It so happened that the goslings were on the wrong side of the fence and the 8 adult geese who watch over them could do nothing at all to help them. It is a good thing I was not the raven of the fox. Instead I went to catch them and return them to the gaggle waiting impatiently on the other side of the fence. Leo, the Angora buck and Little Johnny, the four horned Jacob ram, were watching with curiosity and I am sure, wondering what all the noise was about. There in the corner were the five little goslings frantically trying to find a way to get back to their guardians. So, I climbed the fence and they ran to the other side of the wooden fence, where I was able to corner them and catch two. The others I ushered to a spot where I was sure they could get through and they happily waddled over to safety as the two I was holding captive for the photo were peeping loudly, that danger help peep. Safe with mom and the rest of the adults at last, they waddle away. I am not sure what kind of goslings these are. The goose that hatched them likely laid the eggs and she is American Buff. The Toulouse gander always hung around with her and she preferred him over the dominant gander, the Embden/Tufted Toulouse cross. The goslings do not seem to have any tufts and all of them have a grey patch on their backs. They do not have blue eyes , which is a telltale sign of Embden geese. The Buff geese have hazel brown eyes and that is the colour of the goslings' eyes too. I was glad I was able to hold the babies for the first time since they were hatched, even though they did not like it one bit. They are adorable, right?
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The Maremma puppies are 7 weeks old now and today they were put in with a group of Babydoll Southdown lambs and Morgan, the bottle baby, who is not on the bottle anymore as of two days ago. He is still looking for his milk and butts me to try to find it. Here is Joe with a paw up on Morgan. Morgan is afraid of the puppies as are all the lambs and they move away from them, but the puppies are not daunted and pursue. They are not really big enough to do any damage to the lambs. This afternoon they curled up in the lambs' shelter and fell fast asleep. For some reason they do not use their dog house at all. The dog house and their food is in a corner sectioned off by a livestock panel lifted onto a log so the puppies can crawl under it, but the lambs cannot. I suppose they could if they really tried, but they are not likely to do so. Sheep do like dog food and a close eye must be kept on the food to be sure it goes to the dogs, and not the lambs. The puppies also get raw meat scraps and bones, which the sheep have no interest in of course. They share their water buckets now though. The puppies are big enough to drink from the bucket if it is over half full. Joe and Mike are friendly like Maremmas should be and have met some children and other adults, wagging their tails in greeting. They should be socialized so they are not overly protective, however; they need to bond to their sheep more than their humans. When I walked away from them, leaving them in the lamb pen, they turned and wagged their tails happily. I am keeping my fingers crossed that they stay with the sheep and bond with them, preferring to be with them than with me. I must restrain myself from playing with them other than petting them and feeding them a few times daily and that is hard when they are so darn cute. Aren't they? Running a bed and breakfast and a farm means a busy life, especially when the farm needed everything. The roofs are being done now and in a few days the porch on my farmhouse will be torn down too. The old house was in very poor shape when I got here two years ago. The former owners of 30 years did no maintenance anywhere that we could determine. Things were in rough shape for sure. One contractor advised me to tear the house down and buy a modular home. He said." For the cost of fixing this house up, you could have brand new one!" But who wants to live in a modular home built with synthetics and off gasing materials of poor quality? Not me! So the repairs began, first to remove the bathroom. The former owners blocked off the only window and then insulated inside the walls and installed a sauna. The wires were hanging directly from the ceiling and the mice infestation was incredible. There was zero ventilation, actually none in either of the houses, but with the sauna one would have thought they might have realized that warm, moist air had to go somewhere. The result was black mold. The walls and ceiling had to come off and that sauna had to go. A man ripped it apart for me as a gift. I am to this touched by his generosity. For days he painstakingly tore it apart, wearing a mask against the mice dust, and removed nails and stacked the lumber. Then when we began to remove the ceiling, the old insulation came down. It tested positive for asbestos and had to be removed by using a huge suction machine. The men were suited in complete gear to protect