The farm house

The farm house

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Down on the farm...

It's Spring and with that come changes, especially when you have farm animals. My 2nd batch of seeds have been sown. I am waiting for some not so windy weather to plant as the stems are still very fragile..

Now, all the critters know it's Spring, especially the horses. You know that saying, " The grass is always greener on the other side..."? Well, Tessa, whom I thought was acting peculiar yesterday morning decided to test the fence. Twice people came to my door yesterday to tell me a horse was out. Took 3 hours to fix, sort out etc.. why the fence was not providing the jolt required to prevent this from happening again. All is good now.


Day old Australorp chicks

On Saturday I ventured out to the Bird auction in South Mountain. I came home with a hen of mixed breeding-don't care what it is as long as it lays an egg! Sadly, it was cold & windy even inside the building. There were indoor birds there & day old chicks suffering. I was not pleased to see that. They finally decided to auction off the chicks as they could not wait. I did not go there to buy chicks but I bid on 4 -day olds. I paid for them & left. 2 chicks were upside down in the box & the other 2 were chirping albeit very slowly.Long story short, I was angry & scared all at once. Paid $8 for a box of dead chicks. I prepped a brooder all the while keeping the precious cargo warm. I opened the box put the 2 in, looked at the other 2 & they wereNOT DEAD!!! Slow movement when I rolled them. So, I held them under the heat lamp so the body temp. would increase. I flipped them over belly up so they could warm up all over..at this point they are doing the swallowing thing that means they are about to die... I made them drink, continued to hold them for 15 minutes...they are now fine & fully alert!!

Liam & Mom Clarice


Now for the Really big news..THE LAMBS ARE HERE!!!! 2 weeks early and I had no bloody camera. Well today I fixed the camera- which is why I did not post earlier. Liam was born around 11 am Sunday morning & Magnus was born early Monday morning. They are both rams which means as adults more fleece  moahhaha!!


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Magnus & Mom Beyonce-messy girl...
  So this is the first generation of the Karberry flock. I wonder if I will have ewes next year?? I may add some Icelandic & Jacob to my flock...We'll see...until then I will have the ladies shorn- yes that was booked in May before they were due to lamb. Oh well....Come vist the babies if you can. In about 4 months they should have a large set of horns already!!! Need much better fencing for sure....

4 comments:

  1. So glad the little chicks were ok.

    Thanks for the sheep & lamb pics. I love little Magnus.

    Any time you're looking to sell fleeces let me know!

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    1. Shearing is May 13th! As you can see, I will have to skirt some veg matter. I'm glad the sheep were inas it's been kind of cold for babies to be born outside...So next year, I will also have lambswool. Looking to add afew ewes into my menagerie. Hubby can't believe how many people are interested in the critters!

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  2. Hi Karen, I saw your message on Ravelry; welcome to the world of Shetland sheep! Seeing as you are in Canada, you certainly were much more likely to get fine-fleeced animals to start your flock; here in the U.S., quite a few breeders are producing big, double-fleeced animals that are indistinguishable from Icelandics and don't have the kind of fleece for which the breed was once.

    I love following the blogs of like-minded people, so I'm signing up as a follower. :-)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Michelle!
      I chose Shetlands because they are a manageable size for me. I feel intimidated by some of the other breed's size. Sounds silly when you have horses but I want this to be a pleasant experience & not a battle when dealing with them.
      I was never a great fan of the Shetland yarn until I learned to spin & was given some fleece to try- that got me hooked! Now, I need to work on creating quality fleece from my flock!

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