just not quite the right things! No , we still don't have a cria on the ground - Veronica is at 368 days ( our current longest gestation ) and looking huge , very uncomfortable and hot. She has been coming down everyday for a good soaking from the hosepipe which she plainly loves , and I have been telling her how much better she will feel if she would just get on and have it , but to no avail.
My broody hen has produced 6 chicks - would have been 7 but she trod on one - so I hatched the rest in the incubator for the last 24 hrs just to be safe , she is happily touting them around the garden showing them all off.
Finally we have aquired 2 new pigs ! Petunia and Daffodil ( don't ask) arrived yesterday and are saddleback piglets , 9 weeks old . Amazingly , our pig rearing feats range far and wide and we are well known!! When DH went to collect them , the breeder , whom we purchased from 5 yrs ago , said that he had heard about our first pigs from the butcher - I did say infamous didn't I ?- who apparently still recalls the 2 elephants we took to him all those years ago , and the breeder is in a different county!! These 2 are not destined for such greatness , a modest 70kgs will be fine !
Saturday, 30 April 2011
Monday, 18 April 2011
Observation of the day
... spring is truly here! How do I know ? Well , simple really - the alpaca are not showing much interest in their daily ration of hard feed , so the grass must be really good !
Currently I am waiting on a new cria , which should have been due on the 13 April , judging by last years days , 351 to be precise , but now we are into the final run up to 365 and still no sign , Veronica is very large and clearly uncomfortable , and the weather is perfect so it has to be any day now , but when ? Every morning I 've got up and had a quick look and thought' today's the day' but clearly I am wrong. I have had everyone on standby whilst I was away in Mustique , but nothing , so expect the news very soon , with pics I promise . This also means that mating must surely be on the horizon , still a couple of decisions to make , and plans to put in place , but on the whole we are ready to start , and I even heard from the shearers today - nothing concrete of course , but progress.
The sole remaining turkey has started laying , which is very exciting but not as exciting as if we had a stag, DH is dying to try soft boiled turkey egg , watch this space.
All our chicks seem to be growing fast , and since I have a broody sitting on 10 eggs I am debating the need to incubate another clutch myself , well in an incubator actually , ha ha . If I do hatch another lot and the broody does well I could end up with a grand total of maybe 42 chicks hatched this year , if they can avoid the fox I may at last have enough to sell !!
Since my last post we have been battling lumpy jaw in one of the young males , daily antibiotics have certainly helped and the swelling is less than a quarter of what it was originally , but after 6 weeks it is still not quite gone . The vet is unsure as to what may have caused it , a kick maybe , or bizarrely , hay that was too ' nice' - not enough hard chewy bits ?? Luckily Bilbo has started to put some weight back on , having got pretty skinny , so things are looking better , it would just be nice to see the back of it once and for all.
Currently I am waiting on a new cria , which should have been due on the 13 April , judging by last years days , 351 to be precise , but now we are into the final run up to 365 and still no sign , Veronica is very large and clearly uncomfortable , and the weather is perfect so it has to be any day now , but when ? Every morning I 've got up and had a quick look and thought' today's the day' but clearly I am wrong. I have had everyone on standby whilst I was away in Mustique , but nothing , so expect the news very soon , with pics I promise . This also means that mating must surely be on the horizon , still a couple of decisions to make , and plans to put in place , but on the whole we are ready to start , and I even heard from the shearers today - nothing concrete of course , but progress.
The sole remaining turkey has started laying , which is very exciting but not as exciting as if we had a stag, DH is dying to try soft boiled turkey egg , watch this space.
All our chicks seem to be growing fast , and since I have a broody sitting on 10 eggs I am debating the need to incubate another clutch myself , well in an incubator actually , ha ha . If I do hatch another lot and the broody does well I could end up with a grand total of maybe 42 chicks hatched this year , if they can avoid the fox I may at last have enough to sell !!
Since my last post we have been battling lumpy jaw in one of the young males , daily antibiotics have certainly helped and the swelling is less than a quarter of what it was originally , but after 6 weeks it is still not quite gone . The vet is unsure as to what may have caused it , a kick maybe , or bizarrely , hay that was too ' nice' - not enough hard chewy bits ?? Luckily Bilbo has started to put some weight back on , having got pretty skinny , so things are looking better , it would just be nice to see the back of it once and for all.
Sunday, 6 March 2011
Tree climbing dogs ?
A bit of a gap since my last post and quite a lot has happened , I shall try to be concise !
Firstly the alpacas are all well , Calpurnia is still not eating hard feed , but is tucking in nicely to her hay , I'm not overly worried but we are going to run some fecals just to be sure there is nothing else going on .Veronica is due to produce at the end of March / beginning of April , which is when I am away so DH gets to watch and wait a bit , fingers crossed she does it before I go or hangs on for a week until I come back . Out of interest , the alpaca people reading , can you tell me how you deal with birthing season , do you have somebody watching them all the time ? or just checking a couple of times a day?