themselves from the asbestos. Finally, the bathroom was livable, with a new tile floor and new walls. The rest of the house required work, but with money tight, only what was necessary was done. When the attic was insulated with the blown in cellulose, it was quite evident that the old shake roof did not have long to live. The big wind storm a few days ago blew the cap off the roof top exposing daylight up there. It was time. So both roofs, the bed and breakfast and the farmhouse, are being reroofed. The crew are pleasant and friendly and the foreman is a woman! Awesome! They all came out yesterday with the kids to visit and see the animals. Today they are back at it tearing the shakes off. The patio at the B & B will be torn up in the next few days as well and forms for a new concrete patio placed. The interlocking brick was never installed correctly and the ants bring up the sand continuously. As well, the patio is sloped to the house leaving the water to drain right to the door. It is frustrating to say the least, to purchase a place, have it inspected twice, have the former owners and realtor extol the virtues of the place, only to find that absolutely nothing is done well or properly which resulted in a multitude of problems. However; amidst lambing and kidding and building, there has to be time made for fun. When, though, I just don't know. I have been doing a ton of research on worming farm animals. The wormer, Ivomectin and its derivitives and generic brands, was like a Heaven sent drug because it not only eliminated the worms, but also the nose bots and mites and lice. It seemed too good to be true, and indeed it was. In a relatively short time, the worms adapted and became super worms and the dosage of Ivomectin had to be increased. Then the superbugs became resistant to the wormer all together, resulting in some losses of animals who then became anemic and died before the real problem was discovered. I asked what people used before chemical wormers. No one really seemed to remember, but after more research, it was determined that the strongest animals were bred and the others were culled. The more primitive breeds were much more able to carry their worm load and not die even without intervention. Some herbs were used in the past as well, including garlic and artemesia or as it is commonly called, wormwood. Black walnut hulls were commonly utilized in areas where they were plentiful, however; too much of wormwood or walnut could cause death, so the farmers had to know how to use these substances correctly. Garlic seemed the easiest to obtain in my area and the safest. So, we have switched over to worming with garlic. The worms are not killed by garlic, but rather the host, stinking of the herb, does not support a hospitable environment for the worms and they leave. Without the intermittent host, the life cycle is interrupted, and the worms die off. In the beginning the garlic should be administered weekly and the length of time before dosages could be extended once the general worm population died off. Farm conditions and the numbers and proximity of sheep to each other (crowding) and also the breed (primitive or unimproved sheep being by far the most worm resistant and man bred sheep being usually the most susceptible) determine how long the garlic needs to used weekly, then monthly thereafter, once the worms are controlled. While the sheep and goats were having their hooves trimmed, the perfect opportunity to dose with garlic arises, since the sheep are already corralled and captive. The ingredients of the garlic wormer can vary. I used milk replacer as the liquid because I was bottle feeding a lamb and had it on hand, but it is more common to use a mixture of powdered garlic (not garlic salt) or fresh garlic at the rate of one teaspoon per lamb and 1 tablespoon per sheep, but a tablespoon of garlic can cause severe stomach upset, considering it is dehydrated and powdered. An eighth of a teaspoon of powdered garlic equals 1 medium clove of garlic, so 8 cloves equal 1 teaspoon and three times that, or 24 cloves equals one tablespoon. Way tooooooo much! Some sheep and lambs are more sensitive to garlic too, so watch for lethargy or what looks like doubling over due to stomach upset. Sheep do not vomit really, but pigs can and will from overdosing garlic if they are sensitive to it. So will humans. if you have only a few sheep, then peeling and mincing raw garlic is great, but when there are many, powdered garlic is much easier. It can be mixed with water and molasses to make it palatable and so it can squirt through a syringe. This time I mixed it with milk replacer. Some sheep seemed to like it even! In a week they will get another dose, likely with molasses instead. My friend uses a gun syringe to do her sheep with a premeasured dose. What a great idea! The goats were easiest, since they were the smallest and most are very tame and friendly. Even Colby Junior, the baby buckling Angora did not seem to mind. He stretched out afterwards and actually fell asleep. So cute!
