Sustainable, natural, organic, herbal, etc, and goat husbandry

[big brown horse]

Cool.

Keep us updated!

 

[the simple life]

I am assuming it may be they are allowed to develop a natural immunity to the things around them that would make animals from a vaccinated and medicated herd sick.
I just bought some goats and a sheep from a hardcore organic farm, they had never been vaccinated or given any medications of any kind.
They told me they had been raising their animals this way for years.
I bought a pregnant 3 year old doe and a 6 month old sheep and a 6 month old goat.
I had the vet come out and inspect them all and she said they appeared to be very healthy.
I asked her to do all the tests she could on them.
She called me after and told me that they had such a low worm count she wouldn't recommend treating them for that.
They tested negative for cae cl and johnes as well.
Maybe the babies born there get a natural immunity to virus/disease passed on to them from the herd.
In the same sense that vaccinations work low grade exposure to organisms can help develop a natural resistance.
I can't say this is what has happened for a fact, its just speculation but it does make you wonder since this is the same way its done in those countries where they are never treated for anything and they do not have any issues.

Just as an aside, I am a beekeeper and the bees in this country are having a very tough time with mites and diseases.
The majority of beeks here are medicating their hives against these things but they still suffer heavy losses every year.
In Africa they refused to treat their bees and after three years of heavy losses they now have healthy bees in their country.
The bees learned to coexist with the mites, develop a symbiotic relationship and thrive.
While many still struggle here in the U.S. adding more and more chemicals in the mix.
There are some here that have stopped treating their bees and after heavy losses developed some great stock that can survive without chemical intervention.
I believe this is the same type of thing that happens with livestock.
Its a leap of faith after all we have been told about vaccinating, medicating, and taking measures in advance of anything remotely happening to any of our animals.
For the record, I have never treated my bees with anything including "natural" treatments.
They are on their own, if I lose some because of this then I will breed my survivors for my stock and have bees that can cope with the world around them without my interferance.
However, I would never sit and watch my goats or any of my animals drop like flies rather than treat them if they were ill but I think its better to try and build their immune systems and develop resistance to things naturally whenever possible.

 

[Lil Chickie Mama]

I'm just learning until I get my goats, so I have nothing useful to add, but to all that have posted. I'm learning a lot!

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

thanks for the post TSL!

my hubby is just starting with bees (we got our first hive last year) and he was horrified by all the medicating that was supposed to make them better. it totally railed against the approach we have here for all our critters so he kinda tossed all the 'must dos' and just let them 'bee.'

then he recently read an article about what you are saying and was so glad he wasnt the only one who thought it was all nuts.

i think the thing that some folks forget is... in farming not every body makes it. keeping the strongest works, diversity works, not over compensating for weakness works in the long run.

we treat when we have to - and none of our critters suffer...but working with nature is much easier than working against it.

 

[the simple life]

I am really glad to hear about your bees, its the way to go and we do need more beekeepers in the world that aren't throwing chemicals at the bees.

If we had left the bees alone they would have learned to adapt to the mites but people panic about losing their stock and medicate them, I do understand their position about losing stock(and its happening even if you medicate) but its a never ending cycle and something else will just crop up and then you need to medicate for that and that and that.....
I figure I am making an investment by buying colonies from various sources and then keeping whatever makes it through the winter, breed from that stock and introduce others until I have a strong survivor stock.
I have driven to 2 other states to obtain some feral/survivor stock from other bee producers to start my apiary.
I will of course have losses but eventually will have stock that has learned to survive on their own without me medicating or feeding them artificially.
My losses are an investment in my future stock and the only way to get there is take my losses.

If you are interested I have put some information in a thread on Sufficient Self that talks about natural beekeeping.
I went to a chemical free conference last summer and rubbed elbows with all the leading chemical free bee producers from around the country and a lovely gentleman from Sweden who did alot of study with Brother Adam of the Buckfast Abbey Bees.

The way I see it livestock and insects have been on the face of this earth for how many centuries without needing any kind of human intervention so why do they need it so much now?
Should we have left well enough alone?

The way I see it if it ain't broke don't fix it.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

super! i'll check it out...

see you over on SS

 

[chandasue]

That's really interesting about the chemical-free bees recovering. I lost all my bees last summer for no apparent reason. I don't use any chemicals on them either. I'm taking this summer off from beekeeping to get used to the routine with my goats but perhaps the following year I'll try again after I take the beekeeping class through the MN extension. I feel like I was missing some clue as to the problem and another local beekeeper highly recommended the class. It was really disheartening to see them just dwindle away...

 

[the simple life]

Sorry to hear about your bees. It could have been the stock itself or they may have been exposed to pesticides when they were out collecting nectar, mites, if they go queenless and you don't know it the hive will dwindle and die, any number of things.
I wish you luck next year.

 

[chandasue]

Thanks. It could have been any number of those things. It did go queenless early in the spring but I got a new queen right away and things seemed to pick up again after that. But a month later it was all going down hill again like I lost that queen too. And no disease or mite problem that I could tell anyway. I strongly suspected pesticides from somewhere else being the problem but I just can't be sure. Maybe it was weak stock to begin with, I hadn't thought of that. Chalk it up to experience I guess and try again later.

 

[Beekissed]

That is one reason I am starting out with the top bar hives, as they say allowing the bees to build their own comb cuts down on the survival of varroa mites and keeps the hive much cleaner as none of the comb actually touches the hive body.

I am also going to try to capture swarms locally by registering with the local extension office. I'm hoping to find some wild stock in this endeavor.

I'll have to look for your thread, TSL....I'm very interested in the leave 'em alone style of beekeeping. It's the way I'm raising my chickens and my sheep also, but I anticipate even less interference with my bees.