This morning has produced another fox in our trap!! Hurray I am shouting . The last couple of weeks have been somewhat trying , I knew he was around but I couldn't catch him , and then on Wed he tried to take the big white turkey literally under DH and DS3 's noses! He didn't manage it , since DH was close enough to give him a good kick, but we have been on tenter hooks every evening since waiting for the poultry to go to bed ,we have almost mounted an armed guard except that we don't own a gun. On the positive , we have had our first turkey egg and our first blue egg - on the same day!!
And now to the title of this blog , as I am sitting here typing , I can see the children and the dog in a field and they have just taught her to climb a tree ! Not a small tree either , all 4 of them are perched in the tree and so is the dog ! Incredible , but I'm not sure how useful a tree climbing dog is ?!
Firstly the alpacas are all well , Calpurnia is still not eating hard feed , but is tucking in nicely to her hay , I'm not overly worried but we are going to run some fecals just to be sure there is nothing else going on .Veronica is due to produce at the end of March / beginning of April , which is when I am away so DH gets to watch and wait a bit , fingers crossed she does it before I go or hangs on for a week until I come back . Out of interest , the alpaca people reading , can you tell me how you deal with birthing season , do you have somebody watching them all the time ? or just checking a couple of times a day?
This morning has produced another fox in our trap!! Hurray I am shouting . The last couple of weeks have been somewhat trying , I knew he was around but I couldn't catch him , and then on Wed he tried to take the big white turkey literally under DH and DS3 's noses! He didn't manage it , since DH was close enough to give him a good kick, but we have been on tenter hooks every evening since waiting for the poultry to go to bed ,we have almost mounted an armed guard except that we don't own a gun. On the positive , we have had our first turkey egg and our first blue egg - on the same day!!
And now to the title of this blog , as I am sitting here typing , I can see the children and the dog in a field and they have just taught her to climb a tree ! Not a small tree either , all 4 of them are perched in the tree and so is the dog ! Incredible , but I'm not sure how useful a tree climbing dog is ?!
Saturday, 5 February 2011
I think i'm turning into Victor Meldrew
Honestly I am , the weather is just not suiting me ! We have had amazing winds the last couple of days . On Friday we woke to find that the boys playhouse had blown onto the hedge - it took 6 men to move it to it's original resting place , but yesterday it moved of its own accord . Today we woke to find DH's boat had blown from the field , over the hedge and was sitting right in the middle of the bridle path - what is going on ?! We have lost a couple of old trees and various items have moved around , a gate has blown down - but the animals are all fine , which is the main thing . The alpaca are all scootched up against hedges , looking reasonably content , but I am having sleepless nights with all the wind , please just let me have dull and mild for the time of year , and I promise to be happy !
Thursday, 3 February 2011
Concerned - a bit
Still horribly windy , but not wet - is that an improvement I wonder ?
When doing the vit injections yesterday I did a quick condition score on everyone , all good at 3/5 except Artemis who is a 4/5 ( but she is a suri) , and Calpurnia who scored 2 - 2.5/5 . She is the only weanling who has shown any distress at being parted from mum , and even after nearly 3 weeks still spends a reasonable amount of time standing at the gate humming . She is happily eating grass , and hay , but refuses to touch hard feed like the others. I have tried feeding her separately with the rest of the herd nearby but unable to get at her bowl , but she pays no interest , I have tried sugarbeet- hot, warm cold , nothing! Does anyone have any ideas how to get her to eat better? All advice welcome , I've never had this problem quite as bad before . Calpurnia's mum still doesn't like to eat with the herd and will only eat substantially if penned next to them , is this the alpaca version of ' too posh to push'?
By the way , the new additions are ...... turkeys! A sort of rescue , 1 male 2 female , Norfolk bronze I think , but not really sure . The idea is to breed them and eat the offspring as DS #3 said to granny ' Of course we're not going to eat them , just their babies '!!
When doing the vit injections yesterday I did a quick condition score on everyone , all good at 3/5 except Artemis who is a 4/5 ( but she is a suri) , and Calpurnia who scored 2 - 2.5/5 . She is the only weanling who has shown any distress at being parted from mum , and even after nearly 3 weeks still spends a reasonable amount of time standing at the gate humming . She is happily eating grass , and hay , but refuses to touch hard feed like the others. I have tried feeding her separately with the rest of the herd nearby but unable to get at her bowl , but she pays no interest , I have tried sugarbeet- hot, warm cold , nothing! Does anyone have any ideas how to get her to eat better? All advice welcome , I've never had this problem quite as bad before . Calpurnia's mum still doesn't like to eat with the herd and will only eat substantially if penned next to them , is this the alpaca version of ' too posh to push'?