Robbie loves water play. He has dropped his toy to the bottom of the bowl and loves to stuff his head right in and retrieve it, then do it all over again.
Hands down, dogs are my favourite animal. I have had dogs all my life and could not imagine living without them. My last faithful companion was 14 when she left this world, also a border collie. How I loved that dog. Robbie was the closest replica I could find for my beloved Josie. He is not Josie and brings his own uniqueness to the farm. Water and Robbie go hand in hand. He love it! After playing fetch and jumping to get his toy for a while, Robbie was hot, so he stepped in the duck bowl and dropped his toy in then spent 20 minutes picking it up off the bottom of the bowl, which meant his face was submerged to his ears, and then doing it all over again. He was likely wishing the bowl was much larger so he could dive in himself. Robbie is not allowed to roam free like the other dogs because he is not a livestock guardian and although he is very fast, he is not built to fight predators. The last time he did, he got quite badly beaten up with strips of his fur ripped off and huge gashes in his skin. Fortunately no muscle was torn and he recovered without intervention. Still, he thinks he should go and fight too, so he must be tied or at night, he sleeps in the house. When he gets bored inside, he does a few bad things too, like tear the paper bit by bit of a cardboard box, but generally he is really good. He has slept beside goat kids, lambs, chicks, ducklings and a gosling and not hurt any of them. He also could help himself to eggs, but he doesn't. He is good that way. He sure was cute playing in the bucket though. And Mike and Joe, oh boy, it is hard not pick them up and love them to bits. They are soft and cute and so loveable, but they must not bond to me. In a week, when they are a little older, they will be placed in pens inside the goat and sheep pens, away from each other. They will be alone, but on the other side of their pen, the goats and sheep will be able to interact with them. Once they are not afraid of them, they will be allowed out under supervision and eventually they will simply live with the sheep and goats, one with each group. But in the meantime, they are soooooo cute! Aren't they?
The gaggle of geese and the five hatchlings after a swim in the "pool".
The female geese fought over their nest and moved it five times in the course of the month and a half they sat on it. The eggs rotted, of course, after being chilled too long with each move, and they abandoned the nest, but one goose laid 5 of her own eggs in another location and successfully hatched all of them. One little guy tumbled out of the nest into the hot sun, still half in the shell, but I picked him up and ran warm water over him to rehydrate him, which also released the shell and then I blew him somewhat dry and gave him back to mamma goose. The American Buff geese and the Toulouse gander mated most often, however; the Toulouse/Embden gander also mated with the Buff geese, so the goslings will be a mystery for a while longer. For now, they are adorable, but totally untouchable. The entire gaggle of geese, 4 ganders and 4 geese, stay together and protect the young ones. It is quite marvelous to watch them waddle around the yard talking to the babies and teaching them where to find food and what is good and bad, but when they go swimming in the toboggan pool, it is the cutest. These will be the only 5 babies hatched this year. The geese have quit laying eggs and are seasonal layers with a peak in late spring which tapers entirely off by summer. The American Buff geese are very calm and do not bite the way the Embden geese do, but the Embden geese are larger and make better yard guards, especially against arial predators. Geese eat very little other than grass and bugs in the summer and are economical to raise, especially when the gaggle takes care of business. The Fat Ewe Farm would not be complete without them!
The toboggans get winter and summer use here. In winter they are used to pull the buckets of water to the animals and in summer, they are swimming pools.
