The Khaki Campbell, Saxony and Rouen ducks are separated now for true mating. The Rouens are sharing a very large pen with the new Ameraucana chicks, the Saxonys are on their own, and there are two pens of Khaki Campbells, one with a pure white Campbell drake (hoping his colour will come through) and the other with a lovely usual Khaki drake. But the bachelors, these three drakes, are outside and hang around the Khaki pens, quacking away. It seems mean to separate them and deny them from being with their flock, but too many drakes are hard on the hens. There are 5 hens in one pen and 4 in the other, and one drake in each. By adding a second drake, since the ducks cannot get away when they are confined, the poor hens get the feathers on the back of their necks torn right off when the drakes mount them. Plus, the drakes begin to squabble with one another. Outside where they have the entire yard to play in, they usually get along quite well.
A duck has the ability to reject sperm if she does not like the mate. Who knew? Hopefully, the ducks will like the drakes I put in with them. They also can retain sperm for up to three weeks, so for the eggs to be true to the breed, that time must elapse. In three weeks then, the Khakis, Saxonys and Rouens will be breeding true and the eggs should be pure. Every once in a while there is a throw back, which is why the pure white drake was hatched from standard Khaki parents.

There are some duck and goose eggs in the incubator now with the first due to hatch on April 28 and the next a week later. There may be some true bred ducklings and some crosses. It will be impossible to tell when they are first hatched, but when their feathers are in, it will be much easier. In the meantime, the poor bachelor boys pine for their ladies outside, relegated to hanging around. They do have a place to go should they want to, but they are so flock bound, they basically have only gone round and round the pen trying to get in. Poor boys!

His mother was huge and looked as though she was carrying at least twins if not triplets, yet if she had even quads, it would not be surprising. In comparison with the other three Cotswolds, she looks as though she is on steroids, fat and rolly, almost too fat. Her little fellow was born last night at 10:30 pm. The ambient temperature was a balmy -5 and mother was a first timer. She was nervous and uncooperative, so I left her on her own for a while and returned just after she had given birth. I thought if she was having problems, I would easily be in time to help and if not, she just wanted some privacy.

Because of the cold, I brought two towels and helped to dry the little boy off as well as two towels would . He was yellow from the amniotic fluids, but on his feet and attempting to nurse. This upset the mother, who then proceeded to wrap the placenta around his neck, at which point I did intervene, moving both the placenta and the lamb. Mother would not hold still long enough for baby to latch on and nurse. I was tired of these new moms after the 3 Angora goats gave birth. Two lost their babies, one set of twins and the other a weak ram lamb, which the mother stepped on and killed accidently in her stupidity. I was surely hoping the sheep would be easier. I went to get a rope to tie her up so the lamb could nurse, but did not find one, so I tackled this Helga, and laid her down. Then baby was being stubborn and fighting. By this time, I was covered with amniotic fluid, excrement and then colostrum. I milked some right in my face! Well, milking sideways is not what it should be.

Baby would have nothing to do with that position, so I let mother go and shouldered her into the corner. Baby cried and mother bowled me over. I gave up. He had a sucking reflex because he did latch on and suckle two or three times, but was disinterested. I began to think he nursed when I went to look for the rope and was not hungry, so I packed up and went inside to have a warm bath. Whew!

This morning, baby and mother were bonded and happy and I was relieved. She still looks as though she could have twins though. Her lamb is a little boy about 10 pounds. And isn't he ever so cute! Cotswold lambs are one of the cutest, I think . Don't you?

Animals are truly amazing. There are videos of mother lions feeding the babies of the meal they had just killed, leaving an orphan, and dogs feeding kittens and so on. Why? Animals instinctively are friends, not enemies and while sometimes, one eats the other, they do not generally have hard feelings. Ya gotta live, right?

Domestic livestock have been kindred to man for eons and have lived in close quarters with one another, sheep sharing barns with chickens, horses and cows, dogs sleeping with cats and pigs befriending ducks and geese. Why not? On the Fat Ewe Farm, the animals are young and have only gotten to know one another over the past year or so, and the trust is just blossoming. What a delight to see two critters curled up to one another in blissful slumber. The horses live with two llamas, two other llamas live with 4 sheep, the chickens frequently visit the piggies, and the ducks and geese visit everyone. Gee, the geese have even built a nest in the dog house. It truly is a blessing to see how the farm animals work together and all get along, well, except for the big gander, who is protecting his ladies right now during breeding season. He even lets the Saxony ducks in his pen though, so he is not all bad. It is a day to be thankful for the blessings of the farm, living in unison with nature and sharing in the wonder of the world. 

The little Pygmy and Nigerian Dwarf goats love to snuggle together in the dog houses, that is they did until they could not get in them anymore. Last year, the houses were easy to clean because they were not under 4 feet of snow. This year there were times they were barely visible. The snow has melted somewhat and today the houses were dug from under the 2 feet of hay and droppings, finally thawed enough to dig, or rather fork the hay off. Some fungus had been growing alongside one of the houses. If I knew what it was, maybe it is a delicate edible mushroom?

