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.
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| 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!!
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| 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 glad the little chicks were ok.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the sheep & lamb pics. I love little Magnus.
Any time you're looking to sell fleeces let me know!
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!
DeleteHi 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.
ReplyDeleteI love following the blogs of like-minded people, so I'm signing up as a follower. :-)
Thanks Michelle!
DeleteI 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!