What is it about a baby that causes a mother to not want it? This is a mystery still. The Karakul mother of twins, a female and a male, was doing remarkably well with them, that is the first few hours. At least the little ones were well fed and she was attentive, but then, for no reason apparent to me, she rejected the little male. I checked him over thoroughly, and yes, I cannot see inside, him, but he appeared normal and healthy. For a full day, the little lamb was off from the mother and calling to her, but she did not acknowledge the call. Why?

I picked the little boy up and took him to the mother. He immediately tried to nurse and she butted him away sternly. He came back again, and she once more butted him, but harder. Mothers have been known to stomp and kill or otherwise get rid of their offspring, often in favour of one or two if there are twins or triplets. This mother has plenty of milk and is not a first time mother. It is surprising how vehement she is to get rid of the male. I tried to hold her to allow the baby to nurse but she kicked him quite hard. We tried again and again she kicked and when I freed her, butted him. For his safety then, I removed him from the pen and put him in with the new lambs  and recent weanlings for company. Of course he cried for his mother and it was heart breaking. He did not take well to the bottle at first either, but with the third feeding, he downed about 5 ounces, which is plenty for a new born lamb. I tried one last time to see if the mother would accept him and held her to allow him to nurse, but she was stressed and angry and growling at me. I felt it was no use, so he is the first bottle baby out of 10 lambs. There are still several pregnant ewes and possibly a younger ewe who was bred much later than the others. If she is pregnant,the latest she could have a lamb would be at the end of June, counting back from the time the ram was removed.

Why a mother could reject her baby is unsolved. This little fellow is so adorable, half Cotswold and half Karakul and quiet and sweet. I will love him, but I cannot be his mother. Time to bottle feed.

She says she was brought up in the mystical and it was second nature to her. Her family, including aunts and immediate family members all have what she terms as gifts. She herself is a gift. With a warm smile and knowing eyes, she uses the Tarot cards as a stepping stone to deliver messages to those who listen. Penelope read my Tarot and told me some things which I find interesting..not a fortune exactly, but ideas that offer choices, that spur memories or stir longings. That is the way of the
Tarot reader.
This weekend she is reading for 23 different individuals. She has no time to share her own story, but will use her intuition to find her way to the messages for those who want to hear them. The ironic part is that, this weekend,  she is working at Frog Lake with Cree peoples primarily. Why it seems ironic, is that Tarot and First Nations are not normally associated with one another in most people's experiences, not to say they would not find the readings as interesting and valuable as anyone else, but native spirituality is also very strong.
One of the most wonderful aspects of having a bed and breakfast is getting to meet interesting people from all walks of life, like Penelope. I love it! and thank you for the reading, Penelope! You truly are a gift!

There is not much cuter than a new born Pygmy kid, except two of them! These twins are female and male, a buckling and a doe or doeling. The buckling is on the left, a little bigger than the his sister. Mamma is a beautiful silver Pygmy and the sire was a longer haired Pygmy/Nigerian Dwarf billy, also called a buck. The mamma is very protective and would not let any other goat, dog or human near her new borns. She had them protected in the dog house behind her and when they were doing well, and were cleaned off, she moved them forward into the shelter. Pygmies are hardy little creatures and are up and nursing within minutes. As a matter of fact, the boy was first born and he was trying to nurse while his mother was still birthing his sister. These twins are the second pregnancy for the mother. Her first offspring was a little girl, and she had a single baby 3 days ago. Soon the other goats who are pregnant will be having kids too and the goat yard will be a lovely play area for the kids, who love to climb on anything, including other goats, and to run and jump. Most of the goats will be for sale, along with their kids. Females are $150 and males are $100. They can go to new homes in a few days for those who want to have bottle babies for pets. Bottle fed kids become extremely tame and friendly and are so much fun. Do you want one or two?

The second Jacob ewe had twin girls today. So, from two ewes and two rams, the Jacob flock is now six ewes and the two rams. Jacob wool is sought after by hand spinners. It is soft and has excellent crimp, plus the colour can be mostly white or mostly black or a mix of spots in between. Some of the Jacobs are tinted more on the dusky side and are lilac. The Jacobs at the Fat Ewe Farm are black and white. The two little girls born today had a hard time of it. There was meconium in the amniotic fluid. I had the ewes out on pasture for a few hours in the late afternoon and the ewe likely would have birthed earlier, but hung on until back to safety to do so. This resulted in the babies a little stressed. The ewe was a first time mother and cried out in pain birthing the little ones, especially the second. I gave her a hand drying off the girls, checked them over and presented them to mom to do the rest. She did not move for some time, so I encouraged her t o get up. This helps pass the placenta too.
When I checked on her about 20 minutes later, the babies were nursing and the mom was still cleaning them by licking. The mothers will have to be wormed in a few days and in a few weeks the babies will be vaccinated. Their tails will be docked by elastic band tomorrow. The Icelandic rams will be left in tact, since they are naturally short tailed and grow faster if not castrated. The Icelandics will all be sold, except for Jennifer. She will be kept for milk and fleece, since she is so friendly.
The Jacobs get to stay for now too. It is hard to decide whom to keep and whom to sell. I would like to keep them all, but that is not the right decision economically or time wise. In the meantime, I get to hug the babies every day and that all makes it worthwhile.