This winter, the houses froze to the ground and it was impossible to lift them to clean them out, so what I ended up doing was adding a little straw every so often until the straw and manure half filled the dog house. Then the goats could no longer get inside and abandoned them. They were cold in their shelter, so I let the rams in to keep them warm and that worked just fine.

But now, the arduous task of digging them out and dumping over a foot of composting manure and straw was upon me. The larger ones come apart in the middle and the smallest igloo had the bottom removed, but it had long frozen in place and was obliterated before all the others. The three large houses were finally accessible to the half way point, at which the top was disconnected and the contents shoveled out, at least until I could lift and spill the rest. I still cannot use the hose, so I cleaned them as well as I could and put fresh straw inside about 6 inches deep. Now the little goaties can go inside nice clean and dry premises. The composing manure and straw did add some warmth during part of the winter because of the heat produced, but once everything froze at minus forty, the drifts covered the houses anyhow.

Enjoy your little houses, my goaties. You are so cute! Oh, and Robbie was occupying himself with a toy in a bucket while I was busy, silly puppy!

The Fat Ewe Farm is a grass based farm. Unfortunately we buy hay, though we have some beautiful fields of weedy grass, but so far we cannot get anyone to cut it for hay for us. We will try again this year. The fields are full of strawberries, wild flowers, thistles and dandelions, wild roses, and poplar shoots - everything a goat could dream of. There is not much better hay than that for goats and sheep, who do not prefer to eat grass unless it is a matter of starvation.
When the baby pigs arrived, they were undernourished and mineral deficient. They have improved immensely, but are still a bit too lean. The horses and llamas are on one side of them,  the goats kitty corner and the sheep on the other. For the longest time, even though they were given hay, the pigs did nothing with it. Then the horses decided to lean over the fence and eat some of the piggie's hay, so the pigs tried it. I also sprinkled their grain over the hay, so once in a while they had to take some hay with the grains. Now they look forward to their ration of hay and enjoy rooting through it for the best and tastiest morsels.
The chickens, ducks, geese and rabbit all eat hay, along with the pigs, sheep, goats, horses, llamas, alpacas and cows. Even the dogs and cats have been caught snarfing down some particularly tasty blades of the greener grass. In the summer the pigs eat lots of fresh green pasture grass, roots, dirt and all. Piggies love hay and grass, once they learn to eat it and it provides nutrients and roughage for their systems, especially in winter. They are the rototillers of the farm, so must keep their strength up in order to turn over the corral hay down to the dirt. As soon as the Cotswolds have their lambs and they are stable, the ram will be separated to the ram pen and the ewes will move in with the flock, so the piggies can have a field day rooting through the pen and rototilling the hay under. Thank you piggies...you are wonderful.

Is is mid April and there is still snow on the ground, in some places over 2 feet. As a matter of fact, there was a blizzard just 2 days earlier, hopefully the last of the season. Yesterday it was above zero, but it snowed a skiff during the night, but today it is almost 8 degrees above zero and there are puddles everywhere. The ducks and geese are in heaven, enjoying the mud and guess what? Grass! There are blades of green grass under the snow. Apparently it acts as a blanket insulator and the grass is able to begin to grow. Who knew? I am just glad it is spring finally. Yahoooooooo!

Last year was a year to experiment with chicken breeds. Keeping chickens for the farm is not like most farms. I hardly ever eat eggs, so egg production is not the most important aspect, nor do I eat much chicken, so meat birds are out of the question too. Still, a dual purpose bird, that is one that dresses out to a fine carcass for roasting and produces a good number of eggs, is part of the aim. What is even more important is that the birds are excellent foragers. For the summer months, they can free range in the farm yard, sheep and goat pens and some in the pasture if they are in an electric fence enclosure. They live in a portable tarped hoop coop that is moved when the electric fence is moved. Ideally, pasturing with pigs, sheep and goats is the best or the chickens following the sheep and goats to break up the manure and eat the parasites is even better. Without adequate fencing for rotational grazing, the alternative is electric net fencing. This has been used here for two years, but setting it up and taking it down every few days is a lot of work.