Robbie works pretty hard on the farm, but he plays harder. He is progressing with his sheep herding skills, though still wants to "head em off at the pass". He shows good independent thinking and is quite headstrong, so paying attention to commands has to be reinforced daily. He helps with the rounding up and putting away of most of the farm animals, the sheep, ducks and the chickens. The animals are put in their respective pens and shelters for the night and the livestock guardian dogs patrol the yard, pens and perimeter. A bear has been seen twice, not an old one, but a yearling. Still if the bear wanted to break through the fence, he could. He could also kill the dogs, but bears do not generally prey on livestock or dogs. The dogs have done an excellent job of keeping predators away. Robbie is trained to sky watch for ravens especially, and sea gulls, hawks or other arial predators. He is good at chasing them on the ground while they fly, not allowing them to land, and the other dogs have followed his lead too. Robbie's favourite thing to do is chase something, but after that, he loves to play with a toy or ball. Tonight we were playing for a while and he laid himself down belly first with his toy in the toboggan, which hold about 3 inches of cold water. The water was changed for the night so it is fairly clean, but the ducks and geese swim in the "pools" too, so by morning it needs to be changed again. Robbie is two years old this July. By the time he is five he should settle in to be a great dog. Border collies are very hyper active until then. How many more years...sigh. Robbie is not my first border collie. I love the breed, despite the work they involve and I absolutely adore Robbie.
Mike and Joe, the new Maremma boys. They will live with the sheep and goats and take care of them.
The Fat Ewe Farm has some more new arrivals. This year 4 lambs were lost to predators. A livestock guardian dog that actually lives with the sheep and goats in their pens, bonds to them and protects them from predators so losses are minimized or eliminated. I suspect the first two were dinner for the raven, but the third is mysterious. She was already a few days old and a single lamb. I did see a fox at the gate looking in at the lambs. The dogs do not always smell or hear the sly fox, who enters the yard down wind and in broad daylight. We have also lost 4 chickens this year, so it is time to stop the seekers from eating at the farm. The pups are both males and will be almost a year before they are true guardians, but there are 4 other livestock guardians who work the farm, the entire farm, so they should be fine until they are grown and ready. Today they are posted where they can watch the goats and the rams, but they are not near enough to be frightened by them. Goats can be quiet protective of their young and forceful with their head butts and horns. In a few days the pups will be moved right inside the goat and sheep pen, but in their own space where the sheep cannot actually enter and the pups cannot go out. Mike and Joe are only almost 6 weeks old, but their mother was struck down by a car last night and died, so they needed new homes quickly. The veterinarian was consulted regarding their nutrition and since they are able to eat and drink on their own, they should do well even though they are very young. Welcome you handsome little dogs, you!
Celia's quads. 3 boys and a tiny little girl.
Celia is mostly Nigerian Dwarf and Pygmy, though she might have a bit of Myotonic in her as well. She is a wonderful mother and last year raised triplets with no effort. This year she has outdone herself with quads, three boys and a girl. Two boys are full size, but the third boy is smaller and the girl is tiny, likely less than 2 pounds. She is healthy and robust though, and is managing so far to hold her own at feeding time, though with the boys being twice her size, she might not do as well in the future. The quads are under close watch to be sure they have enough to eat. If not, supplemental bottle feeding will be required, though the kids will be left with the mom. Thank you Celia, for your 4 lovely babies!
Travis, my son, Robbie, the border collie and Aidan, the male cria inspecting each other.
Aidan's mother, Lucy Llama, is a very beautiful creature. She came to the farm with Joyce Llama, but Joyce and Stanley have since departed to a new home. Joyce surprised me a month after she arrived with the most precious female cria, Karin. Karin was always more friendly than her mother and when she was little I would grab her and hug to bits. To this day she loves to be hugged, even though she is a Mother herself and she has the most beautiful little girl, Jeannette, a month older than Aidan. Travis is 29 and has come to look for work, but is taking a little time to help around the farm as he becomes accustomed to life in the slow lane. The first few days he was not very pleased, but he is adjusting and has assumed many of the chores willingly for now. This will free me to build the dog houses for the winter and complete a few more projects. Robbie works with Travis moving the sheep twice daily and the two are fast friends. We did not have a family farm, nor did I grow up on a farm, so this life is very new to us city dwellers. Aidan seems to think Travis is OK anyhow, and Travis simply fell in love with the llamas. |
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AuthorFluffy writes daily about the experiences on the farm and with the bed and breakfast patrons. Archives
October 2020
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