But last night for some reason, one chick did not make the stair way up. He peeped and called for help , but mom was deaf to his pleas and roosted in her tree. When I picked him up, he was shivering uncontrollably, so I held him in my hands and warmed him up. After he stopped shivering, I tried to put him in a branch of the tree, but by then it was dark and he did not move. Mom did not cluck to call him either, so he had no idea of where to go. So, then I got a ladder and put him beside his mother, where he happily snuggled under her wing and fell silent, glad to be warm and comforted. What a bad mommy!
She hatched 10, lost one immediately, and then in the next days, 5 more. The four she managed to keep are more to their credit than hers. Shortly after hatching, she decided to roost in the pine tree for the night and leave the babies to freeze on the ground. I got her out of the tree and took her back home for a few nights, then made a stairway up to where mom hen insisted on going, so the little ones could get up there too. They did not have flight feathers yet and were not able to regulate their own temperatures, much needing the warmth of mamma hen. It is a good thing she only had 4 babies when she decided to roost. There is no way she could have kept more than that warm all night perched on the branch she chose.
But last night for some reason, one chick did not make the stair way up. He peeped and called for help , but mom was deaf to his pleas and roosted in her tree. When I picked him up, he was shivering uncontrollably, so I held him in my hands and warmed him up. After he stopped shivering, I tried to put him in a branch of the tree, but by then it was dark and he did not move. Mom did not cluck to call him either, so he had no idea of where to go. So, then I got a ladder and put him beside his mother, where he happily snuggled under her wing and fell silent, glad to be warm and comforted. What a bad mommy!
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It is with such great sadness in my heart that I say goodbye to Jennifer. She got sick and though I tried everything I could think of to save her, she kept losing ground. She was strong and a fighter though, but when she stopped eating, I knew there was not much time to the end. Jennifer was the friendliest of the Icelandic ewes and always loved a scratch on the top of her head. She was a beautiful gingery colour and white and some where in her youth had broken a horn. I do not know what her real age was, though judging by her horns, I believe she was only about three. Icelandic sheep live a good decade or longer and are usually absolutely hardy. I know she was anemic because there was no colour in the lower lid of her eyes, just white where dark pink or even red should have been. She did have a twins this year and they also are sad that their mother is no longer with us. Good bye my Jennifer. Your life was appreciated and you were loved. The smart car garage was moved today and the fence around the little farmhouse finally started! Yay! No more chicken, duck and goose poop on my front stairs!! my two farm helpers, two brothers who like to keep busy, come and do these things for me. They are invaluable and know how to do everything and anything. One of the brothers is a very adept carpenter too and can build things for me. After the fence, I asked him to build some gates. Now, if they would only come and finish the porch finally, that would be great! My they are growing so quickly. Their features are changing now to an awkward long nose and their less round face, but they are still adorable. More closely bonded to the sheep, they come out to play with the other dogs and then go home to their flock. During the day they can be seen snoozing amongst the sheep, being perfectly comfortable to be covered with mud and sheep droppings. An update on Jennifer, the sick sheep... She was not eating today and barely able to walk. I gave her a little grain which she slowly chewed, but only a few mouthfuls, then she lost interest. She had another shot of vitamins and minerals and B's, but she is too weak. Once she quits eating, there is nothing more I can do for her. What is amazing is that she went from a robust healthy sheep to being completely wasted away in a month. I am watching the others now for any signs of anemia and treating them with Valbazen, an alternative chemical wormer. Ideally they should have garlic every week via a syringe, but until I get that set up manageable to administer the garlic by myself, I have to rely on the chemical wormer in times like this. It is a good thing that puppies do not get sick from the barber pole worm, though they do and can host it. Cute big boys, these pups are. The worst problem with sheep and goats is parasites, especially the barber pole worm, which sucks the blood right out of the stomach, leaving the animal so anemic it cannot survive. The farm has lost two goats to that problem when they became resistant to worm medicines. The barber pole worm is adapting and the strong survive the chemical wormers, there by remaining in the sheep after treatment. As a farmer, the worming of the animals is complete and the animals should respond and be healthy, but this is not so. In some areas, Ivomectin has been so overused that it is no longer being effective. Now, Jennifer has come down with a serious case of worms and is so anemic I fear she will die. I have been giving her Newcells injections every day to boost her blood and I also switched to Valbazen, which is a wormer that should be effective, but Jennifer then got bottle jaw. This is fluid collecting under the chin and causing a swelling from the worm overload and ususally when that happens, the case if fatal. Jennifer is Icelandic and a strong sheep though I now fear she will not make it. There is little else I can do for her now, except continue to pray for her recovery, love her and keep the medicines up. Bless you J The contractor should have been finished the two projects, the porch and the Quonset months ago. Part of this was my fault because for the porch, we tried to find a concrete contractor so we could open the stairs to the