Back to the new chickens...
The chickens must also be winter hardy. Ideally they would require only an insulated coop, but not additional heat. Last winter, the coop had two heat lamps. Still the water froze when it was frigid outside and some of the breeds succumbed to that bitter cold. Most of the roosters lost their big combs and wattles, so then I looked for a breed without large fancy combs and big wattles, and that was also good at foraging and egg laying. The only thing not in the favour of the Ameraucanas is that they are not a good meat bird. The carcass is small and thin, rather than plump. The first five Ameraucanas were picked up in Sherwood Park, just east of Edmonton. They are 8 weeks old and still sound like babies with their little peeps. For now they are sharing a huge hoop house with 8 ducks that are separated for true breeding. At first the Ameraucanas were terrified of the new surroundings and the ducks, but after two days, they have become much more at ease. They are fairly flighty and not overly friendly despite that the breeder's children played with them and handled them.  This lot is called blue, black or splash, which is grey with black and white splashes through out the feathers. I am delighted with the pretty birds with their muffs and tiny combs. One is supposed to be a rooster, though it is not 100 % easy to sex the birds at that age. The Fat Ewe Farm will be getting four dozen more baby Ameraucana 4 week old chicks in 2 months from a few different lines. The roosters, all but two, will go the processor's for winter chicken soup. Most of the current flock will also be sent along to the processor's much sooner. The Buckeye hen (a fantastic forager), Blue Orpington (broody hen, absolutely invaluable) and the 4 Polish Ameraucana bantam crosses and their rooster will stay. There are a lot of crosses from a late hatch last year. They were sired by a Jersey Giant cross rooster and either Jersey Giant hens or the Orpington hen, but so far, there are none worth keeping. One of the roosters is very pretty and calm, and huge, but he won't be valuable for the Ameraucana breeding, so he must go. They have been for sale for a while, but no takers have come for them. That is the part I hate about farming. We do not always have control over breedings and offspring, and the unwanted ones are used for food. Sigh.

Welcome to the little peeps, pretty little things, they are.

Zeb is a good looking little guy. Every horse person who has seen him has commented on him and a few have offered to buy him. As much as the horses bother me, I did have great plans for them when I bought them. Unfortunately, the market for horses disappeared and especially for Canadian horses, so the plans will go by the wayside.  I sold the original mares that were brought out. Willa, who lives on The Fat Ewe Farm, was a filly when the Canadians made the long trip from Quebec from the famous Du Couteau farm. Wakhan was a colt who also came along, but he was traded to the horse boarder for taking care of the horses for a few months. That left Ty, the old style stallion and Willa for a breeding pair. Alas, that was not meant to be.

Ty was fatally struck by lightening during a terrible storm with a near tornado accompanying it. Zeb is Ty's son, born to Willa, and he is a very tame sweet natured fellow, as is his mother. The horses are calm and friendly and willing. It won't take much to train Willa this summer. She will begin driving school and liberty training to bareback ride. I do not know how to train a horse, but I know how to train a dog. I understand that there is a huge difference between the two, but already I have accomplished feats with the horses that people said I wouldn't be able to do. Horses take a lot more patience to train than a smart dog, but it is doable. It is easier for me to train my big dog to pull a cart than to train Willa, for example.

Anyhow, young Zeb is going to be a year old in May and his mother will be three then. She was bred too early, but not intentionally and she has recovered to full health. Many visitors to the farm love the horses, so for now they stay. Zeb is gelded and there is no reason to breed his mother, because there are too many horses in Alberta already. Zeb and Willa are purebred registered Canadian horses. To read more about the Canadians, look here.

Lucy Llama had her first baby, a little girl with a spotted brown and white, with a touch of black soft coat. Lucy is a correct llama with nice conformation and good banana ears. She is halter trained, though I have not put a halter on her.When I have to move her, I simply twisted a twine like a halter around her nose and head and led her with that. I knew she was pregnant for sure after Karin delivered her little one a month ago, but was unsure of Lucy's date. It is hard to tell with llamas. Joyce llama lost her baby because she had it in winter and it froze before it could stand. I was sad, but what could I do? Llamas are supposedly seasonal breeders, that is breeding so the llamas are born in early summer, so obviously something was not quite right for her to have the baby in January. 

Anyhow, the little one was strong and up and able to look to nurse, but Lucy's milk had not come in. From what I can gather, the cria's sucking stimulates the onset of the milk and the first 24 hours there may not be milk at all. This is contrary to most other species that must drink within an hour or two of birth. I am thinking that the llama baby is getting a little each time. The llama mother's udder is inside her body, so it is difficult to tell if she has milk. Lucy has four teats that are tiny. Compared to the teats of a goat, they are about a quarter of the size. One would think that with the size of the cria, the teats would be larger than on a goat, but that is not the case.

The cria attempted to nurse quite a few times and I did observe her sucking, so perhaps she was getting something. If she is robust and doing well then no intervention will be necessary. Crias tend to be very hardy and self sufficient and are extremely hard to bottle feed, so it would be wonderful if it all worked out in her favour, and mine. 

Welcome to the world little one!

The Cotswold girls are a little overdue or my calculations are a few days off or both. One of the ladies definitely will have twins, if not triplets. She is so big, she grunts trying just to breathe. She squats to urinate every few minutes, so there is not much room left inside her, poor girl. The other two are not as large, not even by half. It won't be long now, but the weather is not cooperating at all. It was minus 14 last night and only got up to a high of zero and is back down to minus 10 already. I sure hope she waits until morning to have those babies. I do not have experience with Cotswold sheep as mothers yet and I am hoping they are like the Icelandics. Icelandic sheep go off to a corner, pop out the lamb or lambs, clean them off and have them nursing in a few minutes, then the lambs are up and playing. Compared to the Angoras, they are a dream. I am hoping the Cotswold girls will be as great at mothering as the Icelandics. Fingers crossed!