Lynn, the Icelandic sheep do not flock or work with dogs, so out on the pasture they scatter and go in the bush. One lost her twin lambs this year, maybe to a fox or the raven. The other sheep are easier to manage. If I had proper fencing, I would keep the Icelandics because they are hardy and self sufficient. Without proper fencing, that self sufficiency becomes a hindrance for management. I am keeping the Jacobs, Babydoll Southdowns and a couple of the ewe lambs from the E'st a Laine Merino and Cotswold mating. There are 4 Jacob ewe lambs this year, along with the two ewes and two rams, 6 Babydoll Southdowns and 3 Cotswold/E'st a Laine Merino cross ewe lambs. Most likely I will keep the Karakuls unless I find excellent homes for them, since they were my very first sheep and I am sentimentally attached to them. Thanks for asking. 

Charlotte is an Icelandic sheep. In Iceland, these sheep were the milk, meat and wool providers for thousands of years and remained unimproved by man. They produce copious quantities of rich milk and are now being investigated for dairy purposes in North America. That is too bad, because when man interferes with a good thing, it always seems something is sacrificed. Charlotte has a little boy lamb. He is only minutes old and she has already cleaned him by licking him and he is standing, looking to nurse. She assists him by gentle nudging and pawing the ground to get him up and moving. But, Charlotte is not done.

In a bit, she has a second lamb, another little boy. He too is strong and robust when he is born and she cleans him rapidly. Even before he is licked clean, he is attempting to stand and nurse. Charlotte has the boys outside and quickly moves them to a shelter. She instinctively births outside, leaving the birthing fluids and materials outside, then moved to a cleaner environment in the shelter where her babies can find their first meal in peace. She is not a first time mother and needs, nor wants any assistance. She could lamb in the barn, but chooses to be outside. Although she tolerates my presence, she is most comfortable with the babies on her own, so I try to keep my distance and not overly intrude. I check the boys over quickly to see they have their parts and find out what sex they are. Charlotte is pure white and the ram is pure white. This does not necessarily mean that the lambs will be, but there is a very good chance that genetics will dominate for pure white. Within a half hour, Charlotte has birthed two babies, cleaned them, nursed them and sheltered them, all without help from me. That is why I love Icelandic sheep, oh , and the fabulous wool they provide. I have yet to try to milk one, but when Jennifer has her babies, I will give it a go. Welcome to the world little boys!

The young Pygmy goat, bred to a Nigerian buck, had a little tiny baby today, a little girl. As with most Pygmy babies, she was up and on her feet in minutes. Her mother, a first timer, had her cleaned off and nursing very quickly and although she has sectioned herself off from the rest of the animals, she is keeping a watchful eye for those coming too close. One of the things I love about Pygmies, is their excellent mothering skills, even first time mothers. This little doeling will have long hair like her father and will be bred to an Angora buck next year to produce a Pygora, Pygmy/Angora cross. The fiber is curly and coloured and sought after by hand spinners. Isn't she a delight?

It is lambing and kidding time. Both the goats and sheep are due. The Icelandics were put in with the ram a week before the other sheep. Helga had her twins yesterday, but today they are missing..not a trace. The raven has been hanging around the sheep pen. Actually, there are 2 ravens. They seem to work in pairs. Helga did not even get a chance to be a mom. As much as I like ravens for their cunning and yard clean up, I cannot have them gleaning the lambs. It is bad enough that they take all the eggs. Last year, they went into the shelter and took the potbelly babies. Now the lambs..tsk tsk. A friend with a gun is going to visit on Sunday. Apparently one dead raven hanging where others can see it will keep all away for quite a while. In the meantime, I sure hope the other babies being born will be safe. The miniature Nigerians are not much bigger than kittens, which could be easy prey for those huge ravens. But, Heidi, as most Icelandics, is a superior mother, watching out for both boys. She had them cleaned up and in the shelter this morning, safe while they were just new. Way to go Heidi!