By the way , the new additions are ...... turkeys! A sort of rescue , 1 male 2 female , Norfolk bronze I think , but not really sure . The idea is to breed them and eat the offspring as DS #3 said to granny ' Of course we're not going to eat them , just their babies '!!
Wednesday, 2 February 2011
new additions!
Today has been horribly windy and a little bit wet. Nonetheless I took the opportunity to do some Vit injections for the weanlings and their 'aunts' , Athena started spitting as soon as she saw the needle , needless to say we dealt with her first and put her outside the pen so that she had less access to us ! DH insisted on standing against the fence nearest her and then saying ( in a very male way) ' she'll just have to learn to not spit at me '!! Guess who smells particularly pungent??
I also took the chance to introduce a new member to the weanlings in the shape of Flag. He is not the smartest alpaca brain wise , but simply the nicest alpaca I have ever met. He walks beautifully on a halter , is very majestic , and just a generally great animal . I have put him in with the weanlings so that he can get to know Cassius , because in the fullness of time Cassius will have to meet the other boys and that could be nasty since he is my only male from last year - I thought he could do with a friend and Flag is perfect.Plus he is the respected leader of the boys .....
I also have 3 more new additions to the farm . Can you guess ? A clue - the male is called a stag. Answers tomorrow.
I also took the chance to introduce a new member to the weanlings in the shape of Flag. He is not the smartest alpaca brain wise , but simply the nicest alpaca I have ever met. He walks beautifully on a halter , is very majestic , and just a generally great animal . I have put him in with the weanlings so that he can get to know Cassius , because in the fullness of time Cassius will have to meet the other boys and that could be nasty since he is my only male from last year - I thought he could do with a friend and Flag is perfect.Plus he is the respected leader of the boys .....
I also have 3 more new additions to the farm . Can you guess ? A clue - the male is called a stag. Answers tomorrow.
Wednesday, 26 January 2011
Still here!
Christmas has been and gone and now we are almost at the end of January- where has the time gone ?
Like most people it has been a busy and hard time , the weather has made sure of that , and I am personally quite tired , both of the bad weather but also physically as a result of the weather . The alpacas are all well , a couple of weeks without significant rain means they are looking fluffy and well if a little dirty - the soil is very red here so as a result he white ones are all looking pale pink , a new colour for the BAS to consider?
Now that the snow has abated for a while and the night time temps are not so low I have taken the opportunity to wean the cria . Really it should have been done at Christmas , but I couldn't bring myself to drag them away from their mums in such horrid cold. As usual , the mums have barely given the weanlings a backward glance - if they could go out on the town I feel they probably would! The weanlings and their 'aunties' , however, are still occassionally looking longingly in the direction of the others , but time spent at the gate humming has reduced to almost nothing over the course of a week.
The chickens have been doing well , until today when a fox took 2 of my Legbars - I am gutted , I only had 3 Legbars and I have just bought 15 eggs for the incubator from a very nice chap who gave me a mixed box of my favourite breeds , including 3 legbar eggs - my hopes where high that I would get a rooster and thus have a breeding quartet, not to be this year I'm afraid. Silly birds they would insist on roosting in a tree - Lord knows how the fox got them.
But the 18 eggs I have in my incubator are looking good - fingers crossed
Now my task is to get a couple of fleeces ready for the futurity...... oh , and raise £25K for the school . Ho hum
Like most people it has been a busy and hard time , the weather has made sure of that , and I am personally quite tired , both of the bad weather but also physically as a result of the weather . The alpacas are all well , a couple of weeks without significant rain means they are looking fluffy and well if a little dirty - the soil is very red here so as a result he white ones are all looking pale pink , a new colour for the BAS to consider?
Now that the snow has abated for a while and the night time temps are not so low I have taken the opportunity to wean the cria . Really it should have been done at Christmas , but I couldn't bring myself to drag them away from their mums in such horrid cold. As usual , the mums have barely given the weanlings a backward glance - if they could go out on the town I feel they probably would! The weanlings and their 'aunties' , however, are still occassionally looking longingly in the direction of the others , but time spent at the gate humming has reduced to almost nothing over the course of a week.
The chickens have been doing well , until today when a fox took 2 of my Legbars - I am gutted , I only had 3 Legbars and I have just bought 15 eggs for the incubator from a very nice chap who gave me a mixed box of my favourite breeds , including 3 legbar eggs - my hopes where high that I would get a rooster and thus have a breeding quartet, not to be this year I'm afraid. Silly birds they would insist on roosting in a tree - Lord knows how the fox got them.
But the 18 eggs I have in my incubator are looking good - fingers crossed
Now my task is to get a couple of fleeces ready for the futurity...... oh , and raise £25K for the school . Ho hum
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