basement from the outside, which is where there was a set when the house was put on the foundation. The firewood used to be brought through the door and it sure would be easier than using the only way down, the trap door. We did not secure anyone to do the job, so sealed the doorway properly this time (it was not done right before) and filling the stairwell in. Then we waited some more. Now some of the siding is done, but not all and no interior finishing ,painting or staining can be done until the screw holes are filled. That was supposed to have been completed for sure by this weekend. Right. Uh huh. NOT! Travis got bitten by a dog from a roaming pack that was trying to kill his friend's potbelly pigs. This was last night and the health units from both St. Paul and Elk Point have been trying to reach him all day. Plus he has my truck and I could not go for hay for the animals. They are right out and have been starving all day. I told him this and he is still not here. Grrrrrrr! Why does life have to be so difficult some times? I wish we had the live in the moment attitude of a dog at times. It has been such an incredible fall, it is hard to remember what the winter was even like. The nights are getting cooler, around 7 degrees Celsius, but the day reaches the high 20s. The animals are enjoying the last rays of the warm sun and the cooler evenings, but the dropping temperature makes me think about winter housing for the critters. The ducks and geese need to be in a straw bale lined hoop house with an enclosure of livestock panels around it and deer netting, to keep them safe. The chickens, well, those that are left after the processing in October, will have to assume their places in the winter coop, which is insulated but still freezes inside. If the birds perch, they cover their feet with their warm bellies and are fine, but those that stay on the coop floor suffer from frozen feet. I am not sure what will happen to Captain Morgan this winter. His feet froze off last winter because he was the low rooster and was not allowed to roost by the main rooster. The dogs also need warm houses. Straw bales surround their dog houses and the roof is also covered with a foot of straw to keep the heat in. They get at least a foot of straw on the ground as well. Harley suffers from arthritis though, so he may have to sleep inside during the day because he works as a livestock guardian at night. The cats slept with the dogs for warmth last year, but the kittens do not feel quite comfortable with the dogs so they will also need a straw bale house. I acquired a bunch of large 40 and 50 gallon barrels which I plan to cut doors into for the geese and ducks. I just had better hurry up and do this. September is almost done and winter will be on its way real soon, too soon. Two years ago, just after arriving on the farm, I acquired a beautiful young Pygmy goat pair. The doe had twins and basically they all played in the yard. There was little fencing in place and being so small, they were really no trouble at all. The day before yesterday, the man who bought the twins that were born that year gave me a call. He is very busy with work and sold the goats and some donkeys he had and was wondering if I would like his two sheep and two male alpacas, for free. I went over to see the animals since he only lives on the next road. The sheep are Suffolks, one ewe and one wether, kept only as pets, and the two alpacas are how alpacas should look. I knew the two alpacas already on the farm were small, likely brother and sister and inbred. The male is infertile, but they were given to me. I must say, of all the animals on the farm , they are likely the least intelligent too. So, I said I would take the sheep and alpacas and they will come home and at first live with the rams, except the ewe who will live with the sheep. Usually I quarantine the animals for a period to be sure they are healthy, but there is no place for them to be on their own at this time. I do feel that they are healthy and will not bring anything untoward to the farm animals. The Suffolk sheep are huge though, bigger than any of my sheep, including the E'st a Laine Merinos, who are big. I will have to learn to twist their heads to lay them down the way the shearers do because these critters are way to big for me to sit on their butts by lifting them up. I bet they are 200 pounds each. So, Dwayne and Ethel, the two alpacas here, will soon have company. I also convinced the man to sell me his sheep feeder since he won't have to use it now. Yay! A round bale sits in it and they stick their heads through the bars but cannot climb on the hay, so hopefully they won't waste too much. Sounds good, eh? I hung up Robbie's car blanket, the one that was protecting the seat from dog hair. The kittens thought it was the greatest place to play. Jack would hide his head and hope Sam did not see him, only the rest of him was sticking out plain as day. Of course Sam saw him! So he stuck his tongue out at Sam and then Sam stuck his tongue out at Jack. Gosh they are at the so cute stage. They love to be picked up, both of these orange boys, but Smokey does not join in much. He is still way too shy. Have fun kittens! It seems like just yesterday that Mike and Joe, the Maremma/Pyrenees puppies came home. They were only 5 weeks old, but the day they arrived was the day after their mother had been fatally struck by a car. The vet said that since they were eating and drinking on their own, they would most likely be just fine and they are, but where did the time go? And early this summer, the goose hatched five baby goslings, today, basically indistinguishable from their parents because they have grown so fast. It seems that with the busy bed and breakfast and the farm, there are never enough hours in the day to all the things that I want to do. Time passes and then the seasons change and a new year begins and I wonder where it all went. My mother used to say that, " I wonder where all the time went." Me too. |
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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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