Man does not always do the right thing. Angora goats grow a hair coat that is sheared twice yearly and made into mohair. But, these poor creatures have been bred for their fiber to the extent that they almost lack the instincts to survive. When I first brought the Angora goats home at the beginning of March, I was quite excited. I have other goats, Pygmies and Nigerian Dwarfs and one Alpine, so I was familiar with their needs and ways, but I was not prepared for these stupid animals.
My dear cousin said to give them a little time. They were bred and due when they came here, so there was that to consider. The whole living situation was different for them and the feed was different. They were fed pellets and straw for roughage where they came from, but I only fed them hay. They could have starved to death because they did not know how to eat hay and their instincts, even self preservation, were dumbed down.  I ended up having to give them grain in order to get them eating again, then sprinkling the grain on the hay and finally they ate the hay. But they would stand and bleat and bleat for grain and only when their stomachs were likely aching from hunger did they eat hay. It took a long time to get them to like hay, though they still fall all over themselves for grain. If I am carrying a bucket, no matter whether it contains water or is empty, the Angoras are climbing the fences to get at the bucket.
They do not think like other goats either. Any little hole and the Pygmy goats go through it in search of goodies on the other side. Yesterday when I collected the sheep and goats for the evening, the Angoras went with the sheep. Even when I opened the gate, they stood there staring at me and would not come out to go "home", so in frustration, I closed the gate again and left them with the sheep for the night. The only problem is the goats need minerals and salt for goats (that contains copper), which sheep cannot have. Goats can eat sheep mineral, but not vice versa, so by staying with the sheep, the Angoras miss out on their nutrition.
I grabbed the male Angora, who was in the the rams but got himself out in the pasture somehow. This is not a good time for him to be there in case any of the goats who are not bred are cycling and he would breed them, then the baby would be born in the frozen winter. I put Leo back in the bachelor pen and immediately he got himself stuck on the gate between the pens. I unstuck him and in the morning, he was stuck and bleating again. I left him there while I let the sheep out, so he would not make his way out there too and then released him. He stayed with the rams for the day.
By breeding for the best fiber, these poor goats have lost their marbles. They need to be babied and coddled and I am not fond of doing either. Now the plan is to breed Leo to the Pygmy and Nigerian girls next year and have hardy goats with some sense, hopefully. Challenging as they can be, the Pygmy goats are my favourites, hands down. Maybe they will impart some of their smarts in the cross. In the meantime, I must babysit dumb goats. Yuk! I plan to sell the Angora girls after the next breeding season and just keep the two bucks for the cross breeding program. Until then, it is what it is.

There are three hens sitting on two nests, sort of. Under the Buff goose on the right there are at least a dozen eggs and the two Embden geese on the left seem to have amalgamated their nests to one, which has about twenty eggs in total. I guess this is the way of the geese, to share nests. They all laid in the first nest, then, one goose built a second nest near the first. The third built her nest out in the open (the one on the right) and I put a piece of plywood over and a straw bale  on the side to give her protection from the sun, wind and rain. There is an old storm door with a window on the left. The geese get plenty of light then, but northern exposure. The back wall is only a half wall of a piece of reinforced cement board, so the air circulation is very good. The ganders visit the geese several times a day and if there is an alarm call from the geese, they come rushing over and hissing. The goose flock is really quite advanced. The Toulouse gander and the other buff goose did mate and pal around together, but she did not nest or even attempt to, though she did lay in the original nest. The geese have one more week to go before hatching time. Every day they take turns getting up and walking around, taking a bath and eating a lot of grass, but they do not stay off the nest for more than about a half hour and always in mid day when it is the warmest. They cover their eggs with straw and feathers while they are gone to keep the eggs warm.

I am looking forward to the little goslings, though, if they do not sell as babies, most likely they will be destined for roast goose dinner. They grow extremely fast, basically feed themselves and are cared for by all the other geese. By the fall they will be at least 10 pounds if not much more, depending on the genes they carry from their parents. The Embden gander is huge, around 40 pounds, but the Buff geese and Toulouse are only about 20-35 pounds. The geese are quite content to while away their time doing what nature calls them to do, and that is to reproduce their species with the sacrifice that a mother makes. Because they only eat a limited amount once a day and get virtually no exercise and a small drink once a day, they lose weight and condition while nesting the 30 days that it takes to hatch their babies. That is what moms do, even goose moms. 

The bison were resting close to the fence. There was still a very large ditch between me and them, and some of the photos were taken through the open window. Then, I got braver and walked outside and a little into the ditch to photograph the largest bull bison I have ever seen. He was incredible and very beautiful. My breath was taken away, but not from fear, though I was cautious and aware that the fence would never stop him if he so chose to go my way. I left the car door open, just in case.
The bull languidly raised his massive head and grunted at me. Several cows with calves grunted back, so I am assuming it was a message for them to pay attention. The cows started to move away from my direction and then the bull stood up. Oh my goodness! For a moment I thought of ancient days when First Nations hunters on horseback stood face to face with these incredible beasts. They revered them because they revered all life, but the buffalo was everything to them. They only killed what they needed and left the rest alone. The death of the animal was an apology and then a prayer of gratitude. We should be so connected to the land, the nature and our spiritual side these days.
A snort and grunt and the gargantuan bull ambled slowly on, with no more than a glance in my direction. The cows were already some distance away. Incredible and humbling, it was the highlight of my day.