would switch sides to give the other hand a break. I hold a milking cup under the goat with one hand and use my other hand to milk. Getting up and moving in the middle of milking keeps my body from getting too uncomfortable regardless of how I sit, especially when milking several animals.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

that must take a while Ragdollcatlady. I had saanens and alpine mutts and we always milked with both hands. at first you kinda trade off which hand is actually working and it takes longer until you build up the muscles in your hands. but once you get used to it it goes a lot faster two handed.
although I supposed with some of those shorties (pygmys, nigis) that sometimes one would be too short to bother with a bucket and be easier to milk into a small container.

 

[Southern by choice]

Haven't seen you around but saw your pics scrolling through this am- clicked on one. Such pretty sheep!
http://www.backyardherds.com/threads/mysunwolf-four-acres-and-some-sheep.31390/#post-395516

I love the scrolling pics- fun to see them!

 

[mysunwolf]

I apologize for being away from BYH all the time, I'm working a lot off farm and it's getting busy with spring just around the corner! Plus if I do get online, Facebook seems to take up most of my time...

I'm going to use this thread to post lamb updates so that I can sneak in photos of the other livestock as well.

You all may have heard, but Ginger birthed triplets a few weeks back. Two of them died within a few hours--I think they were stuck in the birth canal too long and may have gotten weak and/or inhaled fluids. Since momma had been throwing a fit trying to get the babies out of her, she hadn't had time to fully lick off or nurse the surviving baby, a tiny black ewe lamb. For the first few days we had to help this girl stand, find the teat, and nurse every 4-6hrs. She's finally a strong, healthy little lamb that bounces around. However, Ginger still has a terrible famacha score despite having been wormed and given supplements galore (I've thrown the book at both of these poor ewes, almost literally). I hope she'll recover in the next few weeks with frequent iron, B complex, vitamins, drenches, etc.

Dora birthed just last week, a single black ewe lamb during some of the nicest weather we've had all winter. I looked out into the field to see her trying to lick the lamb and run away from it at the same time. When I checked her over, she had mastitis with a rock hard, very hot bag, which was why she was not letting the baby nurse. We penned them, milked her out, took a sample for testing, started antibiotics and pain meds, and held down momma so the baby could nurse every 4-6hrs just like the last lamb. Now the baby is doing well and Dora's mastitis has eased up. Dora was dewormed right after lambing and her famacha score has already improved dramatically.

Both ewes and their lambs are generally stable for the time being. They've been kept in the barn so that we could easily access them but will go out into the barnyard pen with the rest of the pregnant girls once the weather clears up. Right now we have 60+mph gusts, bad wind chills, and snow.

Gratuitous use of lamby photos below...

Charcoal at almost a week:

Charcoal and Mocha hanging out with their moms:

Sweet baby Mocha:

They've got beautiful structures to them, I just love the way they look. The daddy was a black-faced Cotswold, and these mommas are Friesian x Cotswold x ???

 

[mysunwolf]

Here are some photos from the last big snow of the other girls waiting to lamb.

Cow and Thelma:

Stud Muffin seriously getting into the hay:

Cow, Louise, and Thelma:

Puff is "guarding them" aka waiting until my back is turned so he can chase them

And here are a few from yesterday, the big lug Puffers guarding his skull toy:

And momma Cow getting bigger:

 

[mysunwolf]

Here's Cinnamon with the chickens. This critter's a handful and has a really high prey drive with high energy, BUT he likes to please, is really sweet, and can settle into relaxed laziness very quickly (something I really look for in my dogs ).

We butchered this guy for a friend last week, I was really proud of him and what the carcass and meat looked like.

The cats being lazy on a cold day:

My amazing Silver Penciled Rock rooster, with one of his daughters:

The flock was really not into the snow!

Zoe is 5 years old and still laying huge brown eggs a few times a week.

From the big hog pen, this is Shaun our boar and Ossa our sow chowing down on some apples.

They didn't enjoy the snow either. Here they were explaining to me that I better dump that bucket of feed quick before they got smart and jumped over the hog panels.

Our newest addition, two tiny guinea hog gilts

 

[samssimonsays]

I adore the animals and LOVE the quality of the pics! What kind of camera do you have?